Meditations on "Recovery"

Doubt and discouragement begin to settle on us when we start to think that God is not coming through for us.

When we hit bottom in our addiction and finally admitted that without help our future hopes were dashed, we decided to turn our will and our life over to the care of God.

Many people face temptation by hoping that it will just disappear, but temptation will forever be part of life.

How are we to live without paralyzing fear in an unsafe world?

What we think about has a powerful impact on what we do.

In the Bible, sheep and shepherds are often used to teach us important spiritual lessons.

Today we are continuing to look at the excuses and faulty reasons we give for making poor choices and our tendency to justify our actions.

Rationalizing endorses the internal belief that we are victims of circumstances beyond our control.

One reason for rationalizing poor behaviour is that we want the pleasure or the power it offers.

Addicts are experts at creating excuses to rationalize their behavior and to minimize the complexity of their problems.

What kind of commitments do we make? How do we feel when we keep a commitment, even when it's challenging to do so?

Commitment is asked of us in a number of areas in our lives: marriage vows, appointments, recovery meetings, work, volunteer jobs, friendships, contracts, bill paying, promises made to parents or children, getting to work or school on time, etc.