1) I'm totally stressed to go back to teaching tomorrow... 2) I'm not prepared for classes tomorrow... 3) I don't have the shopping, laundry, cleaning done... 4) My husband's flight home was cancelled due to weather... 5) His new flight is going to get him in late Tuesday, so by the time I pick him up and get home it's going to be midnight... 6) I'll be wreck on Wed.... 7) I can't get the search function to work when I search for "acceptance" -- which I think may be the problem (my own search function that is).
So how do you get the darn thing to work? I keep typing in acceptance and it keeps saying no match. I've tried the advanced search as well. I have a hard time believing that there is no mention of acceptance on an AA message board.
And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation—some fact of my life —unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake.
Thanks psychokitty, Tim--I'm glad your search functions are working today.
I just have to remember that acceptance and liking the situation are two different things... For many years now my sponsor has told me that I don't have to do this gracefully, I just have to do it... She says it about whatever I'm complaining about at that time : (
Good thing too--grace has never been my strong point : )
OkDokey wrote: I just have to remember that acceptance and liking the situation are two different things...
Indeed! We don't have to like, but we do have to accept in order to have that serenity!
I had myself in all kinds of knots yesterday. Why? Because I wasn't living in the moment. I was projecting ahead (which you mentioned in your post about this coming Wednesday), and that always gets me in trouble.
I can well remember early in recovery when my head was already 10 miles down the road before my feet ever hit the floor in the mornings!
Live in the moment. That will take a great burden off of your shoulders, and really, it's all any of us have, right? :)
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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguements and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
~Herbert Spencer
I've had a rough day, struggling with the same issue - acceptance when things are not the way they are 'supposed to' be. I still have the sciatica and some other things going on which really limit my activities. I want to be 'fixed'. I am frustrated and angry at the medical people, and people who are 'supposed to' be helping me,,, and I guess at God too. People have the excuse of being stupid sinners, but God has no such excuse. Well, so I was stewing this afternoon while doing dishes, and I was listening to a Christian radio station that was having a music request hour, and all of a sudden a song came on, called, 'Peace' by Gary Englund. It was about forgiveness, and not letting things block our hearts, even when they are blocking other aspects of our lives, and about forgiveness of those that are failing us, or even causing harm. I realized that my anger was not helping anything, and was a block to God's creative Love flowing through me. Peace.
Now, seeing this thread, and the piece that psychokitty put us, rounds that out. It's the same idea. Not that things are the way they are 'supposed to' be, but that they are the way they are for a reason. To accpet that God works through such chaos in mysterious ways 'making all things work together for good, for those who Love God and are called to His purposes" Romans 8:28, when all we can see is a mess.
Thanks for this thread.
'do your best and God does the rest'
love in recovery,
amanda
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do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
I often say of my kid, "Her feet can't keep up with her." She can get so focused on what she wants there's no consideration for the small little steps it'll take to get there. Face first on the ground is usually the result. And then she's not too happy about her plans being foiled by her own feet.
