God grant me....

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

  All those who live with any degree of Serenity live with some assurance of grace. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr 

My thoughts.... I can't always change circumstances and I can't change other people but I can change me. I am willing to be changed... I need to be changed... God can change me.

God placed Jeremiah 29:11 on heart many years ago.  "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." I have learned through reading scripture and other books that Jeremiah recognized his powerlessness and acknowledge his inability to map out his own life.

God also put Nehemiah on my heart many years ago and from his story I learned that he had a burden and a vision for his city - for restoration. He rebuilt the walls but his confidence did not come from his own ability... it came from God through prayer.

The words I get from these two stories are restoration, opposition, determination & hope.

When thinking about my future I have created dreams where I am needed, loved and sought after. But I put these hopes in man’s ability. When life let me down I turned to booze to find relief and comfort. It has been hard to acknowledge that I know my sufferings are mainly results of my own mistakes. I know it is my responsibility to cooperate with God so that I can return to the path He intended for me. Recovery of my life also means recovery of God's plan for me.

This blog is about my personal journey through recovery and the 12 steps as I see them.

I will also share more in the days to come about my study on Nehemiah and Jeremiah.

No matter how long we are on this earth, the more we have to realize that life finds us living every day with the unanswered and the unresolved. Faith helps us to live with the unanswered.  Hope helps us to live with the unresolved. Trust helps us to accept and go on with the work of living.  

~ Mark Connolly