Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Proverbs 4:23

I discounted the impact that my mind and heart would have on my life’s trajectory beginning around high school.

Having grown up in the church, with good friends and in a solid family my desire to rebel kicked into gear and proved to be the beginnings of my addiction before I even started using.

It began in my mind, in my words, in my attitude.

And the problem of the addict continues to center in the mind.

As my filter for decency and my guard against anything unwholesome was let down, the influences of the world gladly slipped in.

And the progression from there is as common a story as any.

Try a cuss word. End up abusing profanity.

Try drinking. End up abusing alcohol.

Try unhealthy friends. End up losing the good ones.

The slip is slow. It usually is at first.

And as I recovered, the inverse was fully true.

As we surround ourselves with sober minded, healthy men and women, we nurture right relationships.

As we live one day at a time without turning to our addiction, we learn to replace it with God, with prayer, with fellowship, with honesty.

As we lean forward into the difficult path of sobriety, we saturate ourselves in his word, his hope, his instruction.

Thank God for instruction! Often it is cut and dry. Guard your heart. Think twice if you have to justify something to yourself.

God, grant me wisdom and give me strength to guard my heart, my mind, my steps through this day.