Stay Strong

1 day sober:

When I served a mission for the LDS Church, I ended each weekly email home with the words Stay Strong. Lately I've been thinking about what I mean when I say that. What does it mean to stay strong? (If you have any ideas I'd love to hear about them!) Well, in thinking about it I have come up with a couple things I feel like I mean when I say this to someone else. (I will write these in the "I" form since I expect myself to do these things before I can give them to someone else)

1. Stay committed - if I have a task ahead of me...I will not back down! I will stay committed and see it through to the end!
2. Stay true to yourself - the worst thing anyone can do is lie to themselves. If I lie to myself then I know there is something seriously wrong! I will stay true to myself and accept who I am. God does, so I should too!
3. Stay honest - honesty is something that can be scarce these days. Not that I am that old...I'm 23. I am still old enough to know that honesty is always the best policy! Especially for addicts. It is only through full honesty that I can recover. Nothing else will work for me!
4. Stay diligent - somewhat similar to staying committed, but diligence implies that I am careful and thorough in what I am doing. Whatever I do do...I do it well!
5. Stay dedicated - once I choose a course, I will stay on it no matter what!
6. Stay virtuous - the morals that I live according to in my life dictate what I do and how I treat people. As long as I have high morals...I will regret very few things.

In a nutshell I guess I mean to say that I can never let my guard down. That is what it means to stay strong. I am in a battle against Satan...and so far I am not doing very well!

In my White Book study today I read,

 "Awareness of the unmanageability of our lives was not apparent to us at first. But as we recovered from shock and spiritual blindness, we began to see how we were unable to function without lust, negative attitudes, and dependencies holding us together."

Now...I read that and I had these thoughts. When does the recovery mentioned here start? Does it only come through a certain length of sobriety or does it start the minute I decide to fight this addiction? Does it happen when I decide to start surrendering?

If anyone reading this has any insights, please share them with me.

This is my daily check in, and this is me committing to another 24 hours! Stay Strong!

-Grateful and Hopeful