I’ve missed the last couple days in writing and definitely feel it. It’s good to be back.
I have had a couple chances to write thoughts to my sponsees and talk with another friend who may want me to sponsor him at some point.
This is one of the things I shared:
Thanks for sharing this [sponsee’s name]. I am so happy that you, on your own, recognize the tendencies and want to surrender them to Him.
That’s a new normal.
And that you’re able to write them out specifically and share them with your wife, with me, and most importantly, with God. Great job asking for His help.
Recovery is one day at a time. Make it a great day tomorrow by surrendering early and often. I know that doing step 4 can be a tough one – do you have time to work on it and read/write about positive things in the morning?
I remember for me that working step 4 was a challenge because I’d been writing so much in the prior steps about recovery and healing and then I had to go back to past feelings, emotions, and mistakes that triggered those same feelings and emotions again.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me during the day if you’re having a tough time. I’m here to at least listen.
Thanks again for sharing. Good night.
My sponsee had shared that his addictive self had felt like he deserved to have a relapse, that he’d been doing good and just needed a break.
He also shared that he recognized these feelings and was able to surrender them to God and to his wife.
This is recovery at its best. This is being aware.
I just researched “awareness” on LDS.org and found a couple articles I’m going to read:
In Becoming Like God, it says this:
Each [child of God] has an eternal core and is “a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents.”1 Each possesses seeds of divinity and must choose whether to live in harmony or tension with that divinity.
I like what it said about living in harmony or tension with our divinity. To me, this is being willing to submit my will to God or try to do things on my own.
The more I give my will to God, the more I’ll have freedom to choose. Elder Packer said that:
Perhaps the greatest discovery of my life, without question the greatest commitment, came when finally I had the confidence in God that I would loan or yield my agency to him–without compulsion or pressure, without any duress, as a single individual alone, by myself, no counterfeiting, nothing expected other than the privilege. In a sense, speaking figuratively, to take one’s agency, that precious gift which the scriptures make plain is essential to life itself, and say, “I will do as you direct,” is afterward to learn that in doing so you possess it all the more. (Boyd K. Packer, “Obedience,” BYU Devotional Address, December 7, 1971, bold/italics added for emphasis)
I feel this.
I know that as I’m trying to listen to God’s will for me, and trying to do His will, I have so much more clarity and peace and love in my life.
I’m so grateful for that. I so grateful to finally understand that I don’t have to fight the trials and temptations and “fiery darts” of life all by myself. I’m not alone in this. Christ has already paid the price; all I need to do is accept Him, ask for His help, be aware that I can’t do this on my own, and be willing to do what He suggests one day, one moment, at a time.
Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all people may “progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny.”2 Just as a child can develop the attributes of his or her parents over time, the divine nature that humans inherit can be developed to become like their Heavenly Father’s.
In the article, Truth Is the Issue, it shares this insight:
As our mind is opened through our study of the plan of salvation, each of us comes to see that our life means that the “real me,” or “the spiritual child of God,” created in innocence and beauty, is engaged in a fight for life or death with the elements of the earth, the “flesh,” which, in its present unredeemed state, is enticed and influenced by the enemy of God.
This reminds me of what I shared last night about how there are two Nates: the spiritual Nate and the carnal Nate. I have to choose which appetite I want to feed.
I’m grateful for the study I’ve had today.
I’m grateful to be in a place of recovery today.
I will take things one step at a time and look forward to a great day.
Hasta luego!
Nate
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