Tag Archives: God

God

“But for the Grace of God, there I go”

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“But for the Grace of God, there I go”.  I recently encountered a  situation where I reminded myself of this passage. It was  on Thanksgiving day, celebrated here in the U.S.,  that I encountered what appeared to be an intoxicated man. I was in a convenient store buying my customary Diet Pepsi cola when a man lined up, at the cashier’s station, to my left side. He was a thin man dressed in soiled clothing with his head hanging low while he awaited his turn to pay.  He was purchasing  three beers at about 8 am.  After paying I returned to my truck and he shortly followed. He was driving a vehicle that did not appear to be in good order as it sit with the wheels over line of the marked parking place. As I stared over at him I remembered the passage above and how I must always remember it. It has been a number of years now but I remember vividly the times when I was purchasing  and consuming alcohol early in the morning  to quiet my nerves in order just to function. My head was always hung low and my vehicle was always on the brink of not working. I am grateful that God was with me at those times of great despair and destruction in my life. I must always remember that passage and realize that I am just one drink away from being that person I encountered that morning. I don’t know that mans story but if he is a suffering soul as was I,  may he allow  God to carry him to sobriety, if he so chooses. I will always try to remember that “But for the Grace of God, there I go”.  and that it applies to any situation or person I encounter from the desolate person to the well dressed ones suffering from the disease of Alcoholism.  God I pray for your help in getting those who wish for a better life and sobriety as well as the persons not ready or willing to accept your hand to somehow desire to change. I am grateful that you were there for me in my time of desperation even though I didn’t know it.  God bless all those suffering souls out there and my wish for them is to find sobriety and peace.

Thank you for allowing me to share my experience and feel free to comment and post your thoughts.

 

Holiday Precautions

Holiday Precautions

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The holiday seasons and their celebrations, for many, are approaching and I am really looking forward to them. It’s a time for me to share precious time with family members, especially those that I only get to see a few times a year. Sober life is going by fast for me and I don’t want to miss any of it.  What a joy, however that was not always the case.  During my active alcoholic years, the holidays  used to be a time of anger and disappointment within myself that other people had cheerful and wonderful times and I didn’t. Of course it was of my own making. You see, I put the bottle in front of family and just about anything else. Thankfully, God and a lot of good people along the way pulled me away from that ill way of living and thinking and what a blessing it has been. My wish is that same has happened for you or that it will for you if you honestly want to get sober and allow God to come into your life. I say this because if I could have gotten sober by my own free will then that would have happened way back in 1991 when I made my first attempt to stop drinking. It did not work then and for the next 12 years it did not as well, as I tried hundreds of times on my own to do so, sometimes twice in one day only to get drunk all over again. All I can say then is that God allowed me to get sober because it had been proven that it was not of my own doing. I am just suggesting this because it worked for me.

I just had a few other things I wanted to share today. With lots of celebration there may be a lot of alcohol being served or consumed at various  functions in your life. I suggest that you be very careful in protecting your sobriety. For me, if I must attend some of these events I like to try to bring a friend along to be there for me in case temptation to drink prevents itself. As it has been said before, there is a monster inside of me just waiting to come out and return to my active alcoholic days. May that never happen to any of us but it is just waiting for us to take that first drink. Secondly, I like to know what I am drinking at all times. Some of the tempting looking refreshments may contain alcohol. I suggest pouring your own non-alcoholic drink and holding on to the cup or glass. If you happen to set it down and forget which one is your then pour you a fresh drink in another cup. This may sound silly or wasteful to you but I do it to protect my sobriety at all cost. My experience at functions is that many times there will be numerous cups or glasses hanging around with drink remaining in them and you never know if you accidentally may mix your cup up with another and get a different drink, one that may contain alcohol. I may be redundant in posting these suggestions, as I have posted similar suggestions before, but I just feel it’s a good idea to revisit this at times, especially during times  cheerful celebration.

