A look back…
Thirty-six years ago, around this time, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.
My addiction disorder had done worn me out (said with Festus’ grammar and voice from Gunsmoke). 🙂
I began meeting with a recovering alcoholic/addict; he gave me the “Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous” and told me to read the first 88 pages.
I cringed at being labeled an alcoholic or an addict and was not interested in reading a book about it. “Those people simply lacked willpower,” I thought to myself. But something inside of me told me to read it, so I did.
Once I began reading, I could not put the book down. I was so excited about what I was reading I cracked open some beer to celebrate…you have to be an alcoholic to understand that reasoning.
There were several stories about alcoholics who had overcome their addiction, but one stood out. The title of the story was “Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict,” and in the story, the Doctor, who had a severe drinking and drug problem, shared the following thoughts, which changed my thinking forever:
When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away. From that moment on, I have not had a single compulsion to drink. And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation–some fact of my life–unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake.
Fact
Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
I don’t have to like what I’m accepting, but I have to accept it to live in peace as I journey forward.
Acceptance doesn’t mean we quit fighting. It means we stop wasting good energy on things we can’t change and instead invest our energy in those things we can change.
Like ourselves and our attitudes.
Matthew 6:34, Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Â Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
P.E.A.C.E.
Jay@EagleLaunch.com
