Don't Give Up

Listen, America, I want to share something with you.

You know, look, you watch me, you invite into your home every night. So I'm just going to be honest with you and tell you some of my experiences.

When I was 13 years old, my mother committed suicide. She was an alcoholic. We were poor. She just got a divorce. She was addicted to prescription drugs because that's what people did back then — women who couldn't find their way. Doctors were, like, "Oh, yes. Just take this. It's no big deal." She got hooked and it was a bad scene. It was a bad scene.

When I was 13, she left a note next to the crock pot that said, "Dinner is in here. Everything is going to be fine. There is more in the refrigerator."

She left and I never saw her again.

My mom thought that we would be better off without her. She was wrong. For a long time, it was one of the things that made me be an alcoholic. In my 30s, I got to the point where I was in a fetal position on the floor of my bedroom in an apartment I could barely afford.

And I had a choice of life or death. I really thought that it was my destiny to repeat my mom's mistake. I had a choice. I was either going to repeat my mom's history or I was going to change my life because it was completely unmanageable.

That was my pivot point. That's why I believe people can change because I did. It was a struggle, but in that struggle, I learned something really, really important. And I watch my friends — I have a friend losing his house. In fact, I have two friends who are now losing their houses. I have a friend who has lost his job. I have a friend who I have been up at night with because they are suicidal. I have a friend who is addicted to prescription drugs just exactly like my mother was.

I live in an area where it's all Wall Streeters and bankers who their world has just been turned upside-down. And these are good people.

As I talk to them, as I think about the things that are going on in their world, I know, because I have gone through it. And I know that we are going through a refiner's fire right now and it's a good thing.

We're being put through a refiner's fire. Some glorious miracles are going to happen in our life. I really truly believe that. But it is up to you to make it. It is up to you to realize that you are here for a reason. You are not being tested. I don't believe in tests. God doesn't play games with us. He is molding us. He is shaping us.

You are playing a critical role just like my mother played. She maybe thought she was tested or maybe she thought she couldn't get through it, or maybe she thought just that we were better off without her. She was wrong. She was wrong. She should have been there.

You're here for a reason. Don't give up. We'll make it, and we'll be better for it.

What do you think? Send your comments to: glennbeck@foxnews.com

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