Dictionary definition of Control: the power to influence or direct behavior or the course of events.
Some common synonyms of control are authority, command, dominion, jurisdiction, power, and sway. While all these words mean "the right to govern or rule or determine," control stresses the power to direct and restrain.
“Direct and restrain.”
I did not have either when I was powerless over my drinking.
No power to direct OR restrain.
I don’t drink anymore for many days in a row—6,640 days…but I still have control issues—part of the reason for drinking, to tone that down—which it didn’t, of course :))
When I am in control, I believe in my mind that there are no risks. It’s safe, because I have this under my power. But in reality, by thinking this way, There is only one way it can be. I limit other possibilities and I am preventing any miracles from presenting themselves in my life by hanging onto the illusion of control.
The stranglehold I have on my reality with this kind of controlled thinking allows no possible outcome that is different from what I already know or have experienced. I am limiting God. Making Him small. When I get to the end of my own thinking, I have to let go and let God.
Make God Big again.
Letting go is so hard. Not knowing. So scary. I try now, to do what I know I can do in my own power, and then trust God with the outcome of the situation. My part. God’s part. The partnership is key. I have not given up. I have turned over what I can’t manage or change. That allows me to be open to new thinking. New ways of doing things. New ways of being.
I am still retraining my brain for healthy behaviors. Here are a few ways:
• surrender (admit powerless)
• connection (meetings)
• coping strategies (plan of actions)
• sponsor (counselor and guide)
• service to others (hope and purpose)
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7
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