I started this diary around February and now it has been a full 3 months that I have not smoked a single cigarette.
Back to Bob, the UPS Man. We have had people in our lives urging us to quit smoking for years. I've had a husband who said to me before we were married "I won't marry you if you continue to smoke, I hate smoking!" (We've been married for almost 17 years now.) I have a father who died from cancer and I kept smoking. I have lost numerous family members to lung cancer and continued to smoke. My dear sweet mother, urged me many times to please, please, please, quit smoking for your own sake. My children, who choked in the van while I explained that "the window is cracked!" pleaded with me when they had a new program at school warning them of the dangers of smoking. But no, who helped me quit?
Bob, the UPS man! Can you believe it? I don't even know Bob. We're strangers except for once a day when he brings packages to me at work. But here is how it went...
Bob noticed me outside in the freezing below zero temperatures, teeth chattering, smoking that cigarette. He would mildly, gently, mention that I might want to consider quitting. Then, he mentioned it a little more. For some reason, don't ask me why, I listened to Bob. Maybe it was just my time. Maybe it was just the way he said it with that smile on his face and that sincere tone to his voice.
I don't know what it was, but I started thinking about Bob seeing me smoke. I started worrying that the big brown UPS truck would come around a corner and I'd be leaned up against a building smoking! And then, I'd have to hear Bob say the next day "I saw you smoking!" Then it became a game. I couldn't leave work and light a cigarette (as usual) because Bob might be on this road and he might see me. Or the next road, for that matter, can't light up here either! Think about it, UPS trucks are everywhere! I'd be driving home and see a UPS truck heading my way and throw that cigarette out before Bob would see me!
It doesn't matter who the Bob is in your life, I just hope it's your time to listen to him. I hope that today is the day that God uses this stranger to whisper truth in your ear. I never would have believed that a stranger would have the power over my life that he had.
But maybe it wasn't him, maybe it was a higher power using him. Whatever it was, it worked. And every day he comes to work and follows up on what he started. He smiles that big smile and asks me "Still not smoking?" I would sooner die than have to tell him I started smoking again.
So, here's to Bob, the UPS man. Thanks Bob! Thanks a million for caring, for allowing yourself to be a messenger. In more ways than one. Without even knowing it, you delivered a package of life to me.
