Recovery
Meditations: October 11th
FAITH
”Faith is not belief.
Belief is passive.
Faith is active.”
Edith Hamilton
I always believed that God could relieve my suffering if He
chose; however, I was overlooking the distinction of the required “partnership”
between my choices and his strength. God is not a magician who, with artful
finesse, will relieve me of the bondage of my free-will choices. He requires my
attention -- and then my ACTION -- in order to work through and in my life.
One day at a time...
I am willing to test
my faith by putting forth the required action(s) that will help me move toward
my share of miracles that abound in this Program.
~ January K.
_______________________________________________________
Each Day A New Beginning
—Darlene Larson Jenks
No answer eludes us if we turn to the source of all answers - the stillness within. Prayer accompanied by meditation will always provide the answers we need for the situations facing us. The answers we want are not guaranteed, however. We must trust that we will be directed to take the right steps. Our well-being is assured if we let go of the control and turn our wills over to the care of God, our messenger within.
How comforting to know that all answers are as close as our quiet moments. God never chooses to keep them from us. We simply fail to quiet our thoughts long enough to heed them. Our minds race, obsessively, all too often. We jump from one scenario to another, one fear to another, and one emotion to another. And each time our thoughts capture a new focus; we push the answer we seek further into the background.
The process is simple, if I want to follow it. The answers await me if I truly want them. I need only sit quietly and ask God to offer the guidance I need. And then I will sit quietly some more.
From Each Day
a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey © 1982,
1991 by Hazelden Foundation.
Food For Thought
If I allow myself to feel deprived, sooner or later I will overeat or react with negative emotions. I am a human being, a child of God with the same rights as all of His other children. I have needs and preferences, which, if denied and repressed, will surface in a destructive way.
If those around me are eating a special meal and I eat leftovers, which I do not particularly like, I will feel deprived. I may become bad tempered and I may overeat later to compensate. I do not need to have what others are eating, if it is not on my food plan, but my meal should be pleasing to me. I do not need to have and do what everyone else has and does, but I can recognize my desires and preferences and satisfy them when doing so does not injure anyone else.
By overeating, I deprived myself of good health, peace of mind, self-respect, and an attractive appearance. By abstaining, I am making amends to myself for the deprivation. By working the program, I am learning how to satisfy my legitimate needs.
I trust You to supply my needs.
From Food for
Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L. ©1980, 1992
by Hazelden Foundation.
The Language of Letting Go
How easy it is to blame our problems on others. "Look at what he's doing." . . . "Look how long I've waited." . . . "Why doesn't she call?" . . . "If only he'd change then I'd be happy." . . .
Often, our accusations are justified. We probably are feeling hurt and frustrated. In those moments, we may begin to believe that the solution to our pain and frustration is getting the other person to do what we want, or having the outcome we desire. But these self-defeating illusions put the power and control of our life in other people's hands. We call this codependency.
The solution to our pain and frustration, however valid is to acknowledge our own feelings. We feel the anger, the grief; then we let go of the feelings and find peace - within ourselves. We know our happiness isn't controlled by another person, even though we may have convinced ourselves it is. We call this acceptance.
Then we decide that although we'd like our situation to be different, maybe our life is happening this way for a reason. Maybe there is a higher purpose and plan in play, one that's better than we could have orchestrated. We call this faith.
Then we decide what we need to do, what is within our power to do to take care of ourselves. That's called recovery.
It's easy to point our finger at another, but it's more rewarding to gently point it at ourselves.
Today, I will live with my pain and frustration by dealing with my own feelings.
From The
Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.
Today's thought from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation it would be the ability of each individual to learn to laugh at himself.
--Charles Schulz
In recovery, we learn to laugh at the kind of person we were when our addiction was out of control. We don't laugh at the fact of our addiction; we laugh at who we once were. This is a healthy kind of self-ridicule. Above all, we laugh at the person we never again have to be if we follow the principles of our Program. To blot out the "me" of yesterday, we have only to follow some very simple guidelines.
At times, obeying the principles, which have been set down for us, may not be easy. But with our realization that we have chosen to stop playing God comes the awareness that difficulties need not be disastrous. If everything in life came easily, we would lack sparkle in our lives.
I am thankful my sense of humor has found freedom. Now I am able to laugh at myself, which is the height of self-conquest.
If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation it would be the ability of each individual to learn to laugh at himself.
--Charles Schulz
In recovery, we learn to laugh at the kind of person we were when our addiction was out of control. We don't laugh at the fact of our addiction; we laugh at who we once were. This is a healthy kind of self-ridicule. Above all, we laugh at the person we never again have to be if we follow the principles of our Program. To blot out the "me" of yesterday, we have only to follow some very simple guidelines.
At times, obeying the principles, which have been set down for us, may not be easy. But with our realization that we have chosen to stop playing God comes the awareness that difficulties need not be disastrous. If everything in life came easily, we would lack sparkle in our lives.
I am thankful my sense of humor has found freedom. Now I am able to laugh at myself, which is the height of self-conquest.
You are reading from the book:
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