Serenity Prayer for Addiction Recovery

Many of the users of recoveryBox Asked for me to include the Serenity Prayer. And so it's now available in the Resources Section of the app.

I know I personally prayed it many times while attending Celebrate Recovery as I know it's part of the traditional twelve step program.

Remember, live ONE day at a time.

And don't forget to give yourself a Green Light each time you say this prayer.  You deserve that!

Want to know more about recoveryBox, the iPhone app for Addiction Recovery? Check out our site. You can download it from there as well if you think it's something that can help you during your recovery journey.

Protecting Your Eyes from Pornography

Last week's Random Resource ThuRsday was about pornography.  And I urged you to rid your house of physical items that are pornographic in nature.

This week I have 2 resources to use for the internet.  Now first, let me say that NOTHING is fail-safe.  And in all likely hood you will probably need a combination of plans in place if the addiction is strong enough.  But with proper treatment you can be victorious.



My first resource is opendns.com.

What is DNS.  Think of DNS as the map of getting to where you want to go on the internet.  Regular DNS does not distinguish between sites.  It's just takes you where you need to be based on what you type (and some stuff in the background).  OpenDNS has a filtering mechanism.  Think of it as a firewall to keep out unwanted visitors as well as unwanted sites.

OpenDNS is EASY to implement and I think by far one of the best systems out there.  You might think it's going to be slow because if you ever tried a filter piece of software..well it does bog down your machine.  I am not going to explain how it does it (but I do know if you are interested).  It is very fast!

We have young children here at our house that use their iDevices all the time.  And with TV's being able to access internet sites directly from your remote control, the scenarios of pornography being accessible is so much more complex than adding a piece of software as was done in days past.  Well, OpenDNS fixes some of that.  When implemented it will make all of your devices go through this filtering.

For home solutions, check out their site.  And the best part is that it is FREE!  Actually what I love best is that if one of my kids tries to access an inappropriate website, they will see a message with a picture I uploaded letting them know that Mom and Dad think it's inappropriate.

NOTE:: with any search engines, visuals are so HARD to block.  So you might want to think about blocking search engine use or using Safe Searches using Google. I could get into why it's almost impossible to block these images, but in reality it's a Google thing (and I truly wish they would take a stronger look at this).

But for a HUGE number of these sites, OPENDNS will block it.


My next resource is CovenentEyes.com

Now this is a different solution as it requires adding a piece of software onto your machine.  It currently works for Windows, iDevices, Android (sorry no Blackberry or Windows Phone 7..at least not as of this writing). As of this writing the Mac only allows for accountability and not filtering..

What makes this different if that you can have time controls as well as sensitivity levels. but more importantly it sends a report to your accountability partner of all the sites that you have visited.  

Yesterday's daily devotion was a video from IamSecond.com. It featured Brian's life and his decision to give up his Meth addiction.  It is so powerful as are so many of the videos on the site that I thought I would share it as well here on my the app's main blog.

Here is a small video but to see/read more PLEASE visit the IamSecond.com site.

For daily devotions from recoveryBox, visit http://recoveryboxdevos.blogspot.com

Y3 Yellow Light :: Intentionally Possess Object of Risk

Having an object that is contrary to staying sober seems to be an obvious yellow.  Some would argue a Red Light, But I say it's just  a Yellow.

Just because you possess the item doesn't mean that you are going to use the item! It's a choice! And because it's a choice, it's why I have it as a Yellow Light!!

Y3 : Intentionally Possess and Item of Risk.

But let's be clear here.  It's a recipe for disaster.  I mean why do you even have it?  You know that by using the item or looking at it then you will be having to start your sobriety from square one, feel ashamed besides other emotions and all that goes along with using again.

So, it's a no brainer.  Get rid of it!

• Get rid of the alcohol in your house!
• Get rid of that pornographic video in the attic!
• Drugs lingering around the house? Trash them now!

Clean out!

And yes we live in a fallen world and there are temptations everywhere, but (and I feel like a cliche when I write this), but Just Say No!

