January 5

Recovery at home

"We can enjoy our families in a new way and may become a credit to them instead of an embarrassment or a burden."

Basic Text, p. 104

We're doing great in recovery, aren't we?  We go to a meeting every day, we spend every evening with our friends in the fellowship, and every weekend we dash off to a service workshop.  But if things are falling to pieces at home, we're not doing so great after all.

We expect our families to understand.  After all, we're not using drugs anymore.  Why don't they recognize our progress?  Don't they understand how important our meetings, our service, and our involvement with the fellowship are?

Our families will not appreciate the change NA is working in our lives unless we show them.  If we rush off to a meeting the same way we rushed off to use drugs, what has changed?  If we continue to ignore the needs and desires of our partners and children, failing to accept our responsibilities at home, we aren't "practicing these principles in all our affairs."

We must live the program everywhere we go, in everything we do.  If we want the spiritual life to be more than a theory, we have to live it at home.  When we do this, the people we share our lives with are sure to notice the change and be grateful that we've found NA.

Just for today:  I will take my recovery home with me.