Refuge on the Ridge

Refuge on the Ridge Refuge on the Ridge: Putting families back together, one man and one family at a time.

Every child wants sober parents—no matter how old they are.Addiction doesn’t only affect the person using. It reaches in...
09/02/2026

Every child wants sober parents—no matter how old they are.

Addiction doesn’t only affect the person using. It reaches into our homes, our marriages, and especially the hearts of our children. They may grow up, move out, start families of their own… but there will always be a part of them that wants their mom or dad healthy, present, dependable, and sober.

Recovery isn’t just about getting our own lives back. It’s about becoming the people our families needed us to be. And while we cannot erase yesterday, God can redeem what we surrender to Him today.

Sometimes rebuilding trust takes longer than getting sober. Sometimes forgiveness takes time. Sometimes the people we hurt need to see consistency before they believe the change is real.

That’s okay. Keep showing up. Keep doing the work. Keep choosing recovery. Keep choosing God.

Your children may be 8, 18, 28, or 48—your sobriety still matters. ❤️

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

SPEAKING TRUTH IN LOVE ❤️Sometimes love means encouraging someone. Sometimes love means standing beside them when they’r...
09/01/2026

SPEAKING TRUTH IN LOVE ❤️

Sometimes love means encouraging someone. Sometimes love means standing beside them when they’re hurting. And sometimes… love means telling them something they don’t want to hear.

But how we speak the truth matters.

Truth without love can become judgment.
Love without truth can become enabling.
But truth spoken in love can lead to healing, growth, and freedom.

In recovery, we need people in our lives who love us enough to say, “Brother, I see where this road is taking you, and I care too much about you to stay silent.”

That isn’t condemnation. That’s accountability.

Jesus never compromised truth—but He also never stopped loving people. He confronted sin while offering grace. He corrected people while pointing them toward something better.

“Speaking the truth in love, we will grow…” — Ephesians 4:15

Before we correct someone, maybe we should ask ourselves:

Am I saying this because I want to prove I’m right—or because I genuinely want to see them restored?

Because the goal isn’t to win the argument.
The goal is to win the heart.

And when someone loves us enough to speak truth into our own lives, instead of immediately becoming defensive, maybe we should ask:

“God, is there something here You want me to hear?”

Real love doesn’t ignore destructive behavior.
Real love doesn’t celebrate everything we do.
Real love tells the truth—and then sticks around to help us walk through it.

Speak the truth. Show the love. Reflect Christ. ❤️✝️

Sometimes when life gets heavy, we assume we’re losing the battle. The temptation gets louder. The past starts calling. ...
08/31/2026

Sometimes when life gets heavy, we assume we’re losing the battle. The temptation gets louder. The past starts calling. Anxiety creeps in. Old habits suddenly look familiar. And the enemy whispers, “Nothing has really changed.”

But struggle does not mean defeat.

You may be under attack, but you’re also under the blood. 🙏🩸

Recovery doesn’t mean we’ll never be tempted again. It means we’ve learned where to run when temptation comes. We don’t have to run back to the bottle, the drugs, the anger, the isolation, or the person we used to be.

We run to Jesus.

Revelation 12:11 says, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

Your past may explain some of your scars, but it does not get to determine your future. Every sober day, every prayer prayed when you wanted to give up, every bad decision you refused to repeat, and every time you chose obedience over your feelings is evidence that God is still working.

So if today feels like a battle, keep fighting.

Stay sober. Stay surrendered. Stay connected. Stay in the Word. Keep showing up.

You may be under attack…

but you are still under the blood. And the blood of Jesus has the final word. ❤️‍🔥

Some of the greatest gratitude is born in the hardest seasons.You don’t truly understand the value of peace until you’ve...
08/28/2026

Some of the greatest gratitude is born in the hardest seasons.

You don’t truly understand the value of peace until you’ve lived in chaos.
You don’t fully appreciate freedom until you’ve experienced bo***ge.
You don’t recognize the beauty of hope until you’ve felt hopeless.

And sometimes, we don’t discover just how faithful God is until He is all we have left.

The desert seasons aren’t wasted seasons. They teach us to recognize the rain when it finally comes. 🌧️

For those of us walking the road of recovery, we can look back at places we once thought would destroy us and realize that God was using them to teach us dependence, gratitude, and surrender.

Maybe you’re in the desert right now. Don’t mistake a difficult chapter for the end of your story.

Keep walking. Keep trusting. Keep seeking God.

The rain will mean so much more because you remember what the desert felt like. 🙏❤️

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” — Matthew 5:4

🔥 LET’S GET SOME REAL CONVERSATION GOING! 🔥Recovery teaches us that sometimes the smallest decisions lead to the biggest...
08/27/2026

🔥 LET’S GET SOME REAL CONVERSATION GOING! 🔥

Recovery teaches us that sometimes the smallest decisions lead to the biggest changes.

So here’s today’s question:

What is ONE thing you had to let go of before your life could start moving forward?

Maybe it was:
🙏 A relationship
🙏 Pride
🙏 Resentment
🙏 Addiction
🙏 People pleasing
🙏 Your old identity
🙏 Trying to control everything

For some of us, the breakthrough didn’t come when God added something to our lives…

It came when we finally surrendered something we were never meant to carry.

