“Right Face! Right Face! Right Face!” – The Tools

In a high school biology class we all learned a little bit about genetics. I’m sure you remember the day you were asked to go home and check the ear lobes of everyone in your family to see whose were attached and whose were not. I remember spending the late afternoon of a school day collecting and recording family genetic data. We all waited anxiously for my dad to come home from work so the family genetic picture could be complete, at least as far as eye color, ear lobes, and rolled tongues were concerned. My first lessons in genetics occurred the summer before my sophomore year, but my understanding of what I’d inherited from my parents did not end with Biology class.

Football season was upon us and I decided to try out for the drill team. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of courage it required for this young girl, with absolutely no confidence in her physical abilities, to show up and learn the audition routine. “Anchors Away My Boys” – I’ll never forget that music. I practiced night and day and wonder of wonders I made the team. This was the kind of team that did a lot of marching and a little dancing. This was just the right kind of team for me. Surely I could march!

That brings me to a genetic trait I had never considered. The first day of practice we marched around the football field for hours after school. It didn’t take very much time to recognize that I was in a lot of trouble. Who could have guessed the grief that four little words could impose on the life of a teenage girl. The words were, “Left Face” and “Right Face.” For some strange reason when the team captain shouted, “left” or “right” it did not come automatically to me to turn, along with all the other girls, according to instructions. After one disastrous day of marching I went home and told my parents that dancing was going to be the least of my worries. The amount of time it took my brain to relay to my marching feet to turn right or left on demand was unacceptable for a precision drill team.

To my great astonishment my dad understood exactly what I was talking about. He told me of his experience marching in the army. “Same Thing!” he admitted. “Genetics!” So that was my problem! The great thing was that my dad had hit upon something that helped him during his army days. “When you are marching just cross your fingers on your right hand. It’s a great little reminder.” Well, it worked like a charm. Now I could do “Left Face” “Right Face” on demand. I don’t know if it was because the distance between my head and my fingers was shorter than the distance between head and my feet or what, but with my fingers crossed on my right hand I never again missed a turn on the football field or the basketball court. All it took was a simple reminder between my brain and my feet.

These memories came back to me the other day as I was thinking about another set of reminders I try to use every day. The struggle to choose between right and left is pretty insignificant when compared with the struggle to choose between right and wrong. I haven’t tried crossing the fingers on my right hand to remind me to choose the right, but I have learned that what helps me most is dedicated prayer, dedicated scripture study, dedicated attendance at meetings, and dedicated service etc., with emphasis on the word “dedicated.” I dedicate my private religious activities to my need for Heavenly Help. These things are no longer things I do so I can check them off or so God will like me. They are invitations to the Lord to help me – to remind me – to allow His Spirit to intervene between His command and my inconsistent ability to follow directions.

With dedicated prayer and study, and a prayerfully made plan for attending meetings and serving others, I’m figuratively crossing my fingers on my right hand. Now my march through this day is more likely to be in line with my Captains call. “Right Face, Right Face, Right Face!”

By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 7, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

The Yellow Bedroom

In my home there is a room that in hindsight seems to have had a dedicated purpose. This room is affectionately known as the Yellow Bedroom. When I moved into this home in 1975 I had just had my first child, a little girl, and this small room with pale yellow walls became the nursery. Over the next thirteen years four more babies were introduced to our home and given a place in the Yellow Bedroom.

As the children grew older they began to occupy others rooms of the house and the mission of the little yellow room expanded. Over the next many years it became a place of safety and nurture for step children, my Grandma who had broken her hip, my mother as she recovered from quadruple bypass surgery on her heart, friends of my children who were here to attend school, and a place of recovery from addiction for two foster daughters and one Great Dane who came a puppy and evolved into a small live-in pony. No matter who occupied the Yellow Bedroom they become fully a part of our family.

There is something very sacred to me about inviting someone to be a part of my home and family. This experience has come to me through the blessing of childbirth and also as God has simply delivered others to my home for a time, and time after time it has seemed just right to invite them to be a part of us.

