July 31

”Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.” Josephus Daniels

I do believe that as long as I hold onto hope that anything I want still remains a possibility. I just need to be careful that my wants and desires are aligned with my authentic self and reflect the will of my Higher Power. Therefore I can only give in to defeat when I lose faith, give up hope and stop trusting in the guidance of the God of my understanding. There is an opposite view – I will never start to receive help and guidance from my Higher Power until I admit that I need it and ask for it. This is the foundation of the 12 Steps, and more particularly the first three. As one member summarizes them; I have a problem, there is help, and I need to ask for it. Until I was ready to admit I had a problem there was no way anyone could have convinced me that I needed help. Nor was any aid that was offered to me attractive. The decision had to come from within first. What I can appreciate about choosing not to be defeated and choosing to be in recovery is that they are both healthy demonstrations of my willpower. Again, as a fellow member has shared, we don’t have won’t power in terms of our addictive behaviour,; once we start down the path our addiction generally wins the battle. But we do have willpower to do something else and that is the power of the program.

Affirmation I can have hope, I can choose my recovery and I can exercise my willpower to do things to support my program.