Posts Tagged: twelve-step affirmation
“LOVING GOD, MYSELF, AND OTHERS IN AN AS-IS WORLD”
Today, my twelve-step affirmation is as follows:
“Today, by God’s grace, I will do one good thing, do it as well as it deserves to be done, and then move on to the next good thing. Good things fall under three broad categories:
- Good things that express my love and respect for God directly to God.
- Good things that express my love and respect toward other people and all of creation.
- Good things that express my love and respect toward myself.”
The first and third category are the hardest to understand. What does God really need? God seems pretty self-sufficient to me.
However, God might not need anything from me, but he might enjoy some things from me. It is a beautiful dawning to what promises to be a hot summers day. I feel that God would enjoy it if I took a walk with God. So, I will!
But for me, the second category is the easiest to understand, and the most difficult to do. I like people, as long as they do precisely what I want. (They almost never do.) I like creation and reality, as long as creation and reality conform to my fantasies. (They almost never do.)
Have you ever been to a used car lot, and seen a sticker on a car that read AS IS”? That means that the car has no warranty. As the old saying goes, “Ya pays your money, and ya takes your chances!”
All of life, every day and every relationship is “AS IS.”
And God is as God is. God is abundant and complex, but God is not a smorgasbord.
The serenity prayer is well-known, even beyond twelve-step programs. However, there is a longer version that is beautifully true, though less well known. Here it is. Pray this prayer today, and I’ll try to do the same!
”
God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change…
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.“
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
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- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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