Conscientiously working through the 12-Steps brings one into an intimate, growing understanding of forgiveness, both for self and others. Here is the May 1 writing in "Daily Reflections," a 12-Step daily reader:
Healing Mind and Heart
Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Since it is true that God comes to me through people, I can see that by keeping people at a distance I also keep God at a distance. God is nearer to me than I think and I can experience Him by loving people and allowing people to love me. But I can neither love nor be loved if I allow my secrets to get in the way.
It's the side of myself that I refuse to look at that rules me. I must be willing to look at the dark side in order to heal my mind and heart because that is the road to freedom. I must walk into darkness to find the light and walk into fear to find peace.
By revealing my secrets – and thereby ridding myself of guilt – I can actually change my thinking; by altering my thinking, I can change myself. My thoughts create my future. What I will be tomorrow is determined by what I think today.
===============================
And a quote from Richard Rohr regarding simplicity and the freedom it brings:
When we agree to live simply, we put ourselves outside of others’ ability to buy us off, reward us falsely, or control us by money, status, punishment, and loss or gain. This is the most radical level of freedom, but, of course, it’s not easy to come by.
Forgiveness equals freedom,
Leta
 |
| Funky storm clouds over west Wichita Tuesday evening |
No comments:
Post a Comment