“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.”
-Exodus 13:21
I met the alcoholic at a time when my sobriety could have easily fallen off. I was just about a year sober when we started dating. But let me tell you how I spent that first year, the year before I met this person: I spent that year working the steps. Yes, working the steps in addition to going to meetings every single day. So, it is no accident that I was able to survive that relationship sober. It could have ended very differently for me if I hadn’t been actively working steps with my sponsor during that first year.
By the time I met the alcoholic, I was over half way finished with Step Nine, and the Ninth Step Promises were indeed coming true in my life. That summer we started dating I had already made flight reservations to see all of my parents—and those were my final personal amends. In the fall of that year, the relapses started and I started falling apart. It took me months of suggestions from my sponsor and other AA members before I would finally go to Al-Anon, but I did. I went. I was so beaten down by this person’s disease that it was the end of the road.
Because I had the first nine steps behind me when this happened, I did have a God working in my life, which was critical during this very difficult time. I finished Step Ten in the late fall when things were really bad. And then we had a break up and I lost my job in the spring of the next year, a few months before I turned two years sober, and that is when I finished Steps Ten and Eleven. I finished my AA steps while also having an Al-Anon sponsor to talk to and an Al-Anon program to attend.
Today’s Prayer
God, thank you for your divine timing. Sobriety is such a gift to me today, and I don’t want to throw it away for a relationship. You have shown me I can do both.
So I wrote my book of daily reflections, With Gratitude: A Journey in Recovery, in 2021 and published it in late January 2022. I still read my book, and I am amazed that the writing I did them still helps me now. God is so surprising in this way—He always teaches me about me. This year I passed a milestone and have sold 51 books so far. I have sold books every single month of this year, and that has never happened before. If you want to try a new daily reader to add to your morning time with God or to have handy to re-center your day, please consider trying With Gratitude. Or please consider giving it as a gift to an alcoholic, addict, or someone who is being affected by this disease. There is something for everyone in my book. THANK YOU, READERS!