I hope these suggestions will be helpful and that you do whatever it takes to stay sober. For those of you still ill from the disease of alcoholism my sincere wish is that you make seek God as a savior, not necessarily in the religious sense but more from a belief that some greater power than yourself , can help you achieve sobriety. I hope this post shows you what I do, as a recovered alcoholic, to protect my sobriety. May everyone be blessed and stay safe over this holiday season.

Thanks for reading and feel free to post any comments, you wish, that may help the still suffering alcoholic out there, find sobriety .

 

Courage and Strength

Being Grateful

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Well, I made it to my 13th year of sobriety on Halloween Day of this year. There lives a monster inside me just waiting for me to return to my old life of active alcoholism.  I ask God on a daily basis to prevent it from ever being  be released . A dear friend also hit his 13th year earlier in October. I say this not to boast as a celebration but rather as hope that anyone can see that achieving sobriety is possible if they truly desire it. In most cases one must  hit their own rock bottom, whatever that may be, in order to want change. With faith in God anything is possible.  Now it will take a lot of work on one’s behalf to get and stay sober but it can be done. It has been proven over and over again by more than a million  persons who have achieved sobriety. There will be many challenges  early on and  perhaps having the urge to take a drink. We must always remember, at it has been said over and over again,  we are all just one drink away from a drunk. I reiterate that asking God to grant you another day of sobriety each morning is strong protection against taking that first drink and always being grateful for that opportunity is important. In previous blogs I have mentioned that I do so by engaging God through prayer and meditation ( for myself that consists of reading from alcohol recovery related books) each morning upon the start of the day. My prayer consists of asking for health, happiness and safety for my friends and family as well as thanking God for my sobriety with special emphasis on being grateful that I was given another chance at life. The gift of sobriety is one I have not right to give back to God. For me it  is my protection against temptation that day. For those in early sobriety I pray that you continue on your path of recovery and find what works for you on a daily basis to protect you over the next 24 hours. Promise yourself that you will do so and if necessary promise yourself that you can stay sober for any amount of time with prayer in between to make it from promise to promise . Do what ever it takes because you are worth it. For those seeking recovery right now I pray that you find God for the strength for begin the journey of sobriety. Be open to reviving spirituality in your life and I know good things will come to you in recovery. You are also worth it. May God bless everyone on their journey.

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts today. Feel free to comment about my blog. My hope is for it to become interactive. I simply want to share my experiences to help other alcoholics and if we all share together that gives the suffering alcoholic and those in recovery the ability to develop a strong arsenal against ever taking another drink. Feel free to comment on any of my previous blog post as well.

 

 

Staying Focused

Regaining Focus

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I have really myself  losing focus, over the past month, on the importance of maintaining my most spiritual  practices; foremost daily prayer and meditation. For nearly 12 3/4 years of sobriety I can confidentially say that I hadn’t missed a day of prayer and meditation. As I have mentioned in previous posts, this is so important in my daily life of sobriety. I looked forward to it every morning by finding a quiet place in my home for deep prayer and reading. It was and will again continue to be my first action of the day. However, this past month I have been very neglectful in this area. I must admit to having missed more than at least five days of prayer over the past month. I have no excuses except to say I have placed other activities first in the beginning my day first.

The primary focus for writing my book, and starting a website with a blog on this site and another, was to reach out to suffering alcoholics to show that there is hope for a better life. Over the last month I have been preoccupied with seeing if I have followers on my sites as well as any comments. I have wondered if my book sales have reached out to suffering alcoholics and their families, or not. I am coming to the realization that I may never know. I feel reaching out to help is my calling and am going to continue my quest. I have to remember not to seek personal recognition for it is not I who am doing all the work. It is God.  I have been back on focus over the last week, with regards to daily prayer, so I do not lose focus on its importance in my life. I thank God for this awakening for it could have been a real endangerment to that which most importantly keeps me sober on a daily basis.  It has been said that ” God is doing for me what I could not do for myself”. I believe this and feel very blessed.

In addition, I will try blog more frequently as my hope  that this site and others will gain followers so that comments/discussions may help a suffering alcoholic seek sober way of life. May God continue to send blessings your way.