Being safe

I don’t want to stand on cliff edges any more. I want to be safe, and sober. I don’t want to think that maybe I’ll be too tempted by what I’m doing. I don’t want to look at things that make me have tempting thoughts. I want to make absolutely sure I stay sober, not see what I can get away with. Riding the line of sobriety almost guarantees that I will cross over. You can’t ride a motorcycle at the edge of its performance without eventually crashing. I’m tired of crashing. I don’t look, listen, or talk in ways that I realize are tempting. When I get tempted or realize I’m thinking about something dangerous, I visualize handing or throwing it to God. Another good thing to do is pray for the person involved. Sometimes I visualize the temptation being fed into an incinerator chute so that it goes out of sight, and I know it will be burned up. These methods of course have to be done sincerely to make sure the temptation is given to God. If I’m not sure, I repeat the process and try to monitor my intentions. So far, this has done pretty well. I suspect it’s not really the method that’s the key, of course, but the sincerity and intentions.

I have a program friend who made the point that when he started out, he was told to give temptations to God, and he followed directions, even though he didn't mean it. His sincerity grew over time, and the prayer became effective as he said the words and followed directions.  So maybe I'm wrong about needing sincerity to start with. I think God probably honors willingness to ask for help, even when we still hang on to our problems.