Dark Holidays
Is Your Heart Grateful?
Thanksgiving is the beginning of a dark time for most people in recovery. Some may still be using and can’t go home this holiday season. Others may have provoked such anger in their families that they are no longer welcome home for the holidays, even sober. Either way, addicts and recovering addicts alike struggle with guilt and shame, which is more evident over the holidays. And it doesn’t help your recovery if you feel rejected by your immediate family or isolated over the holidays. In God’s eyes, you are forgiven, but you still judge yourself. This prevents you from feeling grateful or showing gratitude to God with more than just empty words. God tells us to “give thanks with a grateful heart.” Have you examined what your heart has to offer? Are you bitter or resentful that your family or friends aren’t treating you the way you believe they should? Don’t spend too much time counting what is owed to you, because you will miss the point of Thanksgiving and the holidays thereafter. Let’s use Thanksgiving to start fresh. Change the way we approach the holidays. First make a gratitude list of five things that you are grateful for in your life. Review your list daily throughout the holidays to help you remember to be grateful. Share it below: What are you grateful for in this season?
