CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Sexual Purity Posts

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Recovery as Worship

By KW

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1 (NIV) 

For so long, recovery and sexual purity (for me) was all about what not to do with my body. Don’t lust with my eyes. Don’t watch pornography. Don’t feel sexual feelings. It makes sense why I thought that, after all, sexual addiction is an act of worship of sex with my body — just not worship of God but of pleasure; I can’t worship God and sex at the same time. But Romans 12:1 seems to be instructing me on what to do with my body when it comes to worship. It’s showing me how in the same way I used my body to worship pleasure, I can use my body to worship God — with my words, meeting attendance, physical exercise, reading the Bible, journaling, acts of service, and yes, even my sexual sobriety. When I choose to not take a second glance, that recovery moment becomes my sacrifice to God. When I choose to resist the urge to watch porn and reach out for help, that recovery moment becomes my fragrant offering. When I choose not to shame myself for being created as a sexual being, but rather give thanks to God for redeeming my sexuality, that recovery moment becomes an act of worship. 

Prayer: Today, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will offer every part of myself to you, O Father, as an offering of gratitude, and I thank you that when I surrender my body to you, my recovery, more than a burdensome checklist, becomes an act of worship. 

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Using Today’s Tools

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Using today’s tools

Are we becoming stuck in the “if onlys”? “If only I had more money.” “If only I were more attractive.” “If only my parents hadn’t cramped my style.” The “if onlys” will get us nowhere. We would do better to think about what we have to work with today.

Do we remember that we are fortunate just to be alive? Are we grateful that, one day at a time, we are clean and sober? Do we keep in mind that we have at our disposal the Twelve Step program and all its tools? When we dwell in the “if onlys,” we get stuck in yesterday. But what we have to work with today are “today’s tools,” and if we use them well, we’ll have no need for the “if onlys.”

Am I using the tools I have today?

Higher Power, help me to recognize today’s tools and to become willing to use them.

The tools I will use today are …

Hazelden Foundation

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Happy Birthday Castimonia!

It was 13 years ago today that we held our first meeting on a Saturday morning in Katy, TX. Today, we have meetings in multiple locations in multiple states.

We are grateful to all of those that made this possible.

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Do You Feel Lucky?

Originally posted at: http://theresstillhope.org

“You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
      – Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry (1971) 

I’ve learned one overarching lesson from my years of recovery, study, and working with men in addiction.

Lucky is not a plan.

Let me explain. Too often, in our quest for recovery, we just hope to get lucky. We hope things will just go our way – with our marriage, kids, job, health, and finances. “If everything goes right,” we reason, “we can make it in recovery.”

Don’t hate me for saying this, but I really believe it’s true. Your recovery is on you, so own it!

If it takes a loving wife, disciplined kids, an adoring boss, and the circumstances always going your way, in order to stay in recovery, I would humbly suggest you were not really in recovery in the first place. 

Recovery Step: Recovery is not the act of staying sober because everything is going your way. Recovery is the act of staying sober when nothing is going your way. Recovery is not about what is going on around you, but in you. And that’s good news, because you don’t get a vote in deciding what’s going on around you anyway.