July 30

PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 30: “Be strong enough to let go and wise enough to wait for what you deserve.” Anonymous

This morning taught me patience in a new way and yielded this new quote for me. I had inadvertently deleted my July writings in my computer when I gathered my August quotes yesterday. I went to open the file with my writings and quotes, and it was all the new quotes for August. Uhoh!

Shows my lack of mindfulness when I gathered quotes yesterday. It was just before lunch, so I was doing one of the things we are cautioned about in recovery…”Don’t get too hungry, angry, lonely or tired.” I was tired and hungry. And that happened.

So, I had to recreate the file this morning by copying and pasting all the daily writings from my sent folder in my emails. Okay. That was time consuming. Then I had to find a couple more quotes to add to the monthly writings since I keep them all on the same document. And I got this one. Only took an extra half hour of my morning, but here I am!

So, strong enough to let go and wise enough to wait…yikes! That is a great one…I am never sure what I deserve, but it brought to mind  a great story a young lady from Texas shared in a meeting many years ago that I loved! She was so funny,  and the story has never left me. A great one!

Seems she identified 3 things that were problems for her in life…booze, boys, and bars. Recovery gave her a way out of two of those, but the men remained an issue for her long into her recovery. At about 2 years into this, she fell in love with one of them and had a little girl. They split up but her little girl was about 4 years old at the time she got a powerful understanding of how God works when we get out of the driver seat.

Her daughter LOVED her home-made spaghetti, but one night it took too long for her. Mama explained that it was only going to be another few minutes (maybe 20) until her favorite thing was ready, but she did not want to wait. She found a bag of Doritos and snuck them to her room and ate until she was sick to her stomach. When the spaghetti was ready, she cried because she ruined her favorite meal.

The young woman suddenly got it that she kept running after men, selecting the one she thought was “God’s Will” and never waiting for it to happen in God’s time. She shared that she knew what was going on. God was telling her to “Wait just a few more minutes while I get one ready for you.” And she just kept settling for Doritos instead of the best and highest she had coming. We all do this, time after time, running the show and destroying our chance for the highest and best. Every time. I love this story!