Meditations on "Acceptance"

Whatever the goal, the way to success is to plan how we will work to achieve it.

Each of us was created to do good work and giving an honest effort will bring us satisfaction. When we are too lazy to bother, our world becomes confusing, we feel less and less able to cope, and our ability to do so declines.

Our choice when we feel down is either to believe and act on the promises God has made us, or to believe the lie the evil one is telling us.

If we desire to be joyful in our recovery, we will need to be mindful of our thoughts and actions. We need to find out what God’s principles are for successful living and reshape our behaviour around them.

Life on God’s terms is the way of living we say we want when we come into recovery but we often stray from God’s way. To set things right, we start at the beginning and admit and repent of all our wrongdoing before God.

We will never feel acceptable to God or to others while we allow who we truly are to be determined by our past.

How often have we found ourselves in conversation with someone and a remark is made that “pushes our button?” When something like this happens, we need to consider the cause. We are clearly not at peace with something inside us and whatever that is, it needs to be brought to the light so that we can be healed.

We do a disservice to others when we continually do things for them that, with instruction, they can do for themselves.

Anyone who has made an honest attempt at recovery knows the hard work that is required. What gives us encouragement and hope is that many who have diligently done the required work have succeeded.

To show discretion is to know the right thing to do in a situation and to behave in such a way that we don't cause offense. Quite the challenge.

Although we know that "half measures avail us nothing," it's also wonderful to have the promise that, "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through." (Big Book, pg 83-84)

Covering up traumatic events with painkillers does not make them go away.  In fact, as so many of us can testify, the memories, whether we are consciously aware of them or not, cause fear and shame to grow and become like mountains that block and confuse our thinking and affect our behaviour.  God invites us to bring the trauma we have suffered and its impact on us to Him for comfort and healing.