Gratitude is often the topic of 12 Step recovery meetings, and that is where I got hooked on becoming aware of my blessings and expressing gratitude for them. Prior to recovery, I took most things for granted. In retrospect, I felt very entitled. Sobriety has a way of opening one’s eyes to reality.
Even though I’ve been in recovery from alcoholism for more than a decade, it will always be my nemesis, since alcoholism is actually never cured. Just one drink would send me into a tailspin, and I know that now.
I need only remember what it was like ’then’ (not a pretty sight at all) to realize how blessed I am now. I never thought I’d be grateful for being an alcoholic, but in a very crazy way, it’s brought me closer to the God of my understanding. Nothing at all like the one I was brought up knowing. But One who’s opened my eyes to his omnipresence, goodness and grace. Blessings are indeed all around me, if only I will see them.
May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. -2 Peter 1:2
