Jen's Journey: What a difference a year makes!

One year ago, I was at a point in my recovery that I truly desired a closer relationship with God and I knew it was truly time to embrace Principle 7:

Reserve a 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.

Most of my life I have wanted this, but this time I felt like I was at a point where I truly wanted to work on this aspect of my life. I tend to know when I am serious about something because I share my goal with someone else and ask for accountability and that is what I did. One of the greatest blessings I have received from my recovery journey has been learning to celebrate the little victories in life. I believe the chips at Celebrate recovery have set it up to make sure we see the progress we make and to see how far we have come. I not only use the chips as "life markers" for healing in a particular hurt, hang up, or habit but I also use them as "accountability" chips. When there is a healthy habit I want to work on, I like to also see the progress!

Now, it was not easy and to be honest there were days I didn't want to read God's word. There were days I just read one verse but there were also days I spent hours in God's word. In the past, I only tended to read my bible when life was hard. Or as John Eklund said in his workshop at the "CR Bible" Celebrate Recovery workshop, "we tend to use the bible like a drunk uses a lamppost; for support and not for illumination!" After hearing that statement, I started praying "God, please illuminate me through your word today." In the 365 days that I spent in God's word, there was not a day that I did not get something out of what I read and it was always what I needed to hear. As always, God's timing for this was perfect. We faced a lot this last year with moving to a different state, starting fertility treatments, and with having a 13 year old now that is working on her own journey; I believe that being in God's word everyday has given me more "heavenly" frame of reference with life which brings God's peace! Just like the disciples when they were in the midst of a terrible storm, I NOW know and have confidence that God is in the boat with me and I just have to ask him to either "calm me God or calm the storm"! So, in our new house I hung this above my jacuzzi tub: