Addiction Recovery: A road less traveled

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. ( Isaiah 55:8-9 ) When I started step 4, I honestly believed it would be relatively painless and straightforward the first time I tried to do a moral inventory. I figured it was as easy as pie. I saw myself sitting down with a piece of paper, writing down all my actions - both good and bad, and then moving on to step 5. The Lord, however, saw step 4 differently than I did. In fact, the way I wanted to do step 4 really wasn’t a moral inventory at all. It was a grocery list of things that I wanted to be forgiven of but didn’t want to investigate or ponder on. I tried the ‘grocery list’ approach several times. Each time I tried, I failed. I found myself trying to build a moral inventory that couldn’t help me find lasting recovery. Then, I finally realized there is a difference betwee

This week in ARP, we reviewed step 3: “Trust in God”. This step is often referred to as the decision step in addiction recovery. It is a step that seems simple, but has profound impact on the individual’s life. In my own experience, step 3 was a beautiful and trying step. It was the first time, in a long time, that I truly understood the direction that I was going. Learning to make correct decisions and trusting in God is not an easy thing to do after addiction. In my case, there were times all I wanted to do was look at pornography, masturbate, create contention, or something else because I was triggered. Fortunately, step 3 provides a different solution: make a decision to trust in God. Choosing to trust in God is not an easy decision. In fact, it is down right scary for someone recovering from addiction. In my experience, I found myself willing to trust in God in some things, but in other things I was more reluctant to give my trust to God. Why is that? Addiction taught me, and eve

I serve the young men in my ward here in Utah. Last night, the activity was teaching the young men how to build a fire. It was very interesting to see how the boys approached their fire building. Some took the time to start with small kindling, others threw everything they could in a pile and hoped for the best. Then the moment of truth came: it was time to light the fires. The leader who was leading the activity struck a match, applied it to the fire, and his fire took off. The young men were amazed and excited! Then each young man took two matches, and tried to start their fires. Each fire started, but fizzled out quickly. Each young man was disappointed and realized they had made some mistakes in building their fire. The biggest thing each boy realized was they didn’t start with the small, light kindling first. Some boys did, but didn’t allow for appropriate oxygen flow to the kindling. We talked about why it is important to start with small, light kindling first. The young men al

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ taught the parable of the 10 virgins. This parable is found in the Gospel of Matthew. It reads as follows: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five  were  foolish. They that  were  foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying,  Not so;  lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage:

Barriers to entry is a real thing in life. If you want to be a doctor, the barrier to entry is long hours being educated, rotations, internships, post graduate work, etc. This can equate to years and years of work! If you want to be a teacher, there are requirements to be met as well: education, teaching internships, continuous learning, etc. Again, years and years of work. In each of these examples, and there are many others, the barriers to entry require years and years of work before you actually achieve your goal! This brings me to a question that I was pondering this week: What are the barriers to entry to start the addiction recovery journey? As I pondered this question, I remembered a story about our Savior, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament. A father brought his son to Jesus. The father explained the son’s condition and begged for compassion and help from the Savior. The Savior response to this father was, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.