Someone I love slipped. Their slip helped me remember to choose how I will live today. A slip doesn’t wipe away all we have learned, all we have accomplished in sobriety. Still, a slip can kill us, however, taking from us what we cannot ever afford to lose.
“Everything alcohol gives, it takes away in spades.”
Thanking God I am that they admitted they would now have a new “anniversary” in the program.
Starting again, they will live this day sober. Listening to them, I heard again advice that is worth repeating. With them, I will remember: “Forget the past; but not the lesson,”
When we talked over what happened, they said that isolation was their tipping point. And I heard another nugget worth passing on.
“Sponsor someone, and you will never need a mirror.”
Holing up, keeping to myself, is still a knee-jerk reaction to frustrations, resentments, and lust.
Lust? At my age?
Oh yeah.
I want what I want when I want it – and heaven help whomever gets in my way.
“Beware of that ‘inner-child’ and their ignorant tyranny,” I have heard at meetings.
But everything we hear in the rooms of AA, everything we read in the Big Book, all our conversations, even the sermons we hear: “It’s all just information, until we believe it and apply it.”
No matter how delicious a recipe sounds, it’s just a list of ingredients until I put things together and do something with them! Today, I will go into the kitchen that is my life, and cook!
I believe my Higher Power has a name, Immanuel; I believe He has a purpose: it is to set thee and me free from the shackles we forged out of our circumstances and our choices. (Psalm 119:65-67)
Today it’s my decision to give God everything, and to let God provide. (In God’s Care) (Mark 9:24, James 1:5)
Therefore, I choose to learn from my friend today and be involved with others in recovery. I hope you do, too dear reader. What would you say to a program friend who is having a hard time staying sober?
Love in Christ,
Sober and Grateful
