Self-Grace

If the weight of past mistakes is making life joyless—even miserable—today, we should consider that we cannot heal the addict we were by using the recovery tools we discovered only last week. Recovery takes time and honesty (Step One). It is easy to look back with guilt and shame, armed with today's knowledge, and dismiss the truth that we were operating in survival mode, not malice.

We probably broke generational patterns we didn't even recognize while suffering inside. We did the best we could with the experience and faith we possessed at that time. The comfort we chased was sadly misplaced, yet we now know that those very lessons brought us to this place. We cannot heal the woman we were by punishing the wiser woman we are today. This place is our healing domain. We are building it, we love it, we treasure it, and we can share it.

If we have learned anything on this path, it is to give grace to other women. Are we still refusing to give that same grace to the woman we have become?