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| The Serenity Prayer |
Friday, March 27, 2015
Today's thought from Hazelden is:
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
-- Step One of Alcoholics Anonymous
Accepting powerlessness is a prerequisite of recovery. As adult children, the very idea may seem puzzling or even laughable. Haven't we felt powerless all along? Shouldn't we be trying to move away from powerlessness and toward power?
But in the program we've found powerless to have a different meaning. We see how we have exhausted all the nonproductive, ineffective ways to deal with our situation. Powerlessness here means we're giving up on willpower, force, and intellectualizing because they just didn't work.
When we admit we are powerless we are saying that we are through trying to do it on our own - finished with attempts at recovery, which are centered around our own strength or cunning. To lay down our old failed powers is not much different, after all, from laying down a broken old bike with two flat tires. It was better than nothing, but now we have a new means of moving on our way.
Today, I am relieved and grateful to unburden myself of unrealistic expectations.
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
-- Step One of Alcoholics Anonymous
Accepting powerlessness is a prerequisite of recovery. As adult children, the very idea may seem puzzling or even laughable. Haven't we felt powerless all along? Shouldn't we be trying to move away from powerlessness and toward power?
But in the program we've found powerless to have a different meaning. We see how we have exhausted all the nonproductive, ineffective ways to deal with our situation. Powerlessness here means we're giving up on willpower, force, and intellectualizing because they just didn't work.
When we admit we are powerless we are saying that we are through trying to do it on our own - finished with attempts at recovery, which are centered around our own strength or cunning. To lay down our old failed powers is not much different, after all, from laying down a broken old bike with two flat tires. It was better than nothing, but now we have a new means of moving on our way.
Today, I am relieved and grateful to unburden myself of unrealistic expectations.
You are reading from the book:
Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty. © 1987, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation
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