Casa de Barrios

As many of you know, I am part of Celebrate Recovery at our church.

Celebrate Recovery is a 12 step program to help anyone with hurts, habits, or hang-ups; which is everyone! It has really helped me in my marriage, my relationship with Christ, and in my day to day life . Every week I learn something new about how to truly have a relationship with our Lord and Savior!!! I look forward to the meetings and seeing all the friends that I have made there.

This past week the lesson at Celebrate Recovery really hit home with me. On Monday, I was in a poor pitiful me state of mind while I was at work. There were just a lot things that were bothering me, so I decided to just be still and talk with God. I felt a peace that I had not felt in a long time! He amazes me!!! When I get so bogged down with day to day stuff and get so wrapped up in everything that means nothing, I fall further and further out of the lap of my Heavenly Father!! So, after actually sitting still and being quiet for awhile, I realized that all the things that I was feeling so poor pitiful me about were my own doing. I was not looking into what God wanted for me or how God wanted me to see things - I was SO looking at the worldly view!

On Tuesday night, Danny taught on "Crossroads" at worship. It goes along with Principle 7 & Step 10.

Principle 7 states: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Step 10 states: We continued to take personval inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12

This lesson spoke so clearly to me! Step 10 is so important for someone to remain in recovery and not fall back into their hurts, habits, or hang-ups! I have always loved to journal, just to get my feelings out, yet since I've had Emily it has been very difficult to find the time to get it done. During the lesson Danny gave 5 questions to ask yourself at the end of the day when you are taking the time to do your daily inventory. My challenge to anyone reading this is to do just that: Take time to do a daily inventory! Ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. What good did I do today?

2. Where did I blow it?

3. Did I hurt anyone today?

4. Do I owe anyone amends for something that I did to them?

5. Did I learn anything today?

I know that since Tuesday I have been doing it and it makes you look for ways to help others and not be so demanding or impatient with people. This lesson is not just for those who may be suffering with addictions - this is for everyone!! We all are humans and make mistakes!!

"If we say that we have no sins, we are only fooling ourselves, and refusing to accept the truth...we are lying and calling God a liar, for says we have sinned." 1 John 1:8-10

I know that having a quiet time with God is hard for a lot of people. We are so busy in our lives that we don't have time for God. Yet could you imagine if God didn't have time for us? Where would we be if God didn't make time to have a relationship with us?