One day while I was reading the scriptures I ran across an ancient term for this experience. In the Book of Mormon we are told of a man named Zoram who leaves Jerusalem and travels to the Land of Promise with the family of Lehi. Zoram is given the great opportunity to move out of a city that is going to soon be destroyed and “have place” with Lehi’s family. The stipulations are that he must remain with the family and be true to his oath – keep his promises. (see 1 Nephi 4:34)

As I read about Zoram I was struck with the truth that the Lord’s offer to each of us is very similar. He has extended the opportunity to you and me individually to “have place” with Him. He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3) To have place with someone is “to occupy the same space or location, to occupy the same position, class, capacity, character, situation, state, station, and to have the same job or work.”

Over the years I have come to terms with the fact that I cannot “give place” in the Yellow Bedroom to everyone my heart goes out to. Today the sweet little room is my place for prayer and study and writing. It comforts me to know that our Lord has “many mansions,” and that there is no shortage of room, no lack of “place.” As with Zoram, the only stipulation is that we remain committed to The Family and continue to grow in our ability to keep our promises.

The result of doing the will of the Lord, of keeping His commandments, of living true to my covenants is to “have place” with Him. That’s no small reward. It is to occupy the location, be gifted with capacity, and share in the work of God.

By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, May 14, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

Practice Makes Progress – Principles For a Lifetime

I can’t remember when I took my first piano lesson, but as far back as I can remember, practicing the piano daily was a part of my routine. In my elementary school years my teacher was the traveling variety. She came highly recommended, gray haired, thick-rimmed glasses, and very old. Once a week I would sit at the piano with her and try to demonstrate that I had made some kind of progress in the six days of rehearsal between this lesson and the last. She was what you might call a “hands on” teacher, always grabbing at my fingers, stretching them this way and that, correcting my fingering, not with a word or two, but with what I thought was brute force. My mother sat on the couch at my back. Sometimes I would put my hands behind my back and rub and sooth my poor fingers just to show my mother that I was not a happy musician. Eventually, like most kids, I won out and the lessons stopped. I remember crying though. It’s funny how we know we are going to miss something, even when we have fought so hard and finally won.

In high school I decided to give the piano another try. I had a wonderful teacher. Each week my mother would take me to her home where I would take a lesson in her lovely studio on a shiny, black, grand piano. She taught me how to practice and she taught me to love the piano. My mother was a stickler for daily practice. I got up before it was light and practiced before early morning Seminary. During this time I made great progress. My practice was consistent and I experienced the joy of working until I really felt that a piece of music was not perfect, but was “coming right along.” One of the pieces I worked hard on was by Bach. It was one in a series of Two Part Inventions. It was fast and challenging.

I haven’t spent much consistent time at the piano for many years. I still have my copy of the Bach piece and one day, just for fun, I gave it a whirl. Let’s just say it was only slightly better than if I had never ever laid eyes on it. Not long after, I was preparing to teach the Gospel Doctrine Lesson. The subject was decidedly important but one that would be very familiar to my students. I wondered as I sat preparing the lesson, “Why do we have to go over the same things time and time again?” Then my Two Part Invention by Bach came to mind.

That Sunday I opened the class by announcing I had something very exciting I wanted to share with my ward family, a little introductory musical number. I told them that it was a piano piece from my youth and that I remembered working and working on it hour upon hour for months.

Well, of course, it was terrible! I pretended utter embarrassment, came away from the piano and back to my teaching position. I explained that the constant review and practice of Gospel principles is critical to our progress. What we once knew has to be constantly renewed. Without repeated study and self-examination we not only quit making spiritual progress, we actually regress!

Alma puts it this way, “And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26)

According to the prophets, in order to maintain and deepen the progress we have made toward Eternal Life as we have applied the principles of the Gospel, we have to continue our devoted application of the principles that have blessed us thus far.

The same truth that holds true with Gospel principles in general also holds true to the application of the 12 Steps. Without continued practice my answer to Alma’s question will have to be, “No, I cannot feel so now.” I’ve had people ask me, “Nannette, Do you have to live this way the rest of your life? When can you say you’ve “recovered? When do you graduate?” My answer is that I strive to live every day in recovery, in a recovered and growing relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no graduation, at least not in this life.

If I stop practicing these principles, my progress will eventually be as rusty as my resent Sunday school recital. Most of us are familiar with the old saying “Practice Makes Perfect.” I have to admit that as of yet my practice has never made anything perfect. I vote we change the saying to “Practice Makes Progress.”

