Keep calm and celebrate
I recently heard an expression that went something like, ‘I wish we knew we were in the good old days when we are actually in the good old days’. I tried to hold on to that sentiment this month because I knew there would be some good old days to be celebrated. For one, my birthday! :-). Also , I was blessed to have my parents come visit me from the mainland. While they were here spending quality time with grand kids, my husband and I escaped for a brief moment to the Big Island for a weekend get away to celebrate our 17th anniversary.
I got to share some quality time with my boys during fall break. And finally got to go on a glider ride (see pic above). These were truly ‘authentic moments’ if I can quote my self from the testimony I gave at church last month.
By ‘authentic moments’, I’m talking about those joyful moments that only come from God as a gift from above rather than a drug or bottle in my new life of sobriety. We also had a life group reunion with my sisters in faith and shared a meal, while catching up celebrating birthdays. AND while the tight budget has forced me to turn to the drug store bottle from the shelf, (no, not the wine bottle, I did’t have a relapse) lest not forget a very important reunion with my hair stylist, after a year long hiatus from the salon. More power to the women in the ‘gombre’ movement who’s decided to forgo dying their hair and let their natural grey grow out. You’re obviously more self confident and assured than I am, but I’m not giving in to those grays just yet! Yes, this past month I’ve definitely been blessed with some ‘authentic moments’ while I was enjoying the ‘good old days.’
We have come upon relapse lesson in step 11 in my recovery journey. I can’t believe it , almost there. Already to Step 11!?
Step 11 We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and power to carry it out.
-Let the work of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16
Based on principle 7, Reserve a daily time with God for self examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His well for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
-Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.
This has been an important lesson for me because if you are not familiar with my testimony already, I felt like my alcohol addiction was one BIG relapse from my drug addiction previously.
God has provided me through celebrate recovery with the tools to prevent relapse. And its all a symptom of my underlying character defects of course. What are character defects you ask? I realize I’m throwing around these recovery terms that I must explain. Well hold on to your britches because I’m going to share with you a lesson that has taken me a all 43 years of my life to learn and STILL learning. We , you and I are NOT perfect. We all have quirks, tendencies, personal struggles, and if they are not acknowledged , confessed, dealt with in some way, they may manifest in some unhealthy way. It could be anger, dependency, or for me, drugs, alcohol. These are sometime referred to as ‘character defects’. So for some of us including yours truly struggle with that realization. As such an accomplished woman as myself (pat myself on the back), that is my personal struggle—my pursuit of excellence and need to be perfect, I will confess. However, this need to be perfect can foster my own self condemnation, a spirit of always working, not resting and loss of joy and peace that I’m called to in Christ. I must remember, my identity is not in the things I achieve but it must be in Christ. Christ loves me anyway. He loves us no matter what we do! Did you know that? Which brings me to my next topic…..
Marathon training! I’m toward the end of my training with race day being less than 6 weeks away. As I’ve seemed to come down with this nagging cough and struggle just to finish the end of my long runs, I question myself. “Why in God’s name am I doing this?’ To prove something? Bragging rights? For my own self validation? This will be my 3rd marathon. The first time, was on my bucket list in LA. The second time, I raised money for a great cause. So why do I feel the need to run a marathon for the 3rd time? Ok, so maybe I get a little joy bragging about it on my instagram posts. Don’t judge, we all do it. But that can’t be it. That’s not what pushes me in that last mile when I feel like collapsing. That’s not what wakes me at dark o thirty on the weekend to run for hours at a time. That’s not what keeps me training 6 days of the week. That’s not what makes me endure road rashes in sensitive places (I’ll spare you the details and won’t mention). I just love running. What do I love about it? I guess I can go on for pages on what I love about it, but I’ll try to be brief here. I love the training, discipline, and the reward is the way it makes my body feel-healthy, peaceful, calm. It gives me time to pray and give praise. It is my worship to God for blessing me with a capable body. And it allows me to encourage others—runners and walkers passing by. I only state this because I must remember, in my futile attempt to reach perfection and self-validation, God loves me anyway regardless if I run a marathon or not. My identity is in Him as his beloved child and not my achievements, in running OR work, anything as that may be. I try to get in the habit of asking myself this and I invite you to, whenever you feel stressed or pressured- Why in God's name am I doing this? Because God loves us anyway! And so there you go, running continues to teach me about my spiritual life. Thank you Jesus! You are soo good.
So as we enter this season of thanksgiving and celebrations, let us remember not only WHAT to be thankful for, but WHO to be thankful to--our one and only creator. Though there will be struggles in life, remember to take the time to celebrate how far you’ve come and where God has brought you now.
That is one of the many reasons I love Halloween. Even though I celebrate controversially with scary movies, candy, costumes, pumpkin spice lattes, I really celebrate it as a holiday signifying better things to come. No matter how scary, things get, It is to celebrate that our God is bigger than the boogey man, our personal demons, all of it. He is our overcomer! 'And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. -Romans 8:38 So have fun celebrating that truth, whether you’re harvest festivaling it with your church, trick or treating in your neighborhood, dressing up as a superhero, or staying home watching scary movies - just be sure to be a good little pumpkin and be the light of Jesus.
