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Before you even start reading, I want you to stop, take out a pen and piece of paper. Take you a minute to think and then write down every role that you play in your life, (Husband, child, father, supervisor, soccer coach, etc.)

 Once you are done, go back and write the number of hours that you devote to that role in a given week. Then add up the total number of hours for all listed roles. Here is a hint, there are 168 hours in a week. Most of us work somewhere in the neighbor hood of 40 hours per week, and recommended sleep is 6-8 hours per night so that is about another 40 hours. That leaves about half of our time to “juggle” are our other roles, responsibilities, needs and wants. I want to tell you all the truth, I for one have been doing a VERY poor job maintaining balance in my life and roles.  I don’t know about you, but maintaining balance sometimes feels like juggling a bunch of different sized and shaped items, and I am a BAD juggler.

 As I write these words, I am reminding myself of what I need to do to “get my house in order”

So where do we begin?

Just as you did earlier, with your roles, I encourage you to make a list of all of the things that you feel are important in no particular order. Once you have your list look back through the list, and put a number beside each one prioritizing them, one being the most important.

 You see what happens is we often get distracted by the urgent, we delay in proving the necessary attention to the important. Just because someone else thinks something is urgent and or even important to them, it does NOT have to be urgent or important to us. I recently read another professional’s blog and she talked about using that magic little two letter word effectively, “No.”

I know it sounds silly, but believe it our not, most of us like things simple and as straight forward as possible, even if we don’t want to admit it we like structure. That being said, sit down and schedule a routine for yourself and your family if needed. Remember to plan in time for taking care of yourself (Hobbies, bubble bath, reading, etc). Here again as you develop this routine and schedule, keep your priorities in mind, faith, family, work, friends, etc and insure that make time in your routine to properly nourish these areas.

 Above all remember, as I was recently told “Take time to smell the roses.” I will simply add, “but be careful of the thorns”.

So take a few deep breaths, practice saying “No” and honestly consider what is urgent versus what is important and balance your time talent and energy appropriately. I know I have a lot of self-examination to do, do you?

Until next time…

One Breath, On Step, One Day at a time!

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He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  Matthew 17:20

 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

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…Tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope; and hope does not make ashamed Romans 5:3-5 

We are sure of one thing in this life we WILL face struggles and difficulties. We WILL have trials and feel pain, but rather than crying out to God, complaining, “Why me Lord?”, we should instead recognize it as an opportunity for growth. For Through trials we learn perseverance and courage. As we go through these trials we gain in wisdom and learn that our hope is in the Lord and not in our own understanding and strength. When we place our confidence and faith in the Lord we will NOT be disappointed or ashamed.

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Have you ever asked yourself, “ Why is it so hard for someone to get and stay clean/sober? You may have asked it in the past about yourself or a loved one. You may be asking it now. What I am about to share will I am sure surprise some, but others will be saying, “I knew it!”

 Simply put, the war that we fight against addiction, is MORE than just an emotional and physical condition, Addiction reach is in and touches us at the deepest part of our being – the Spirit.

 It is the Spirit that separates Man from all other creatures.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ….And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26-27 (Darby)  

And Jehovah Elohim formed Man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 (Darby)

We are not in His image, in that we “look like Him” we are in His image as we are Spiritual beings. I am going to go out on a limb and share a personal belief, and ask you to process it for yourself.

We are spiritual beings that temporarily reside in earthly physical bodies. The Spirit is the key component of who we are.

• All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils Job 27:3
•  Answer me speedily, O Jehovah; my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, or I shall be like unto them that go down into the pit.Psalm 143:7
•  Man’s spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the inner parts of the belly. Proverbs 20:27
• He that hath no rule over his own spirit is [as] a city broken down, without walls. Proverbs 25:28

So if we are “spirit” and our spirit is from God, then what happened? Why are we all so messed up? That is where the being human part comes in. Yes, we are spirit, BUT we are also flesh and bone, carnal and earthly, animals. We are designed to have the Spirit to be the guide of the rest of our being, but because we are natural beings and God gave us a free will, we can choose whether we follow the lead of the spirit, or seek our own fleshly desires. It started in Eden, and we continue the same battle on a daily basis. In Jewish thought is the battle between the good inclination and evil one.

 (Imagine the cartoons from childhood where there was a character trying to decide on whether to do a given act. This battle was often portrayed as a a white angel on one shoulder and a red demon sitting on the other.)

 Now it is not quite that simple, but it does give us a general idea of what is going in inside.

That being said, how does this apply to recovery?

Is it not true that this description explains what is going on in our hearts and minds as we fight this battle.

 Alcohol comes from the Arabic “al-kuhl” which was the name of a body-eating spirit. In fact, the English “ghoul” comes from the same word.

When Arab alchemists’ ingested alcohol their senses deadened and they named the substance according to its “body-taking” qualities. Knowing this, European speakers who understood its etymology coined the use of the term “spirits” for alcohol.

The use of the term spirits for alcohol goes very far back so it’s impossible to know for sure due the lack of written evidence, but this is the simplest answer to the question, and, in my opinion, the most likely to be true

 This is EXACTLY why the first three steps are SO important. Without a power GREATER than ourselves we are unable to win this battles for it is not just about flesh and blood, cravings and will power it IS a spiritual WAR!

 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)

 Is it wonder that when people talk about their past and their issues, the call it their “demons”. I believe that it is not a coincidence that such a term has been used.

 This battle is more than just a physical one; it is a spiritual one. We can’t dismiss this as an imaginary battle or as an irrelevant struggle. We must take this war battle seriously.

David just before he charged forward in his battle against Goliath declared, “the battle is the LORD’S….”

1 Samuel 17:47

The battles that we fight with mental illness and/or addiction can definitely feel like we are fighting a “Goliath”. Here again why recognition and surrender to The Higher Power is the MOST important part of recovery. That is not to say that life will suddenly be easy just by turning our ‘lives and our wills” over to Him, but it will be easier. In fact, as I have said before, I personally do not believe that true recovery is possible without reliance on God.

So my friends, I urge you to choose today, for yourself, will you continue to fight alone or call for the ultimate in reinforcements?

I choose to not fight alone.

One breath, one step, one day at a time!

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For now there are faith, hope, and love. But of these three, the greatest is love. I Corinthians 13:13

Faith is our connection to God.

Hope is the force that motivates us from within.

Love is the demonstration of our Faith.

For when we have Faith we are motivated by Hope to demonstrate acts of Love towards others. These acts of love reveal the Faith that is within us.

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26

 

 

As we remember the fateful events of that Tuesday morning 10 years ago, may we rekindle the pride, courage, resolve, unity and most of all FAITH that arose out of the ashes and rubble, both of steel and concrete and pain and tears. Let us proudly stand and say “Thank You” to the men and women the serve and protect at home and abroad, sitting in a bunker or a police cruiser.

In memory of the most significant day in history in most of out lives let us

NEVER FORGET!