By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, April 3, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

“How Is It That You Have Forgotten?” – Step 11 Personal Revelation

Please forgive me for returning to a learning ground I have visited in the past, but a soccer field full of five year olds is such a rich spot of ground for being taught at all levels. Carson seems to have a little more energy for the game this season. In last weeks game he actually made two goals – He scored one for his team and one for the opposing team.” When his mom asked him what happened he answered back, “I Forgot!”

I can relate to your experience Carson. I’ve never played a game of soccer, but I have scored for the other team, for “the enemy” in the game of life. After I come to my senses I often question myself. “What were you thinking Nannette? What happened?” My answer is almost always, “I forgot.”

The ability to remember must be a very important part of our progress. The word “remember” is used 275 times in scripture, not by accident. Being forgetful seems to be one of the greatest handicaps among the children of Heavenly Father.

My tendency is to forget all kinds of important things: Spiritual confirmations I have felt when doing good; The pain I have felt as I have made a poor choices; Things I’ve committed to do; Reasons I’ve made commitments in the first place; Promises I’ve made to God and to others; Gifts I’ve received; Miracles I’ve witnessed; Sacrifices that have been made for me. I forget that people mean well, that people are forgiving. I forget that it’s about progress and not about perfection. I forget that the Atonement is for me, today. I forget that I can repent and start clean. I forget that God promises to forget. I forget that God loves me no matter what.

A question comes to my mind. It’s a question that Nephi asks his brothers after a particularly rough day. He say, “How is it that you have forgotten?” (1 Nephi 7:10). One day I was reading these words and it struck me that this is a good question to ask myself. So often I ask myself in disgust, “Why did you forget?” This question is usually not very helpful. It leads me to either self-loathing, as I beat myself up for being stupid, or it leads me to be self justifying, as I look for someone else to blame for my memory lapse.

Nephi doesn’t ask “why?” He asks, “How is it that you have forgotten?” “How” means “in what condition?” or “for what reason?” The answer calls me to inventory what I did or did not do that diminished my personal ability to remember the things that are important to my progress. How was it that I came to be in such a state of forgetfulness that I ran a play and score for the Devil.

I usually don’t have to look very far. In fact if I ask the Lord He will tell me. He’ll remind me that I have neglected to do those things that enable Him to bless me with a magnificent memory. Remembering is actually a gift of revelation. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ can and will help us recall, deep inside of our hearts, powerful understandings, feelings, and experiences that seem to be easily forgotten or set aside without His help. Early morning prayer and study from the scriptures, and a heart full of prayer throughout the day are not duties. They are invitations, the act of giving the Lord permission to bring images or ideas to our minds, from the past, that will keep our heads in the game, keep our legs running in the right direction, and keep our feet from the temptation to kick to ball across enemy lines.

The idea is to live this day so I do not score against myself, and when I do (because I inevitable will), I will learn from the experience by asking the right question. “Nannette, how is it that you have forgotten?” Better yet, “Lord, how is it that I have forgotten?” And then do those things that invite Him to fix my “rememberer!”

By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

“What Am I Hungry For?”

The following is an exercise that only requires your journal, a pen, your scriptures and a little bit of time. I had my Young Women ponder and write about these questions during a quiet hour at camp one year. I wanted the girls and their leaders to feel as though we were sitting on the couch in my family room having a conversation. My hope is that the simplicity of this interchange might be helpful.

Every so often I ask a person how they’re doing and they tell me they feel empty inside. I’m pretty sure they’re not saying they skipped breakfast or it’s time for dinner. So what are they talking about?”

This is a Primary level question, but it’s important. Our souls are made up of two parts. See Doctrine and Covenants 88:15. What are the two parts of our souls?

Both parts need to be feed or filled. I’ve discovered that the empty feeling I sometimes have inside when I feel like screaming or crying or when I feel just plain nothing is my spiritual tummy saying, “Please feed me!” Do you ever feel the discomfort of being spiritually hungry or empty inside?

How does it feel and what do you usually do about this feeling?

Sometimes we feel spiritually empty and don’t recognize it for what it is, and don’t know what to do about it. Often we try to fill ourselves with things or activities that feel good. The trouble is that the good feeling we get doesn’t last. It’s very temporary. In today’s world, often what people use to try and make them feel better is very destructive. Try writing down some of the things other people do or use to make them feel better.

