"I would love to, but I need to talk to my sponsor first."
Before recovery I listened to my own best thinking, and you can imagine where that got me. Time and time again I'd follow one "good idea" with another until I was in so much trouble I didn't know what to do. And that's when I'd think of the best idea ever, and I'd act on it. After a while, the only thing worse than my problems where the solutions I would think up for them!
When I entered the program, my sponsor constantly asked me if I had any good ideas left. Plenty, I told him. "Make sure and run your thinking by me first then," he said. When I objected to this he reminded me that my best thinking was what had gotten me into the rooms. As I followed his direction, and as he walked me through the inevitable consequences of my thinking, I began to see the wisdom of his advice.
What's so interesting to me now is that even with years in recovery, my thinking remains much the same. It is still driven by the disease of addiction and automatically defaults to self will and self seeking. Because of this, I've found that the same advice I was given in the beginning remains true for me today -
I should still run my thinking by my sponsor first.
Please Pass it On!
Copyright @ 2014 Michael Z
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
My sponsor didn't tell me that. In fact, I wish that I would have heard that. I come here and run stuff by you oldtimers and that really helps, though, and am grateful for that.