Recovery Brings Grace

At some point, we were  humbled enough to admit we needed help healing from our past.

Isn't step 7 where we humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings? We realized we can't heal alone and we do need help. Meeting other survivors, embracing our spirituality, praying, meditating, or journaling our way out of this messy time.

How long will it take?
It's not easy. Studies show it takes anywhere from 21-66 days to train ourselves to get into a new habit. Two months to adapt the lifestyle change that will bring about lasting change. That's not that long when you consider the wound from childhood took years, sometimes decades  to form. But, two months is a long enough period of time where we risk slipping up and sliding back into despair and whatever funky emotions we still have inside.

Two months is enough to feel hell for the time being, like training for a marathon  and having to continue running,even though we're hungry, or thirsty, or our feet hurt, or its too hot and sweaty.

This sort of endurance calls for ... grace.
Spiritual grace. God's grace is what I call on when I have to overcome something that is bigger than me. You have to wonder if the battle we choose to fight in recovery is not a human one, but  a spiritual one, and Earth is our battlefield. Earth? And our minds!
God does the work, when we humbly give our struggles up to him. In His perfect timing, He uses people and circumstances and His own soft whisper (or tear-inducing touch) to guide us. 66 days may be the human forming a habit, but even though God begins his work in us immediately, we have to wait, sometimes to see the change.

Attitude is everything.This is why humility, surrender is even more important.
We can take the time to adjust our attitude from impatience to patience and guilt and shame to forgiving ourselves.

What we think only brings us more of what we think. We are told not to think negatively, or we'll feel crappy and attract more negativity. Thinking positively, on the other hand, gives us the opportunity to adjust our attitudes to become more positive.
Thank goodness.

I embrace a new design for living.

From Step 7: 

"As we notice our defects being removed and our lives becoming less complicated, we must proceed with caution and guard against the temptation to be prideful. Sudden changes in our behavior can and do happen, but we cannot anticipate them or direct them. God initiates change when we are ready, and we cannot claim that we alone removed our character defects. When we learn to ask humbly for God's help in our lives, change becomes God's responsibility. We cannot accept the credit, but we can give thanks. When good changes begin to happen in our lives, we tend to expect similar changes in others. But our focus needs to remain on ourselves - we still have much to accomplish...

Credit:
http://stepwork.activeboard.com/t2034849/step-7-aca/