Some of the common things people do are actually good things done in excess like watching TV, playing computer games, texting, surfing the web, over eating, excess shopping, exercise, and work. Others find temporary pleasure in tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea, and drugs (prescription and illegal), and behaviors that become compulsive and addictive such as gambling, viewing pornography, inappropriate sexual behavior, anger, lying, violence, and disorders associated with eating.

Can you identify any substance or behavior (serious or seeming innocent) you use to make yourself feel better that may be causing problems in your life?

How is your behavior affecting your life?

What do you think your spirit likes to feast on?

Let’s see what it says in the scriptures. Look up 2 Nephi 32:3. What is your spirit hungry for?

Look up 2 Nephi 9:51. What are the qualities of spiritual food?

Our spirits love to feast on the words of Christ. Where do we find the His word to us?

So if I don’t study or feast on the word of God I’ll be spiritually hungry or empty and nothing else is really going to satisfy my hunger.

In 1 Nephi 11 we read about the dream of the Prophet Lehi. In that dream we are taught that there is a special blessing awaiting those people who continually hold fast to or feast on the word of God. They are led to a special tree called the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life is a symbol. Look up 1 Nephi 11:22. What is it a symbol of?

In Jacob 3:2 we are taught that our Spirits are hungry for something else. What?

So if I feast on the word of God I will be led to the love of God

Lehi’s Tree of Life has fruit on it. Look up 1 Nephi 8:11-12.

What does Lehi say about the fruit? How did it make him feel when he ate it? How did it taste?

When you think of the love of God what picture comes to your mind?

The picture that comes to my mind is the picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross atoning for my sins. This was the greatest sign of the love of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father for us.

What is the fruit of this tree?

One of the meanings of the word “fruit” is “result” The fruit or the result of Jesus’ loving atonement is His ability to prepare us in every way to return to our Heavenly Father. His ability to give us direction through the Holy Ghost and the power to do what is right are results or fruits of His Atonement. The people in Lehi’s Dream who are eating the fruit of the Tree of Life are partaking of the blessings that come to us because of the Atonement.

So how can you and I partake of the Atonement today and fill our spiritual selves?

If I study or feast on the word of God I will be led to and be able to feast from the “Love of God Tree” and partake of all the fruits or blessings that result from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Not only will I be spiritually full, I will receive all that my Savior desired to bless me with.

When the Bishop asks us if we are praying, reading our scriptures, writing our thoughts and impressions in our journals, and attending our meetings he’s not being nosey or judgmental. He is really trying to find out if we are full or if we’re starving spiritually. It’s kind of like having a doctor ask us if we are getting enough sleep, exercise, and good nutritious food.

So how is your spiritual tummy today? Are you full or are you running on empty?

If you are hungry what can you do about it?

The commandment to pray and read and write and attend our meetings is an invitation by God to you and I to feast upon His word. Feasting upon His word will lead us to the feast upon the love and the loving gifts He can give you because of His Atonement. This is the feast of all feasts and the kitchen is always open.

By Nannette W.
Posted Monday February 16, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

Closing the Gap: The Distance Between Getting Organized and Establishing a House Of God – The Tools of Recovery

“I’ll be OK. I just need to get organized!” These are words I’ve heard and words I’ve said countless times. I have spent a lifetime trying to get my time and my stuff in order. I felt it was the key to everything. You can imagine my joy when I ran into the Lord’s command to “Organize yourselves” in Doctrine and Covenants.

The verse reads: “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:8)

These words validated what I felt to be my prime directive. In a panic toward perfection I read the words “organize yourselves” and I was off to the races. It takes vigilance to get organized and stay organized. I’ve certainly worked hard at it. So many of us have.

My understanding was that order must be the “first order of the day” and that when I accomplished that happy state then I could move on to establishing “house of prayer…fasting…faith…learning…glory…order…God.” But I couldn’t seem to get off first base.

After taking each of the 12 Steps, I came to this verse again with new eyes. Even though it had been displayed in stitchery and calligraphy in my home I don’t think I’d never read it properly.

What I came to realize was that in my excitement to create order in my world I had read the mandate, “Organize yourselves” and not understood that what followed was Jesus’ instructions on how this task might best be accomplished.

