Smile a Little More

"I may never completely eliminate the effects of alcoholism on my life, but I can stop allowing them to affect me...Each minute, each hour, each day, I smile a little more, let go of yesterday a little more, and live in today a little more. Each moment becomes the one I have always been waiting for. Each day becomes a precious collection of the many instances when I see myself as I truly am, a child of a loving Higher Power."
-Hope For Today (Alanon book), Jan. 3 Devotion

I do not know if the hurt of having alcoholics in my family will ever completely go away, but I continue to move forward each minute, each hour and each day, thanks to my relationship with God.

I guess I still have some anger but it is slowly fading away. I am coming to terms with the fact that I have faced unspeakable circumstances, but those circumstances don't have to rule my life. I am not those circumstances. Rather, I can use them as stepping stones on the path to a better day, to a life I never dreamed possible.

And that is because all of us are children of God. We all make mistakes. We all fall short of the glory of God. And yet He loves us deeply, in a way nobody in this world can. He loves us even despite our faults.

I've been talking to some other people about the new pope and everybody absolutely adores him. I have yet to come across someone who is against him.

Why?

Because he looks past the faults in others. Every time I hear about him in the news, he's welcoming someone else into the church. He's loving someone like Christ would love them.

I want to be like that. I want to "smile a little more, let go of yesterday a little more, and live in today a little more." I want to keep moving forward...