The core of a vibrant sobriety is honesty – with ourselves, with God and with each other. (How It Works, Chapter 5) Honesty is hard – after all these years, I can blur edges of the truth with stunning alacrity – especially if the whole truth reveals what a jerk I have been or am. (Planning Your Next Slip?)
Drinking is not my primary problem today – Thank You God; being honest, compassionate, and selfless is. It’s beyond me to keep it up . . . seriously. I can do one or the other for a very few minutes – but all three for a sustained period?
Not hardly!
In all honesty – I am not who I would wish to be. Being such a person means being within what I want to be without.
The Serenity Prayer is a pathway to being that person – but the prayer goes on with purposes and promises that go beyond the AA program:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.
Today I choose not to drink to dull the glaring reality of my failure, ineptitude, and hypocrisy. Thank you God for Christ who breaks the power of shame and blame!
God help me accept and love others who are not yet what they might wish to be. Their battles are just as terrifying to them, as mine are to me. If Christ took me as I am, let me take others as they are. And as He alone can change them and me – I give them over to You.
Oh, God please help me do the next thing . . . not on my own, but in Your power – whether it’s the dishes, paperwork, or slaying dragons.
How’s life going with you, dear Reader?
Do not despise the day of small beginnings! Zechariah 4:6
Love in Christ,
Sober and Grateful