Organizing ourselves seems to be the divine outcome as we focus on establishing:
1. “house of prayer,” by more continually directing of our thoughts to the Lord
2. “a house of fasting,” by practicing continued abstinence
3. “a house of faith,” by taking action based on our trust in God
4. “a house of learning,” by seeking and recognizing daily personal revelation
5. “a house of glory,” by fostering gratitude and more consistently standing as a witness of Him
6. “a house of order,” by being painstaking in our obedience to His direction
7. “a house of God.” This is the precious result of organizing ourselves in this manner.

These are the tools that close the gap between our need to be organized and our great desire to establishing a House of God. One of the definitions of “organize” is “to assemble and make ready for use or action.” The goal is to prepare a dwelling place and a work place for the Lord. This verse is about something much bigger than having a place for everything and everything in its place. It’s the answer for those of us who are always organizing and never realizing the divine outcome – a house of God!

By Nannette W.
Posted Friday February 6, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W.
All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

“Mommy, I Just Wanted To Get A Violin, Ya Know, Just Have One!”

Helping children with music lessons is definitely upper division training for parents. I can’t even imagine how many hours I’ve spent tutoring at the piano, encouraging from the kitchen sink, and sitting through lessons. My biggest adventure into the unknown came when my youngest daughter asked if she could please play the violin. Having no idea what that involved but being open to her young desire to go where no musician in our family had ever dared go, I went to the local music store and brought home a very tiny violin, rent to own. I hired a teacher and for over a year my little girl and I worked together Suzuki style.

I will spare you all the details, mostly because I don’t remember them. What I do remember is that much of the time it was not a very happy experience. Let’s just say that there was great resistance at the requirement to practice. During one such trying crying session my five-year-old little musician and I had the following conversation.

“Am I finished Mom?”
“Just one more thing to practice honey.”
“But I don’t want to practice. I just wanted to get a violin mommy, ya know, just have one!”

I recorded her words in my journal in 1987 because they made me laugh, but also because I can relate, though not in regard to the violin. There was a moment in my past when my Father promised me the opportunity to learn to work with an instrument of His creation and I “shouted for joy” at the prospect. Even so, there are days when I could have the following conversation with Him:

“Am I finished Heavenly Father? Have I learned enough today?”
“Just one more lesson honey.”
“But I don’t want to practice. I just wanted to get a body Heavenly Father, ya know, just have one!”

Our daily rehearsal is carried out between body and spirit. Our spirit is the living player and our otherwise lifeless body the magnificent instrument. The body, although excellent and intricate, having been wonderfully made by The Master Craftsman, is as lifeless as a fine violin sitting in its case. But when brought together with the living spirit, as violin to violinist, there is tremendous promise. Together our body and spirit have magnificent potential.

May we continue our daily practice! May we never give up! May we internalize the truth that at one time we literally stood in the presence of God and cheered at the prospect, not only of having a body, but working with it, practicing, training, taking lesson after lesson, rehearsing with this Godly gift until we reach our full potential, until we become like Him!

By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W.
All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

“I’m Going To Count To Three and Then…” – Step 12 Having Had A Spiritual Awakening

The parenting skill that requires moms and dads to count to three, to think of a consequence that will get a child’s attention, and then follow through, must be new to my generation of parents. I don’t remember my mom or dad ever counting. I adopted the technique as a seventeen-year-old freshman at BYU when I was enrolled in a class for potential elementary school teachers. As part of my experience I was required to spend a semester as an aid in an actual classroom. For three months I watched as a seasoned teacher, in the face of thirty plus seven-year-olds, lifted his voice above the clamor with these words: “I am going to count to three and if you do not _______ I will _______!!!!! The response was usually striking. I took note.

By the time I finished student teaching my junior year I was a “counting” professional and I was about to bring my first child into the world. For some reason “professional counting” is much more effective than “mother counting.” As my children got older I found myself counting higher and slower (three, ten, nineteen, nineteen and a half). In addition I became less inventive and had less energy. It was difficult to think of just the right consequences. “Natural consequences” were what parenting specialists suggested. And sometimes the punishment I had to enforce felt more like a punishment for me than the child.

One day I was sitting in Relief Society listening to a lesson on how to discipline children when I heard these words come out of the teacher’s mouth. “I occasionally tell my children that by the time I count to three I want them to ______. I don’t know what I would do if I ever got clear to the number three.” That did it! I didn’t know what I would do either and I always got way past the number three. By the time I was raising my fifth child I would say, with the smile of a mother who has grown a little less serious, “I’m going to count and if you don’t ______ something really really bad is going to happen.” This technique delighted my newly acquired son-in-law who couldn’t wait until the day he could count for little ones of his own.

