A Wink From God!

This post doesn’t really have anything to do with alcoholism, other than the fact that I was praying for my alcoholic son when God winked at me. No, of course I didn’t actually see God wink; but for lack of a better term that’s what I call it. Let me explain.

I have Christmas lights around the balcony of my apartment that are plugged into a timer/sensor. This sensor turns the lights on at dark and turns them off 6 hours later. Since my son entered the alcohol recovery program at The Way, I have tried to make it a habit of going into his bedroom in the morning, kneeling by his bed, and praying for him. Some mornings I get busy and forget, but I always pray for him later in the day. This morning I did take the time to pray in his bedroom. It was 6:45 in the morning and the sun had already risen. His bedroom window looks out on the balcony, and as I prayed for him all of a sudden the Christmas lights on the balcony turned on. I stared at them in amazement. I felt in my spirit that God was using the lights to tell me that He hears my prayers for my son and that He has everything under control.  As I left my son’s bedroom and returned to the living room, the Christmas lights turned off again.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

I remember when my late husband was still alive, during his drinking days, God used two geese flying over my house every morning as I left for work to give me hope.   Hope that my husband would one day become sober and stay sober; hope that my marriage would get better, which both eventually happened.  It’s these occasional winks from God that increase my faith and keep me going.  Thanks, God!

Being Your Own Worst Enemy

My late husband was given this cartoon by his counselor during his last stay at a treatment center. I found it the other day when going through a drawer.  It got me to thinking about what it means “to be our own worst enemy.”

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “enemy” as:

1. someone who hates another : someone who attacks or tries to harm another.  If you are your own worst enemy, you act in a way that causes harm to yourself or to the people or things that you care about.
2. something that harms or threatens someone or something
3. a group of people (such as a nation) against whom another group is fighting a war —usually singular

Definition 1 tells us what is means to be our own worst enemy.  Alcoholics & addicts seem to be the worst enemies to themselves, but anyone can be their worst enemy in one area such as, say, dieting, and not in other areas.  When people are their own worst enemy, they consistently sabotage and alienate anything good in their life… jobs, spouses,  family, self-respect, health, and happiness.  I think alcoholics self-destruct because they don’t feel worthy of receiving good in their lives.  They live for the daily drink and can’t really see any future beyond that.

I know my young adult son is a product of a generation that has so many means of escaping from reality… video games, computer games, the internet, easy access to pornography 24/7.  Add alcohol and drugs as a further means of escape, and you have a generation that is totally out of touch with the real world and how to successfully live in it.  When an alcoholic finds sobriety, then they can learn to love themselves and, instead of being their own worst enemy, they can instead be their own best friend.