Monday, June 15, 2009

Easier Said than ...

It occurs to me that... if I were not so aware of my limitations (and they are many) and if I had nothing to work on,.... I'd be a royal bitch! Uppity and convinced that if YOU would do things my way or view the world as I do... YOU would be on the right path. Collective cyber LOL

See, today I recognize that as insane and at the very least without compassion. The part that I still struggle with is praying for others who would harm me or the ones I love.
But Jesus was not vague when He instructed us to, "Pray for our enemies"( and neither was my Sponsor!!) "Oh, sounds like you need to add someone to your prayer list." ARGH!!! I could not even "HEAR" that for the first 5 yrs of my Recovery but when I got desperate enough, I took Jesus and my Sponsors instruction.... and the darnedest thing happened, little by little, I loathed 'em less and less, till one day it was just NO BIG DEAL. I still did not want to have" hug fests" with these folks but they no longer occcupied my heart and mind with the toxicity which flowed over different areas of my life. As long as I look at my part and pray for their "happiness, health and love" that I wish for my loved ones, peace is restored.

Again the Paradoxes of "doing unto others"... it just sets us free. So if anyone or anything is binding your joy, pray for them--- do not worry about meaning it, just do it. It is Spirituality at its simplest and most diffficult .... but do it anyway. It really works, if you work it. Sound familiar? ;--)

4 comments:

  1. Actually, learning to pray for your enemies is the first break through step on the spiritual path.

    One of my mentors, whose father beat his entire family to bloody pulps had to learn this the hard way.

    Her mentor would meet with her and ask only one question: "have you learned to love and forgive your father." She would leave in tears. Finally she asked if it was OK if she just went through the motions, said the prayers and admitted to God she meant none of it. Her mentor told her that would be fine because one day she would come to understand that with out her conscious volition she would find her self saying the prayers and meaning them. And so it came to pass and the whole spiritual world opened up for her.

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  2. It is a very hard thing to do ... but worth the struggle as you suggest, the Spiritual benefits are worth it!

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  3. What I didn't say was that it took over three years of daily telling God she didn't mean any of it before it finally dawned on her she did.

    Sometimes some lessons are hard hard hard to learn. Padre Pio once said the greatest attribute of a committed Catholic was patience--for themselves and for others.

    I think all people share at least that much in common.


    **Interesting that the Captcha word was prossess. That's what we all have to do--process.

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  4. Colleen, I LOVE Padre Pio!! Thank you for mentioning him... He is one of my favorite mystics .... (and he smoked!!) haha.

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