Thank you for letting me share!
-Hopeful girl, Janette, sober for 3 years, 3 months, hopeful for another day.
I got to share some quality time with my boys during fall break. And finally got to go on a glider ride (see pic above). These were truly ‘authentic moments’ if I can quote my self from the testimony I gave at church last month.
By ‘authentic moments’, I’m talking about those joyful moments that only come from God as a gift from above rather than a drug or bottle in my new life of sobriety. We also had a life group reunion with my sisters in faith and shared a meal, while catching up celebrating birthdays. AND while the tight budget has forced me to turn to the drug store bottle from the shelf, (no, not the wine bottle, I did’t have a relapse) lest not forget a very important reunion with my hair stylist, after a year long hiatus from the salon. More power to the women in the ‘gombre’ movement who’s decided to forgo dying their hair and let their natural grey grow out. You’re obviously more self confident and assured than I am, but I’m not giving in to those grays just yet! Yes, this past month I’ve definitely been blessed with some ‘authentic moments’ while I was enjoying the ‘good old days.’
We have come upon relapse lesson in step 11 in my recovery journey. I can’t believe it , almost there. Already to Step 11!?
Step 11 We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and power to carry it out.
-Let the work of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16
Based on principle 7, Reserve a daily time with God for self examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His well for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
-Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.
This has been an important lesson for me because if you are not familiar with my testimony already, I felt like my alcohol addiction was one BIG relapse from my drug addiction previously.
God has provided me through celebrate recovery with the tools to prevent relapse. And its all a symptom of my underlying character defects of course. What are character defects you ask? I realize I’m throwing around these recovery terms that I must explain. Well hold on to your britches because I’m going to share with you a lesson that has taken me a all 43 years of my life to learn and STILL learning. We , you and I are NOT perfect. We all have quirks, tendencies, personal struggles, and if they are not acknowledged , confessed, dealt with in some way, they may manifest in some unhealthy way. It could be anger, dependency, or for me, drugs, alcohol. These are sometime referred to as ‘character defects’. So for some of us including yours truly struggle with that realization. As such an accomplished woman as myself (pat myself on the back), that is my personal struggle—my pursuit of excellence and need to be perfect, I will confess. However, this need to be perfect can foster my own self condemnation, a spirit of always working, not resting and loss of joy and peace that I’m called to in Christ. I must remember, my identity is not in the things I achieve but it must be in Christ. Christ loves me anyway. He loves us no matter what we do! Did you know that? Which brings me to my next topic…..
Marathon training! I’m toward the end of my training with race day being less than 6 weeks away. As I’ve seemed to come down with this nagging cough and struggle just to finish the end of my long runs, I question myself. “Why in God’s name am I doing this?’ To prove something? Bragging rights? For my own self validation? This will be my 3rd marathon. The first time, was on my bucket list in LA. The second time, I raised money for a great cause. So why do I feel the need to run a marathon for the 3rd time? Ok, so maybe I get a little joy bragging about it on my instagram posts. Don’t judge, we all do it. But that can’t be it. That’s not what pushes me in that last mile when I feel like collapsing. That’s not what wakes me at dark o thirty on the weekend to run for hours at a time. That’s not what keeps me training 6 days of the week. That’s not what makes me endure road rashes in sensitive places (I’ll spare you the details and won’t mention). I just love running. What do I love about it? I guess I can go on for pages on what I love about it, but I’ll try to be brief here. I love the training, discipline, and the reward is the way it makes my body feel-healthy, peaceful, calm. It gives me time to pray and give praise. It is my worship to God for blessing me with a capable body. And it allows me to encourage others—runners and walkers passing by. I only state this because I must remember, in my futile attempt to reach perfection and self-validation, God loves me anyway regardless if I run a marathon or not. My identity is in Him as his beloved child and not my achievements, in running OR work, anything as that may be. I try to get in the habit of asking myself this and I invite you to, whenever you feel stressed or pressured- Why in God's name am I doing this? Because God loves us anyway! And so there you go, running continues to teach me about my spiritual life. Thank you Jesus! You are soo good.
So as we enter this season of thanksgiving and celebrations, let us remember not only WHAT to be thankful for, but WHO to be thankful to--our one and only creator. Though there will be struggles in life, remember to take the time to celebrate how far you’ve come and where God has brought you now.
That is one of the many reasons I love Halloween. Even though I celebrate controversially with scary movies, candy, costumes, pumpkin spice lattes, I really celebrate it as a holiday signifying better things to come. No matter how scary, things get, It is to celebrate that our God is bigger than the boogey man, our personal demons, all of it. He is our overcomer! 'And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. -Romans 8:38 So have fun celebrating that truth, whether you’re harvest festivaling it with your church, trick or treating in your neighborhood, dressing up as a superhero, or staying home watching scary movies - just be sure to be a good little pumpkin and be the light of Jesus.
Thank you for letting me share!
-Hopeful girl, Janette, sober for 3 years, 3 months, hopeful for another day.
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