In the process of growing to spiritual maturity, we all go through many adolescent stages. —Miki L. Bowen—
Progress, not perfection, is our goal in this recovery program. And many days we’ll be haunted by the feeling that we’ve regressed. We will display old behavior. We will feel unable to change, to go on, to make gains once again. But these periods will pass, and soon progress will be evident again.
We must be wary of our need for perfection. It’s this need that makes normal progress seem not good enough. And yet, that’s all we’re capable of–and all we’ll ever need to be capable of. The program, its Steps and the promises offered, provide the tools we have lacked, yet need to use in order to accept ourselves wholly and imperfectly.
Daily attention to our spiritual side will foster the spiritual and emotional health we long for. Prayer and meditation, combined with honest inventory-taking, can show us the personal progress needed, the personal progress made. However, we will falter on occasion. We will neglect our program some days. But it won’t ever be beyond our reach. And each day is a new beginning.
Today is before me, and I can make progress. I will begin with a quiet prayer and a moment of meditation.