Heart Aching Day - Letting Go and Holding Tight

Today is a heart aching day. So, I am dispensing a little heart-healthy hope that I still take.

A friend confided someone they loved slipped back into addiction. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a gentle slide. God willing, they will hear God’s persistent whisper – I love you and I am holding out my hand to you to help you and give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Hearing God’s love when we screw up is sometimes hard.

We hear our own exasperation with ourselves, and imagine what everybody else is saying, too.

You wouldn’t worry so much about what people think of you, when you realize how seldom they do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Alas, sometimes those who love us say and do things that only reinforce our conviction we are hopeless and helpless drunks.

Poor me; poor me; pour me a drink.

Taking my heart meds today:

Repeating what I was told, and believe: while I am powerless over alcohol, I am not helpless. Neither is anybody else today.

SO

Today I am powerless over alcohol and I am also powerless over a whole heck of a lot of other stuff. However, I’ll stick with powerlessness over booze because picking up will not set me free from the power people, places and other things exert over me.

The rub is always surrendering – turning over – letting go — to a power Who is greater than ourselves. Well, that and coming to, to admit our choices to keep using alcohol is insane. Facing my own unhealthy choices aches my heart — so I still need the jolt “heart” meds are.

Sobriety is a day-by-day journey; sometimes are not as fun as others, granted. Especially hearing that a hurting heart is choosing to self-medicate problems God can and will handle, if they would but give them over to His care. And ask: