Celeste said:
I am sad about your situation Denny.. But I also see what came from a naggative situation and how Gods hand was in it. He has brought you to the forefront to do what you are doing. He always promises he would make something good come from a bad situation to those whom He loves! Isn't that something, how great He is! How He keeps His word? How He does all things. Then, He goes to the cross and ... He Arises! what a God. I am encouraged when I come across people like you. I see Gods hand on your shoulder guiding you . Thank you God, and thank you Denny! Celeste Blessed Easter!
Celeste,
"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57).
"He who glories, let him glory in the LORD" (1 Cor. 1:31).
I continue to be encouraged and strengthened by your gentle spirit.
I finished reading a really good book just a few weeks ago. I'll share some of it with you and our readers. The writer helps us see just how serious the problem with smoking really is. He ought to know. He was a former Surgeon General of the United States.
From the book
Koop - - The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor by C. Everett Koop, M.D.
"As Surgeon General, I took as my mission nothing less than improving the health of the entire nation. I started with smoking. 'A thousand people will stop smoking today. Their funerals will be held sometime during the next three or four days.'
That is how I would begin my lecture on smoking. It gets people’s attention. Why have Americans been so complacent about tobacco, about nicotine addiction? If any other substance, legal or illegal, were killing half a million people a year, the public would be up in arms, demanding action from Congress.
. . . But the government, especially the federal government, has also hurt the effort against smoking and tobacco. Those federal taxes on tobacco, though increased, have not kept up with inflation. More serious, federal politicians have excluded tobacco and tobacco products from certain regulatory activities covering hazardous or toxic substances, and from most packaging and labeling restrictions except for the Surgeon General’s warning. Tobacco is considered to be neither a food nor a drug nor a cosmetic: therefore it is a unique substance, virtually outside regulatory control.
I did not assume the position of Surgeon General with the clear intention of being such an active opponent of tobacco, but after I studied the incontrovertible truths about the health hazards of smoking, and then became at first dumbfounded and then plainly furious at the tobacco industry for attempting to obfuscate and trivialize this extraordinarily important public health information, I couldn’t help but become an outspoken adversary.
How could the tobacco industry dare to dismiss as unfounded and unproven the absolutely clear connection between smoking and heart disease: between smoking and death from stroke; between smoking and cancer of the lung, the mouth, the esophagus, and the stomach; and between smoking and a dozen or more serious, debilitating, exhausting, expensive, and humiliating diseases?
How could it do that? The answer was – it just did. The tobacco industry is accountable to no one. It flaunts its ability to buy its way into the marketplace of ideas and pollute it with its false and deadly information.
Tobacco has been associated not only with disease and death, but also with money. That is why it has so long enjoyed special treatment. Tobacco was the cash crop that financed much of the American Revolution – those Virginia planters fetched a greater return for tobacco leaves that did the hardy New Englanders for their pumpkins. And Congress has been held hostage ever since."
In His service,
. . . Denny
This is encouraging. I wouldn't worry about keeping track. Just focus on continuing your progress. Live each day for the Lord. Each day without smoke is another day that your body can repair itself. Within a few months you should notice a significant improvement during aerobic exercises. Be sure to watch your caloric intake. Most people have a tendency to pick up weight after quitting. 
