Lucy Ricardo was one of the funniest TV characters ever. In one episode of I Love Lucy, she told Ricky and Fred, “Ethel and I have decided that you married a television set and not us.” In another episode Lucy said, “Ever since I said ‘I do,’ there are so many things we don’t.” Too…
We can’t talk too much about triggers to addiction. From my work with hundreds of addicts, I have created B.L.A.S.T. Most of us tend to be triggered when we are bored, lonely, angry, stressed, or tired. Let me suggest four ways to avoid or mitigate your triggers. Pray. Recognize the temptation and pray for strength…
There are four steps to progress: (a) saying you’ll do it, (b) doing it incorrectly, (c) explaining why you did it incorrectly, and (d) doing it the right way. Solomon said, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23). Longfellow added, “It takes less time to do a…
Communication is about more than the words we speak. Much more. According to psychologist Albert Mehrabian, when we measure the credibility of another person’s words, we assign 55 percent of the weight to her body language, 38 percent to her tone, and just seven percent to the actual words. That’s not to say that words…
Jeanne Calment’s record is still intact, though Kane Tanaka gave it a good ride. On April 19, Tanaka died at the age of 119. She was the world’s oldest person. But Tanaka fell short of Calment’s record of 122 years, making her the only person verified to have eclipsed the age of 120. Calment lived…
“Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). Jesus is not surprised by your failures. In fact, he sees them coming. Notice two things in…
You will never come so far that you have nothing left to learn. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him.” I challenge you to learn one thing about recovery this week. There are many ways to do this. Pick one: Go to…
In a popular Seinfeld scene, there is this poignant interchange between Jerry and Elaine. Jerry: “Is this about me?” Elaine: “No.” Jerry: “Then I’ve lost interest.” And that is the problem for most of us. If something is not about us, we aren’t interested. But recovery takes us down a different path – one that…
Leroy was willing to do anything for a few bucks. Going door to door looking for odd jobs, he was thrilled when Mrs. Johnson offered him a job. “Go out back and paint my porch,” she told Leroy. A couple of hours later, Leroy told Mrs. Johnson he had completed the job. Mrs. Johnson said,…
On June 15, 2012, Nik Wallenda walked a tightrope that was suspended over Niagara Falls. That 1,500-foot steel wire could not be stabilized, so it swayed back and forth. As Wallenda inched his way across the wire, he prayed and sang praises to Christ with each step he took. A few days before Christmas, 2020,…