I did not stop drinking to please someone else, and I didn’t stay stopped for someone else.
I stopped because alcohol no longer provided relief for me, yet I still needed it – even when I didn’t want it anymore.
Alcohol and the internal turmoil it caused held power over me like nothing else could.
I have found relief by changing the way I live.
Living sober is not easy for an alcoholic. That’s why most of us can’t stay sober.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
After all this time – getting sober, staying sober through all of the ups and downs of my life, watching my friends succeed, or fail, or die – and continuing to trudge through, I sometimes wonder if I should ease up.
It’s easy to do.
But then I remember that I only have today. Today I might be that guy – the one who might make the difference in another person’s life.
I’m not going to ease up. Not today.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
When I was in early recovery, I felt lost. I was trying to figure out how to live without alcohol, which seemed impossible to me.
I thought that sooner or later I would wind up drunk, so why bother?
I met people who were living a sober life, who cared enough to listen to me and provide guidance so that I wouldn’t feel lost.
I now see that those people were doing God’s Work in trying to help another person. It’s no coincidence that they were put into my path. God put them there.
I didn’t understand it then. I see it now.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
Sometimes I feel God’s Presence during the course of my day and other times not so much. Sometimes I can go days without really feeling it.
It’s kind of a “spiritual funk” that happens where I’m just not feeling it.
It doesn’t mean that God has taken a break. God is always with me.
The problem is with me.
Seeking God always gets me out of the funk. God will reveal Himself to me in the little things.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
Not only has my life been spared and my self-imposed suffering stopped, but I have been given a life worth living.
It didn’t happen by accident. It didn’t happen overnight.
It started with desperation. It started with a belief and a trust in God to save me.
It continues for me by seeking God’s Protection and Care one day at a time.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
After a long period of time without abusing substances, I can get the sense that “I’m good. I got this.”
If I actually believe that, I will become complacent and forget how I got here.
I need to remember the life I used to live and the suffering that comes with it.
If I forget that, I risk going back there.
Just as I used to need to drink every day out of necessity, I need to seek God’s Help every day.
Seeking God is a necessity.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
The heaviest burden I have ever carried was living as a hopeless drunk. Every day the burden got heavier, no matter what I tried to do about it.
It wasn’t until I was shown a way to turn that burden over to God have I been freed.
God has been doing for me what I could not do for myself.
The misery still awaits me if I ever forget that.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
I used to think that I was “terminally unique” – that no one understood how I felt and thus I kept my pain to myself and would have to figure things out for myself.
I am not so unique. When I met people with a similar affliction who had found a common solution, I realized that I am not alone.
They had been praying for me before they ever met me.
Now I am part of that continuum, praying for the sick and suffering alcoholic in hopes that somehow we can help end their suffering.
Each of us is in God’s Hands.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
If I had been a normal drinker, I imagine that my life would be so different.
I would not have tortured myself every day with guilt, shame, and remorse.
I would not have lived with constant, unfounded fear.
I would not have tried to escape from the reality of my life by drinking.
I would not have destroyed my soul.
If I was a normal drinker I might never have been able to experience the suffering and redemption which has brought me to see God’s Purpose in my life.
I am grateful for my life – exactly as it is.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.
I know I’m getting better when I can stop being too self-involved and try to help others instead.
I’m not going to solve anyone’s problems, but maybe by showing them my path I can help them get through their difficulties.
We are not passing through this life single-file. Everyone needs a hand-up along the way.
God, please help me to be ok today. Thank You. Amen.