How I relished the times (and I have to say there were many) when my children were obedient because they wanted to be, because they knew it was right, because they loved me, and because they could see the good that comes from being good.

I’m not so different from the little children in my life. I have been propelled to be “good” based on my desire to stay out of trouble with earthly parents and with my Heavenly Father. I know that if it becomes necessary for God to count to three and levy consequences He is willing. What ever it takes! Enos, speaking of his people says, “…And the people were a stiffnecked people…And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things—stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, which would keep them from going down speedily to destruction…”

Perhaps the greatest miracle of applying the 12 Steps and “recovering” our relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son is the change in our own motivation to do the thing they’ve asked us to do. Today I use the tools we have been given (prayer, scripture study, meetings etc), not to stay out of trouble with God, but to come unto Christ because I love Him and I need His help. As I apply each of the steps to my daily life with His divine assistance I feel His love for me. Today I want my obedience to be motivated by love and humility not “I’m counting to three and then…”

By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W.
All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

The Tools of the Trade

Morning prayer, a little writing in my journal, read and liken a few verses out of the Book of Mormon to myself, a few minutes in some recovery literature along with some writing, plan my food for the day, and a call to my sponsor – that’s how most of my mornings begin. Last week after coming home from the 12:00 pm support meeting I stood at the kitchen sink putting my lunch together and making three outreach calls to other people working to apply the 12 Steps to their individual struggle.

As I hung up the phone and sat down to the lunch I’d committed to my sponsor in the morning I thought about all the tools of recovery I had used before lunch, and a little saying marched through my mind that made me smile: “These are the tools of the trade, Nannette.” The trade? That’s absolutely right! In recovery we trade our relationship with a substance or a behavior for a relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The tools of recovery or “the dailies” as they are affectionately call are a wonderful gift. They are the tools of the best trade I’ve ever made!

By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, January 19, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W.
All rights reserved. Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.

Let’s Buckle Up and Enjoy the Ride! – Step 3

Here’s a paradox. We often become involved in destructive behavior in the name of personal freedom. Then to our dismay, this sign of our independence actually leads to bondage.

It is also a paradox that the only way to become truly free is to become truly submissive. Those who have practiced this manner of living have discovered the following reality – “The more we become willing to depend upon a Higher Power, the more independent we actually are. Therefore dependence [as we practice it in applying the 12 Steps to our lives] is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit” (Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Page 36).

I was thinking about these curious truths the other day when a picture came to my mind. It was the picture of my children strapping all their children into car seats every Sunday night after our big family dinner. Most of the time the kids are very cooperative but every once in awhile one of them goes through a phase that is very frustrating. I’ve seen the babies arch their backs, kick and scream, and resist being secured in the car seat with all the strength they can muster. I watch as the parents patiently work with their out-of- control little one, finally getting them strapped into the seat and the seat strapped into the car. It’s exhausting!

Sometimes I’m like a fit throwing, car seat resistant child in relation to God. The Lord promises me that if I will submit to Him I will be free from every type of bondage. Then He will be free to take me and transport me back to the arms of my Heavenly Father. I want so badly for the Lord to orchestrate my life for good. I want Him to help me go and do all that He would have me do. I sing “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go Dear Lord” with gusto. But sometimes I refuse to get in the car seat. I’m finding that if I’m not buckled up we’re not going anywhere.

For me the car seat represents yielding to the loving parameters the Lord sets for me. I do this by submitting to those things that secure my safety – like daily prayer and scripture, abstaining from compulsive addictive behavior, attending my meetings, attending the temple, working through the 12 Steps and supporting others in the process etc. Today I feel like I am strapped in pretty tight and I testify that I have never felt more free! When I start to resist I say to myself, “Nannette, relax and allow Him to make you secure. Allow Jesus Christ to be the driver, the director. Allow Him to be the vehicle and proceed by His power. That’s real freedom!”

Divine Security, Direction and Power! It’s this combination that allows the Lord the take us any place we need to go. So Let’s Buckle Up and Enjoy the Ride!

By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W.
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