Wings of Love and Support

By Tombo

No one can go back and make a brand-new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending.

-Loris Ann Greco

Smokers who quit cannot undo all the damage done to their lungs. But they can reduce the problems in the future. Knowing there will be future benefits from not smoking should inspire them to quit the habit. The future can be changed, but the past has to be accepted. When the habit is kicked, so should guilt and regret for past actions be kicked from our memory. Concentration should be on the future and not what has happened in the past.

Our Higher Power and the group allow do-overs just like kids do in a game. The people in the meeting will love and support the new us with open arms. Their strength and guidance is available many hours a day. Neither night nor day, summer nor winter, nor past practices will be obstacles from receiving help from our fellow recovering addicts. They have an inexhaustible supply of love ready to be given as needed. All we need to do is ask.

Once we ask for help, change can occur. That change will affect the outcome of our life. Our past will no longer be relevant to our future. Only our present effort will be counted.

Start today by forgetting the past. Focus on your recovery and change your future. Seek help and active support to make that vital change. Pray, read the Combo Book and other uplifting materials, seek assistance from friends, and begin the task of changing your old habits. Replace those old negative habits with fresh new vibrant and positive habits. It's never too late!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098090319

Tombo

Tombo is an elementary school teacher. He is an active member of his church and volunteers for his local St. Vincent de Paul Society. He currently resides in Arizona, where he enjoys sports and regularly participates in retreat activities with other members of his church.

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Beatitudes for Our Friends

(Anonymous)

Blessed are you who take the time to listen to my story.

Blessed are you who understand how hard it is for me to ask for help.

Blessed are you who don’t try to take over my life, no matter how badly you think that I am managing it.

Blessed are you who invite and empower me to help in solving my problem.

Blessed are you who stand beside me and encourage me as I enter new and untried ventures.

Blessed are you who never remind me that I have failed or that I have had to ask for help before.

Blessed are you who show me respect and accept me as I am, and not as you wish that I were.

Becoming God’s Masterpiece

(Adapted from Someone on the Internet)

God has a plan for your life.

God’s good plan is:

An adventure. His plan will end in good for you. This truth can offer security and hope despite the ups and downs of life. Let your life be your personal adventure with God.

A process. We tend to like end results more than the process that gets us there. Sometimes in your life you have to experience the blows before you can experience the blessings.

An opportunity. Try to profit from every experience that comes your way, the difficult and painful times as well as those times when life is going smoothly.

A fact. His plan is unshakable truth, which can give you a sense of security when life seems anything but secure. God is still in charge, and nothing can interfere with his plans. From our perspective, a situation may look hopeless, but from God’s vantage point, the situation is part of the process that is making you more loving and moving you closer to the fulfillment of the good plan God has for you.

Purging and pruning. Before God’s plan can come to full fruition in your life, he must eliminate all that is old, dead, and useless in your character. The process can be painful but gives an opportunity to love God by trusting that he is at work in your life to bring about the beauty that he has promised. He will aid you in overcoming your addiction as it is happening, and once completed, you will feel serenity and peace, which can only come from your Higher Power.

Called to a Lifestyle of Risk-Taking

(2012)

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To love is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risk must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing does nothing and has nothing.

You may avoid suffering and sorrow, but you simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.

Chained by your certitudes, you are a slave; you have forfeited freedom.

Only a person who risks is free! (Author Unknown)

With the help of the Combo Book, our meetings, family, friends, and prayer, we can learn to grow and change. We can risk in order to develop relationships that will provide us a better life. Risk taking is an individual and group effort in GA. The more we trust and get support from our GA members, the easier it will be for us to risk and be set free.

Called to Be

(2012)

God calls us to be ourselves. We are called to value, celebrate, and enjoy the gifts and talents we have been given.

God calls us to grow into ourselves. With his help and the help of the fellowship, we are called to grow, develop, and change—to become what he knows we can be.

God calls us to grow out of ourselves. We are created to share our gifts and talents with others. We are to help others in need and to spread the news of his love for us.

God gives us GA. GA can help us grow, change. Once we learn from others and adopt those qualities, we can share those qualities with our fellow GA members. We need to accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can, and with the help of GA and our friends, know the difference.

Change

Today, let us ask God to help us overcome whatever is keeping us from hearing God’s call and whatever is holding us back from responding to God’s invitation to change and grow. We must never let our lives become so comfortable that we fail to take up God’s invitation to new adventures.

—Charlotte A. Rancilo

We see flowers grow. We observe children changing before our very eyes. We feel the changes of the seasons. All of these events remind us that we are to change. We are not meant to be the same person tomorrow as we are today. God calls us to develop and evolve.

But how? When? Where? How much? How fast? If only we knew the answer to all these questions it would be so easy to make the commitment to change. We need to have faith that God will not leave us to accomplish these changes alone. He will help and guide us. But we need to actively seek that help and, most importantly, be ready to listen when God instructs us.

The first step is prayer. Ask God for help. Implore him to help you to be ready to listen. Try to put yourself out of the way to let God in. Allow God to be in control.

The second step is simply to trust. God will encourage you in his time and his way. We are too quick to be in charge. Letting God do his work is not easy for us. You need to believe God will provide the information, the inspiration, and the institutions you need to develop into the person you are meant to be.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. (Psalm 32:8)

For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. (Psalm 48:14)

Character Traits

Our Higher Power has been very generous to us bestowing on us many qualities. We are called to share those qualities with others. We are also called to develop and enhance those talents. Our Higher Power wants us to be wonderful, loving people. So look at your talents, be thankful for them, and then see how you can improve upon them. Then examine your neighbors and friends and look for similar traits in them. Share your talents and see which traits your friends have which you would like to adopt as your own.

Character Traits (Nouns and Adjectives)

able, ambitious, accurate, agile, accepting, adaptable, adventurous, agreeable, alert, angelic, appealing, artistic, athletic, attentive, aware, balanced, basic, beaming, beautiful, believable, believing, benevolent, bouncy, brave, brilliant, bright, busy, calm, clever, cheerful, clean, confident, creative, considerate, cooperative, caring, cool, courageous, curious, dependable, dedicated, determined, devoted, devout, diligent, discrete, dutiful, energetic, entertaining, enthusiastic, economical, effervescent, friendly, faithful, fair, forgiving, fast, funny, gentle, generous, grateful, gracious, helpful, honest, humorous, humble, heroic (hero), interesting, intelligent, informative, instructive, intriguing, joyous, joking, jolly, jogger, jumper, kind, keen, knowledgeable, loyal, loving, leader, lively, loving, madcap, magnetic, melodious, merciful, moral, nice neat, neighborly, noble, organized, original, obliging, observant, patient, peaceful, punctual, persistent, polite, popular, responsible, respectful, risk-taker, reasonable, real, relaxed, resolute, resilient, righteous, sensitive, serious, strong, stout, sporty, smart, sweet, spunky, talented, thoughtful, truthful, trusting, understanding, unusual, unique, valuable, vibrant, versatile, warm, watchful, weaver, willing, whistler, willing, worshiper, young, zestful.

Children’s Spiritual Alphabet from God

Always love me.

Be my child.

Come to me.

Delight in my presence.

Expect to be happy.

Find me everywhere.

Give something away to others.

Help someone