from A State of Grace
EXPLOITATION As we looked at our current lives and at our past, we saw that virtually everything we did and everyone we knew was exploited to satisfy our addictive needs. — SLAA Basic Text, Page 80
If I was clearly exploiting someone and they stayed with me anyway, this fed my ego. I thought I was so important that people couldn’t leave me even if I mistreated them. And my addictive needs took over everything in my life. It was necessary to take advantage of whomever I could in order to get those needs met. In my twisted mind, I believed ill treatment made people stay. My mom used to say, “All men are dogs. That’s why I have to act like a bitch.” But when the tables turned and my love addiction forced me to take abuse, I finally saw how destructive exploitation is. It is an empty victory. When I got sober and started being of service to others, that huge ball of needs went away. I found it was more satisfying to treat people with respect and look for ways to help than to get everything I could and then throw them away. I stopped looking at people for what they could give me and saw them as human beings. The intimate, honest partnership that I have today is much better than anything I gained from exploitation in the past.
I will be respectful of others today, seeking to help rather than to exploit.
From Answers in the Heart
What the explorers before me have learned is this: Human strength lies not in resistance, but in giving. The key to prayer is simple surrender and acceptance.
— Will Steger
It’s necessary to block out the noise of the world and our own thoughts in order to be able to listen. And to what do we want to listen?
There’s a voice within us, different for each of us, that calls us. But just as it’s hard to have a conversation with someone who does all the talking, so it’s hard for our Higher Power to respond to us if we never listen. Luckily, God gives us ways to hear. We have our hearts, our minds, our wills, our imaginations, our emotions, our memories. All these open us to prayer.
It can be expedient to think of prayer as mere words we say without caring what happens next. But the spiritual life challenges us to more. To pray simply and to listen humbly opens us to God’s response. And, in the end, isn’t that what the human heart longs for?
I will speak to You today God, and listen for Your response.
Daily Meditation Books
Answers in the Heart - daily meditations for people recovering from sex addiction
Touchstones - daily meditations for recovering men A State of Grace - daily meditations by SLAA members
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