My child,
I loved you before you were born.
I knit you in your mother’s womb and knew what your first and last words would be.
I knew every difficulty you would face.
I suffered each one with you.
Even the ones you didn’t suffer with me.
I had a plan for your life before you were born.
The plan has not changed, no matter what has happened or what you have done.
You see I already knew all things concerning you before I formed you.
I would never allow any hurt to come into your life that I could not use for eternity.
Will you let Me?
Your truth is incomplete unless you view it against the backdrop of my Truth and Grace.
Your story will forever remain half-finished ...until you let Me do My half with your hurt.
Let Me perfect that which concerns you.
I remain,
Your Faithful Father
GOD
- Author Unknown
With Jesus as the fulcrum
To balance all of life,
I am free to embrace paradox
Which lessens all my strife.
With Jesus as the Center,
The ultimate Amen
I can live life to its fullest
Resting all in Him.
-Roberta
Lord, in my emptiness I come to You.
You have given me so much and
For such a long time,
Why do I feel empty now?
Lord, I trust You in my emptiness.
I exercise the faith that You have given to me,
And I trust that You know my heart.
As I stay with my emptiness,
May it become a blessing,
As I am filled with You instead of me.
-Roberta
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears and listens to and heeds my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he shall eat with me.
Revelation 3:20
Oh Lord, is my house clean?
When You come to the door knocking
Do I have to scramble to clean up
Before I can let You in?
Jesus, how often have I not
Answered the door because
I thought You wouldn’t like what
You saw, and I just couldn’t
Get it clean enough for You.
Lord, help me realize that You
Love me as I am; that when
You come in, You not only clean my
House, You also provide the meal,
And we can sit down to the most
Wonderful intimate supper with You
Yourself as the Honored Guest.
I will open the door with joy
When You knock.
-Roberta
Lord, in this moment I feel empty and vulnerable.
I feel weak and defeated.
Lord, please hold me as I feel the pain of the moment.
For so long I have pushed away
This emptiness, too uncomfortable to stay with it.
Lord, in this moment I allow
Myself to feel the pain. I turn around to face it and to
Experience the full awfulness of it.
And, wonder of all wonders, there You are!
And I know You will always be with me in my pain.
-Roberta
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of weeping they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills the pools with blessings.
-Psalms 84:5, 6
When the floods come on us
and all seems overwhelming;
We wonder where He is
and if He really cares.
Then we discover that the rain
has filled the wells and aquifers,
And we are being blessed in the present
by the overwhelming floods of the past.
-Roberta
They did not earnestly wait for His plans to develop concerning them.
-Psalm 106:13
Oh Lord, in our humanness we get so impatient.
We see You start to work in us and we either rush to finish it on our own or
We demand to know how You will complete the work.
Help us, Lord, to wait for Your plans to develop in us.
Please give us patience and trust in You,
So that even when we don’t see how things could possibly work for good,
We wait on You. Jesus, there are many things in this life that just don’t make sense.
It’s so hard to understand, especially when work in Your Kingdom
Seems to end in defeat. Lord, help us to simply trust You and
Wait for Your plans to develop concerning us.
Amen
Roberta
Lord, Your word says I am Complete in You.
I look at myself, and I see imperfections, large and small.
In each moment Your imputed righteousness
Covers me, and Your love accepts me,
And I am perfect in You.
As an unborn baby is perfect, complete,
At each stage of growth, AND is growing toward maturity,
So I am both BEING and BECOMING.
I live with the growing awareness
Of waiting for the ultimate perfection,
While enjoying the completeness of each moment.
- Roberta K.
Becoming In CAIRing Grace!
Because of God's loving Grace,
Who I am is "becoming"
In His Holy Spirit,
and
My recovery is the process
Of experiencing
The adventure of becoming
Like the Person and Nature of my
Big Brother Jesus.
-Jim H.
I am complete in Him;
By His blood I am covered
And made perfect.
AND, I am a fallible Human Being,
Loved completely by God,
In my humanness.
When I use the faith He gives
And say "yes" to Him,
He, by His Grace, makes me
Perfect, complete.
Even when I go my own way,
When I, in effect, say "no",
His Love and Grace are extended
To me to cover me
and bring me back.
In this wonderful relationship
I can live . . . . Not a perfectionist,
But a fallible human being
Who receives Grace.
-Roberta K.
Freedom is the ability
To do what I want to do,
Even when someone
Demands that I do it.
Freedom is the willingness
To accept
The consequences
Of my choices.
Will I give Freedom to others?
Will I give Freedom to Myself?
Do I really want Freedom?
Am I going to pay the price?
-Jim H.
As I stand at the end of the pool
With my toes over the edge,
Bent down, leaning forward,
Feeling overwhelming pressure!
In my mind I know exactly how my stroke
SHOULD LOOK!
As I strain to match that perfect image,
Demanding that I match it
Before I enter the water.
When will I ever get wet?
What’s wrong with me?
Am I doomed?
Is there no other way
For me to learn how to swim?
-Jim H.
I spent my life hiding who I really was,
Afraid of being rejected by you,
Of not being good enough in your eyes,
I would sell my soul for your acceptance.
