Five Finger Recovery: The index finger… Why do I need recovery?

May 15, 2014: Five Finger Recovery: The index finger… Why do I need recovery? Please "Share" this new Precious Prodigal Post: http://bit.ly/QNos70

3 John 1:2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

Because substance abuse is at an all time high, people sometimes assume that when we talk about recovery, we mean a person who is recovering from drug or alcohol abuse. While that’s certainly true, it isn’t the whole picture.

When a person abuses drugs or alcohol, the entire family gets sick and needs recovery. But that isn’t all of it either. Virtually everyone is “recovering” from something. It might be a trauma we suffered, childhood abuse, an affair or a divorce. It might be the death of someone we love, a chronic illness, or losing our job.

The fact is life is tough, and bad things sometimes happen. How do we move on? The short answer is sometimes we don’t unless there is some type of recovery. And regardless of the cause, recovery is a process rather than an event. It doesn’t happen overnight.

If you are an alcoholic or an addict, not putting your recovery first is a sure path to a relapse. Recovery for you means going to AA, NA or Celebrate Recovery, getting and using a sponsor, working the steps, helping another alcoholic, and all the other things you know you need to do for your recovery. To neglect those things is to relapse and to relapse might be to die.

If you are someone who loves a prodigal, your recovery needs to come first as well. That may mean reaching out for help or any of a number of other steps. It certainly means finding and working your own program rather than trying to “fix” your prodigal. Working on ourselves instead of trying to fix the destructive people in our lives is a new concept for most of us. So a support group like Alanon can be a tremendous help in learning how to do that.

For those with other losses, your path of recovery may be different, but it is recovery just the same. Healing those wounds needs to be a priority, and it has to come second only to God. If we get God or our recovery out of order, our lives get out of control and become unmanageable. So recovery needs to be a priority.

How do you do that? I’ve already mentioned several groups. Maybe it’s time to try one of them. It might mean reaching out to ask for help from a pastor or a trusted friend. It might mean turning off the phone to have a quiet time or reminding yourself that you only have to do this for today. It might mean saying the Serenity Prayer or just doing the next right thing.

One of my friends who loves a prodigal starts each day by looking at herself in the mirror and saying aloud, “What must I do to take care of myself so I can face the reality that is mine today?” She’s not talking about her prodigal. She’s talking about her recovery. What an awesome way to start the day!

It’s your journey, and you can decide the steps you’re going to take on that journey. But you need to do something …to somehow make a beginning…if you’re going to find the peace that will only come with your own recovery.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, realize that you too need recovery and your recovery needs to be a priority?