Ok, here it is—the start of a new year.
Most people take this time to review the past year and make resolutions for the new year. Ever since I got sober 7130 days ago, I have not made resolutions for the new year.
Why?
Because my sobriety is a daily resolution to stay sober and do all the things that keep me there. I can’t wait 365 days to restart. I have to choose daily to keep on this path. To review what was not working on the previous day and course-correct for today.
What does that mean for me as a sober person?
• It means going to meetings. For me, that is 4 meetings a week. This is where I affirm my membership in my tribe. A tribe that is on the same path as me. Kinda like a gym membership, where everyone is trying to stay fit together, you know? We gather and talk with each other and stay mentally and spiritually fit. By sharing what we are struggling with today. In doing that, two things happen: One, it takes the power out of the thing I was carrying in my head to say it out loud. And, two, it may help another person acknowledge the same thing and be helped in the process also.
• It means I pray and turn my life over to God. In doing this, I acknowledge that I am not doing this journey on my own power. It helps to know that God is doing for me what I cannot do for myself. I start every day with the Third Step Prayer: “God, I offer myself to Thee, to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always! Amen.”
• It means I connect with my sponsor or women that I sponsor to see how I can be of service today. Maybe meeting with someone to walk through their steps with them.
• It means I write in my journal on the step I am on today. Usually, it is the step of the month of the Twelve Steps: This month is Step One: “Admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable”
Sounds a lot like New Year’s Resolutions, don’t they?
These are the practices we are taught to perform every day in our program.
I hear people in my meetings say how grateful they are for the 12-Steps and this process. They wish that everyone they know could have these tools to practice in their daily lives.
I do too.
There is a line in the 12th step that talks about “...practicing these principles in all our affairs.” This is so true, as we do them daily, we find that they apply to all areas of our lives, not just our sobriety—Step 12 "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry the message to others who still suffer, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."
Resolve to renew each day.
“To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:22-24
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