“He has no tolerance,” Priscilla concluded. “This is what I’ve had to tell him—we’re on a whole different tangent now—your physical body is trying to tell you you cannot drink. Like, you can hold nothing. So don’t do it.”
JC returned to his illustration and explained that when drunk, it’s easy to promise God, “I’m never going to drink again…This is horrible. If you get me out of this and I get out alive, I promise you, I make a promise. I’m never going to drink again.”
But then, he said, “It get to like three weeks later and you forget how bad it felt to be drunk and you like, ‘A couple sips couldn’t hurt again.’ It’s the same thing that happens in regular life.”
“We will be drunk in the situation that we’re in and feel all the emotions, feel all the bad stuff, whatever,” he said, “and then get over the hangover and be like, ‘Oh, maybe I can go through it again if it’s worth it,’ and then try it again and do that over and over and over again.”
“I think you just need to remember how bad being drunk feels,” JC continued as his mother put her hand over her face. “Not actually on alcohol, but like being drunk on the emotions of the situation. Anyways, I thought that was a pretty good illustration, if you don’t mind me.”
“But hey, maybe it’s too vulnerable,” he said. “Sorry guys, I’m being vulnerable. Sorry. I apologize. My mom can’t take it.” Priscilla laughed, and JC said, “Just kidding. She knows this.”
“Great illustration, JC,” she said. They both agreed it was relatable.
“It is interesting [to] me,” said Priscilla, “how we do forget something that we’re doing that makes you feel terrible.” She mentioned that another example is people returning to relationships they know are not good for them.
“You know it’s not wise for you to be in this relationship. You know that they not supposed to talk to you like that, treat you like that,” she said. “It’s codependent. It makes you feel exhausted, whatever. And then you forget and you go back.”
JC pointed out that, once people are far enough removed from a situation, they only remember the good parts of it, which, Priscilla noted, is also what the Israelites did. After leaving Egypt, they complained about the food they missed in Egypt instead of being thankful for being freed from slavery.
“To transition well, we do have to recall what did not serve me then. What actually didn’t produce Christ-likeness in me?” said Priscilla. “What made me sick in my physical body or my emotions or my mind, my spirit? What was not exemplifying maturity in this way?”
“At least I don’t need to go to the next season and repeat the crap of the last season,” she said. “I better have learned some lessons and behave better now.”
“Which can I say, in regards to the overindulgences of alcoholic beverages, that is not a problem in my son’s life,” Priscilla added. “I want y’all to know that. He had a couple of incidents that were foolish. But I am glad to say you did not go to college and just act a fool with that.”
“I’m done with that,” JC agreed. “I just try to obey what God tells me to do. You know what I’m sayin’?”
