Sober living with Jesus

Many times over the years in meetings, I have heard people make the statement "identify and don't compare."  In the very beginning of my recovery, I thought it referred to substances that we were addicted to -- like heroin, cocaine, marijuana, booze,etc.  At that time, my alcoholic mind was focused solely on the substance as being responsible for my maladies, not me. As time progressed, I began to find other meanings for identification versus comparison.  As I have matured in sobriety, I have come to see the dangers of comparison. It is easy to find others more fortunate than myself, if I measure things only by outward appearances and fail to look inside.  For me, it is much harder to look at all the wonderful things I have and consider myself the more fortunate one (when in the midst of comparison). When I commence to devaluing my life through one of these self-pity motivated comparison sessions, I place myself in danger of picking up that next drink.  The motivati

Recently I received a notice from blogger.com that this blog was a suspected "Spam Bl0g.'' Spam seems to be everywhere, I guess; now it has infiltrated the blogosphere! Hopefully, this will not happen again. When I responded to the e-mail (which was nice and professional - I can appreciate their position), I was informed it would take a few days to investigate and unlock, but conceded that since I was reading the e-mail in the first place, it probably wasn't a spam blog. Now that this problem is resolved, I should be able to continue posting without interruption. Thanks to Blogger for finding me "not guilty" and unlocking this blog!

Early in sobriety everybody said "take it a day at a time" or "one day at a time."  Sometimes, it was 5 minutes at a time.  I sure thought I had a grasp on that concept back then!  Of course, being new, the focus was strictly on going another day without a drink or chemical substitute.  Today the focus tends to be more on confronting those many "faces of fear" I learned of.  I thought those faces existed only to haunt me; through my tenure in this fellowship, I have discovered they actually motivate me to move into a closer relationship with my Higher Power. I relish the spiritual enlightenment that comes with that. As the years advance, I have come to terms with another meaning of living a day at a time, one not so easily defined by words as it is through experience.  During my journey through sobriety, I have experienced many wonderful things, brought about by continually staying sober and gaining years on the planet.  Sometimes those wonderful things

One of the most important things I did early on was get a home group and get involved. To better understand what a home group is all about, I offer this from the publication The Twelve Concepts for World Service : Experience has shown that for most A.A. members, membership in an A.A. group, known as a "Home Group," is vital to maintaining sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous. In the early days of the fellowship, the A.A. members actually met in the homes of fellow members and shared their experience, strength and hope with one another. From this "Home Group," they went on to help newcomers seeking sobriety through A.A. Thus, the concept of the "Home Group" has grown to thousands of groups through which the "Home Group" member helps others to recover from alcoholism. Through the years, the very essence of A.A. strength has remained with the traditional "A.A. Home Group." This is true especially where isolated alcoholics have found s