The whole time hating myself for being me!
And hating you for my fear of you!
Now I’d like your acceptance,
But I won’t die,
For now, being OK to be me,
Comes from me
Because my Big Brother loves me perfectly,
As I am,
And I can begin to do the same for me and you
Imperfectly!
-Jim H.
I fall on my face in deep gratitude to You
For forgiving me . . . even in my deliberate disobedience.
Your Grace overwhelms me, and I worship You.
Then . . . wonder of all wonders . . . You pick me up,
And hold me to Yourself and call me friend and
Walk with me as my dearest Brother.
-Roberta K.
I am floating high on mattresses of buoyancy.
I am bouncing like I was on a jumping castle.
I'm having fun cause I don't have a care!
I am in heaven So why should I have a care?
I am laughing and giggling with my Lord.
I am playing catch with my sisters and brothers.
Grace is the ball we are all bouncing on.
Grace is what we are giving each other
Catch some,
Miss some.
I fall and it's good.
I have been caught in grace.
I breathe grace,
I eat grace.
I see grace in all the eyes that look at me
.......please do not disturb us."
-Samba
Jesus, You are the True Vine,
Full of Life in Yourself.
I, the branch, can only rest in You . . . . abiding
Gradually I grow, inch by inch,
leaf by leaf . . . . abiding.
The life from You, the Source of
All my strength and goodness,
Is infused through this connection,
As I rest in You . . . . abiding
-Roberta K.
We call it a children’s song, We sing it to them;
Do we listen to what it says?
Do we know We are LITTLE?
We are all little ones-----little in so many ways,
And, we are all weak--so weak we need a savior.
Sometimes we concentrate on our smallness,
Other times on our weakness.
OR, we revel in God’s strength, knowing His power.
When we can say: I am weak, AND He is strong,
Then we can really KNOW that, "Jesus loves ME".
-Roberta K.
We sometimes think we can put God in a box;
That we know exactly how He works in bringing us to Him.
And then we see things outside the box. . . . .
And we wonder. . . . . we react with fear,
We say, "but I thought it was this way . . . or that".
And gradually we realize that God is much bigger than we thought.
Our narrow concepts could never understand Him. . . . .
Lord of all, creator of all, lover of all:
He is much, much larger than the small box WE created.
And so. . . . .He can work any way He wants.
He draws us to Him in myriads of ways.
He woos us to Him through beauty, music, nature. . . . . pain.
He expands our capacity, He lifts our sights;
And we get a small vision of His enormity and majesty.
We rejoice in knowing that we, as His created, loved ones,
Can never understand or comprehend One who created ALL.
And we can rest in allowing God to be God,
In all His unsearchable ways. . . . shrouded in the Cloud of Unknowing.
Resting in His word which says Jesus is the only way to God,
We allow HIM to show US what that means.
-Roberta K.
Oh, Lord, You invite me to
Walk--even on the water.
I say, "I can’t, its impossible."
You just say, "Come."
So I come, knowing that
Whether I sink or walk,
You will be right there. . . .
Giving me strength to walk
Or pulling me with Your
Strong, loving arms out of the sea.
-Roberta K.
There is a place where I can go
Where performing is not in style,
Where I can let my feelings show
And just be me for awhile.
It's there that I can laugh or cry
And every burden share
My ego which has suffered hurt
Can undergo repair.
Sometimes I think I've said too much
Or something really dumb,
If anyone ever puts me down
It's me - the only one.
Trust and love is strongly felt
We share a common goal,
To make our day a better day
And refresh the weary soul.
It's there that I am understood
When others fail to see,
That all I what through all of life
Is to relax and just be me.
I know that I am loved by them
These friends with whom I share
These friends who help along the through life
Is my family known as CAIR.
-Max A.
CHANGING ATTITUDES IN RECOVERY
It is also know as "C.A.I.R."
A self-help group for learning,
And a safe place in which to share.
To learn to be less judgmental,
Of self as well as others;
For we are all fallible beings,
Ourselves as well as our brothers.
Mutual respect is a corner stone,
And at times it is so hard to do.
It’s not only respecting others,
But respecting our own self too.
Many have a "wounded child" within
That has been rejected and deplored,
And to learn to show that part respect
Has often been ignored.
We all have our own little thermostat,
Our self image rules the setting;
As we change, and get out of our comfort zone,
The tension can lead to fretting.
There are five Rs in Recovery –
Reality, Responsibility and Regret,
Respect (for self and others)
And Relationships we must not forget.
Recovery isn’t overnight,
It’s a journey – not a destination.
Since C.A.I.R. has gotten us on the path,
It is cause for a celebration.
-GR
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
And the fact that I think that I am following your will,
Does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
Does in fact please you.
And I hope that I never do anything
Apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me
By the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always,
Though I may seem to be lost
And in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and
Will never leave me to face my perils alone.
-Thomas Merton
With Jesus as the fulcrum
To balance all of life,
I am free to embrace paradox
Which lessens all my strife.
With Jesus as the Center,
The ultimate Amen
I can live life to its fullest
Resting all in Him.
-Roberta
© Copyright 2008 Psychological Asssociates James O. Henman Phone: 209.765.9528