The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
Two weeks ago I started my god box and placed the outcome of my current job in it. For the last two hours the committee in my head (the old thought patterns), is taking it out.
I keep telling the committee it's not mine anymore...yet I keep dwelling on it and worry about what will hit me tomorrow and whether i'll have a paycheck coming in.
I haven't had the God box for long but whenever I catch myself worrying about something I know I put in there I say to myself....I put that in the box...God has it.If I take it back I could set back His efforts.He is working on it,I need to let him be.....
Here's a poem I read once in an alanon reading, you may already know it,but maybe not.
AS CHILDREN BRING THEIR BROKEN TOYS WITH TEARS FOR US TO MEND
I BROUGHT MY BROKEN DREAMS TO GOD,BECAUSE HE WAS MY FRIEND
INSTEAD OF LEAVING HIM,IN PEACE TO WORK ALONE
I HUNG AROUND AND TRIED TO HELP,IN WAYS THAT WERE MY OWN
AT LAST I SNATCHED THEM BACK AND SAID "HOW COULD YOU BE SO SLOW!"
MY CHILD, HE SAID,WHAT COULD I DO? YOU NEVER DID LET GO.
Frog... maybe you can keep writing down your anxieties on a little paper and put it in the box. I put several pieces of paper about a job in my God box. I also wrote prayers in a journal. In one entry, I asked God if He would bring me a job and I listed all the things I wanted in this job. The list had like 21 things on it. About 1 1/2 years later, a new job came to me... literally. And, as it turned out, when I later went back to my Journal, I counted that 19 of the 21 factors were part of this new job! Pretty amazing!!! (And, I got a $12,000. raise!!! from current job! -- Not too shabby!!) Everything happens for a reason, in its right time. That what I believe. Just keep asking for what you want... and give it over to God. Just try not to be anxious over it or force any solutions. If something unfolds naturally, that is God's will is what I have been told.
I wish you peace... and I know God will answer your prayers!
Hi Frog , a God box , well I could never have one of those cause when I first came here my husb was drinking and would have had a ball with that concept , so I had one in my head Gods stuff and mine , of course sometimes His drifted over into my side hehe and the insanity would start all over again.
I love our forum magazine and I tend to think in pictures (cartoons to be exact) and one day a cartoon in the forum caught my eye so I read the article it was about a God Box. the first cartoon showed a hand holding the God box up side down and little people tumbling out of it , Husb , kids friends etc.
The second cartoon showed a lady climbing into the box . The jist of the article was she was dumping everyone out of her God Box and climbed in herself . Put herself in Gods hands alone. Remembering that all those people she loved had a Higher Power of thier own who would take them where they needed to go. She decided that her HP would be kept busy fixing and caring for her.
So when i hear God Box mentioned at meetings I always smile and mentally check to see if the lid of my box is still closed . most days it is . Louise
The idea of a God box is to place things u cannot change into the box and never try to do Gods work. A second box it was explained to me culd be labled MINE in it I placed the things I could change . my attitude etc my defects of character that were giving me trouble. It was explained to me to take one out occasionally and work on it .
If you do this on a reg basis we are usally too busy changing ourselves to try and fix the alcoholic or anyone else for that matter. This is how my sponsor explained it to me many many yrs ago. Louise
Boy can I relate to this!!! Having ADD w/ distractions & mild OCD, I can say to God, "I give this to You, I let it go, I know You will handle it in Your Divine Plan" yet the fear or control or wtvr starts trying to take it over again as if I could fix the outcome of things! We know logically & yet do it anyway.
I find the ONLY thing that works for me is to say, sincerely in prayer, "God I willingly relase & give this 'problem/thought/person/feeling/wtvr' to You freely & willingly & I ask that You accept it now." Sometimes I might have to say the prayer over a few times, like a mantra, just until I can get vulnerable, serious & committed enough about it but when I do, it works.
It has happened that an hour later, my sick mind tries to take it back, so I go through the same process, whether it takes a few days, so be it, I fall back on prayer & knowing that God will be there for me, to handle the bigger, more complicated issues that are out of my hands.
I have also learned to thank God for some of the things I prayed/wished for & thought I wanted, as something even better turned up around the corner (or the next month) but I know how desolate, scary & terrible is it when you want something & it seems so 'perfect' or convenient.
I also like to pray for God's will be done, as maybe I am staring at a beautiful & tree & just can't see thge entire forest.
Love, -Kitty of Light
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Light, Love, Peace, Blessings & Healing to Us All. God's Will Be Done. Amen.