Don't make it possible so that when the urge is there and you need that rush to easily grab that magazine or drink and fulfill that need.  Fill that need with something else - go for a walk. For visit a friend. Do something other than grab that item.

Yes, I understand that "things" don't do bad things.  It's when people use those things.  But why have the temptation? Why allow a trigger cause you to run to the very vice you are trying to cut off.

I really don't have much to say on this topic except GET RID OF IT ALL!

I completely understand that this doesn't apply to all addictions.  I mean you can't get rid of food.  But you can get rid of junk food. And you can't get of the internet (OK I couldn't) but you can use something like opendns.com or Covenant Eyes.  There are always things you can do to help yourself.  It's about making a choice.

Have a great day!  Now go clean out!


PS. If you need help cleaning out but just can't seem to get started - perhaps it's time to talk with your counselor or accountability partner on what is making it so hard to let go.


Wanting to download recoveryBox and see how it can help you?  Visit the Apple App store.

She's Somebody's Daughter

Excited to just throw out there that recoveryBox is working closely with She's Somebody's Daughter. They are an excellent organization that is leading the fight against sex trafficking and pornography.  Look for good things to come in the future.

~holly

Jenny's Pearls - Random Resource ThuRsday

Trusting God: Jenny’s Pearl Necklace

April 24, 2012 in Spirituality, Why Don't They Just Quit? Book Excerpts, Words of Wisdom byjherzanek | 2 comments

The story of “Jenny’s Pearl Necklace” touches everyone in a different way—as we are all at different stages of our journey . . . and trusting God.

Jenny’s Pearl Necklace
The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.

“Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!” Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face. “A dollar ninety-five. That’s almost $2. If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them yourself.”

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her piggy bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores. She went to the neighbor, Mrs. McJames, and asked if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma gave her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace
.

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel grown up. She wore them everywhere—Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when
he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?” “Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you.”

“Then may I have your pearls?”

“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess—the white horse from my collection. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me.
She’s my favorite.”

“That’s okay, honey. Daddy loves you. Good night.” And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after story time, Jenny’s daddy asked again, “Do you love me?”

“Daddy, you know I love you.”

“Then will you give me your pearls?”

“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday.

“That’s okay, Honey. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you.” And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

Several days later, when Jenny’s father came in to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lip was trembling. “Here, Daddy,” she said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father’s hand.
With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box.

Inside of the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. He had had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to be willing to give up things in our lives so he can give us beautiful treasure. God only wants you to have the best.

—Author Unknown, Source Unknown

Caution :: Yellow Light :: Y1 - Person of Risk

Today's post goes along with last Thursday about having to give up all our "friends" from before addiction recovery.  As the author wrote, the new life of recovery and the old friends turn out to be "like oil and water they just don't mix".

There is a way in recoveryBox to track that.  It's the Y1 Caution Light.  It's "Intentionally Put Self With Person of Risk".

There is something to note here..it's the word intentionally.  There are times in life when we bump into people from our life before addiction recovery and it's a coincidence (but ever notice that it's "awkward"?!?).

This is the situation where you purposely hung out with a person who was trouble.  Their ways are just not appropriate things that you would be doing to change your habits.  You know what I'm talking about.

You get the nervous feeling inside, your mind starts to ask questions of yourself about this person or the situation like 'should i be with her?' or 'what do i say is she asks to go party and get high.how do I get out of that?'.

Take this as a warning light!!  Oil and water don't mix!  Even if you did happen to be with such a person on purpose don't be afraid to record it in recoveryBox.  Your sponsor or accountability partner will want to know.  And because they have lived your life, they will not be upset.  This will give you the opportunity to see how your triggers and situations all came together so that you don't intentionally put yourself in that position again.  Recording it will allow the conversation to flow between you and your sponsor because it's all down in the app for both of you to see.

Be proud of yourself that you did not relapse.  Just like as with driving, it's just a warning that you could get yourself into trouble.  Just learn from it!

Download recoveryBox to get started on your road to Addiction Recovery.