👇 Drop ONE word in the comments.

You never know—your answer might be exactly what somebody else needs to read today.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” — 1 Peter 5:7

TEARING DOWN STRONGHOLDS 🧱⛓️‍💥Some of the strongest prisons in our lives don’t have bars—they exist in our minds.Strongh...
08/26/2026

TEARING DOWN STRONGHOLDS 🧱⛓️‍💥

Some of the strongest prisons in our lives don’t have bars—they exist in our minds.

Strongholds are built one thought, one lie, one wound, and one compromise at a time. “I’ll never change.” “I’m too far gone.” “This is just who I am.” “I’ll never be free.”

In recovery, we learn that getting sober is only part of the battle. God also wants to tear down the thinking that kept us bound in the first place.

We tear down strongholds when we replace lies with truth, bitterness with forgiveness, fear with faith, isolation with community, and our old identity with who God says we are.

The enemy may remind you of who you used to be, but he doesn’t get to decide who you’re becoming.

“We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” — 2 Corinthians 10:5

That stronghold may have taken years to build—but it doesn’t have to control another day.

Freedom begins when we stop agreeing with the lie and start standing on the Truth. 🙏🔥

Rock bottom has a way of revealing who people really are.Some people will stand above you and remind you of everything y...
08/25/2026

Rock bottom has a way of revealing who people really are.

Some people will stand above you and remind you of everything you did wrong. They’ll tell you what you should have done, where you messed up, and why you’re in the hole.

But then God sends people who don’t just talk about the hole—they climb down with a ladder. ❤️

That’s what community in recovery looks like.

We don’t excuse each other’s mistakes. We hold one another accountable. But we also encourage, pray, listen, teach, and help each other get back on our feet.

Jesus didn’t love people from a distance. He met them in their brokenness and showed them a way forward.

Be the person who brings the ladder.

Someone around you may not need another lecture today. They may simply need someone willing to remind them that rock bottom doesn’t have to be where their story ends.

🙏 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:11

RECOVERY WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE DONE ALONE. 🤝Addiction thrives in isolation. It tells us to hide, withdraw, and convince ...
08/24/2026

RECOVERY WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE DONE ALONE. 🤝

Addiction thrives in isolation. It tells us to hide, withdraw, and convince ourselves that nobody understands.

Recovery teaches us the opposite.

Healing happens when we allow people into our lives—people who will encourage us when we’re struggling, challenge us when we’re drifting, celebrate our progress, and remind us who we are becoming when we forget.

The Bible tells us:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” — Proverbs 27:17

We need people who will pray with us.
People who will tell us the truth.
People who will hold us accountable.
People who have walked through the fire themselves and can say, “Keep going. There’s life on the other side.”

Community doesn’t mean everyone around us is perfect. It means we stop trying to fight our battles alone.

Isolation says, “I can handle this myself.”
Recovery says, “I need God, and I need people.”

Stay connected. Show up. Ask for help. Encourage somebody else. Build relationships with people who are moving in the same direction.

Because sometimes God strengthens us through His Word—and sometimes He sends another person to walk beside us.

We recover together. We grow together. We heal together. 🙏

One of the hardest lessons in recovery—and in life—is realizing that we are not responsible for changing other people.We...
08/21/2026

One of the hardest lessons in recovery—and in life—is realizing that we are not responsible for changing other people.

We can’t control what they say.
We can’t control what they do.
We can’t control whether they understand us, forgive us, support us, or treat us the way we think they should.

But we can control our response.

Growth begins when we stop asking, “How do I get them to change?” and start asking, “God, what are You trying to change in me?”

Sometimes peace doesn’t come because the situation changes. It comes because we change the way we respond to the situation.

In recovery, we learn to surrender the people, places, and things we cannot control. In faith, we learn to place them in God’s hands.

Their behavior belongs to them.
Our response belongs to us.
And the outcome belongs to God.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” — Proverbs 15:1

Sometimes the approval we’re chasing from people is the very thing keeping us from experiencing the peace that comes fro...
08/20/2026

Sometimes the approval we’re chasing from people is the very thing keeping us from experiencing the peace that comes from God.

We want everyone to understand us.
We want everyone to like us.
We want everyone to recognize our growth.
We want everyone to see how far we’ve come.

But here’s the truth: you can exhaust yourself trying to prove to people what God already knows about you.

People’s opinions change. Their applause comes and goes. Some will celebrate your growth, while others will always remember the old version of you. If our identity depends on their validation, we’ll constantly be adjusting ourselves to satisfy an audience that was never meant to define us.

Recovery teaches us something powerful: we cannot heal while living for everyone else’s approval. And faith teaches us something even greater: God’s approval matters more than the crowd’s applause.

Galatians 1:10 says, “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Stop asking, “What will they think?” and start asking, “God, what do You think?”

You don’t need everyone to understand your journey.
You don’t need everyone to recognize your transformation.
You don’t need everyone to approve of the person God is making you into.

Stay faithful. Stay humble. Keep growing.

When you know who you are in God, you stop begging people to tell you who you are.

Address

3800 Chalet Suzanne Drive
Lake Wales, FL
33859

Telephone

(863)4558585

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