Sorry for the long delay in this last post…life has been FULL! I want to wrap up this series on my 12 Steps journey by sharing the blessings that have come as a result of surrendering my life and will to my Redeemer(I am skipping ahead to the end). JOY…real joy! I have always been known to my friends and family as a happy person, but my happiness was contingent upon the circumstances of my life. As long as life fit into my little box of perfection and people treated me like I “needed” them to treat me, my joy remained intact. I now know that my joy comes from the Lord. My happiness is no longer tied to people who are going to disappoint me (surprise, they’re human too) or to all of the “stuff” that will happen in life. My joy is my salvation, in the One who paid my ransom! Peace. I can’t help but think of the old song we used to sing at church camp, “I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.”! Those words have REAL meaning for me now. Think about a river. Its path is tumultuou...
The day that I made the decision to sit down and begin my moral inventory, will forever be etched into my heart. It was a cold and dreary winter day, much like the state of my spirit. In all honesty, I was DREADING the task at hand. Who in their right mind would want to make an account of every painful memory from the past as well as every sin committed against others?!?! As I sat down at a Starbucks with my favorite flavored coffee beverage in hand, I began praying Psalm 129:23, “Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover…if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way.” I knew that there was pain from my childhood buried so deep that only He would have the power to bring to the surfaces. For so long, I had masked and/or stuffed the wounds in my life, rather than allowing Him to heal them. Within minutes of my prayer, the memories came pouring down like the rain I could hear outside. Just a little side-note, if you ever decide to take a painful j...