{"id":2096,"date":"2021-07-07T00:04:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T05:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/?page_id=2096"},"modified":"2021-07-07T00:21:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T05:21:58","slug":"continued-god-and-community","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/continued-god-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Continued God and Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Continued God and Community Article<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to take this conversation on a path of \u201cwhat we see we can believe\u201d perspective, starting with my personal journey.  See, I have always been a productive member of society, with college degrees and an upbringing of morals and values, but that did not stop me from going down a life of pain and self destruction; we are all prone to the devil\u2019s disparaging path.  Once lost in a life of addiction, homelessness, no hope, and on the verge of death, I found peace, love, and strength from a stranger.  That\u2019s God.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that time in my life, there were no community members gathered around throwing out resources, events, love, and alternatives (only jails, institutions, and death). Today, we have Community Food Drives, Youth Initiatives, Doughnuts for Dads, PCs for People, Free Community Skate Parties, a School Supply Drive, which is coming up July 18th<\/sup>, Celebration Recovery, and most recently, a church driven July 4th<\/sup> Block Party.  Those are just a few examples from ONE of the 80 churches in Granite City (R-Church), which I attend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have seen more than my fair share of human compassion from this city surrounding addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and lost souls in the recent months than I have seen in the past 16 years as a substance abuse counselor, DCFS Director, and resident of Granite City.  See, over the past few months, leading up to the 4th<\/sup> of July\u2019s celebration, we elected new officials, who have shown through their actions that they want to see every one of us prosper. We are learning that it is okay to discuss real issues, from infrastructure, education, and economy to religion, and community support, among ourselves and city officials.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent July 4th<\/sup> events have shown to the community that our Rights and God-given freedom could not have been possible without the trust in one another.  You might be asking, what does this have to do with me?  My answer is that no matter what you are going through today, God, and this community, will stand with you.  For with God, you are never alone.  This community is stronger today than I have ever seen it, and God is at the forefront. I believe this is the work of something much greater than the people of Granite City; this is God working through all of us. So, keep the faith, and remember\u2026One Day at A Time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until Next Week,I Love You All\u2026And There\u2019s Nothing You Can Do About It!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Amy Miller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued God and Community Article I want to take this conversation on a path of \u201cwhat we see we can believe\u201d perspective, starting with my personal journey.  See, I have always been a productive member of society, with college degrees and an upbringing of morals and values, but that did not stop me from going … Continue reading “Continued God and Community”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2096","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2096"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2096\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}