harleygirl92156

Someone shared something with me the other day that had a huge impact on me and I would like to share it with all of you.

Every person that enters our lives that we have a loving relationship with is a gift from God. God sends these people to us for His own reason. His gifts are never perfect, but they are gifts given to us by Him just the same. We must look at our gifts, imperfections and all, and think about how we treat those gifts from God.

Think about it, if God were standing before you and he said I have something for you I wish you to take care of for me and he gave you a bible that was beautiful, how would you feel, how would you treat that bible, how would you feel about that bible?

Ok, now you have the gift God has given you and you take it home and open the bible and find that near the center, in the core of the bible a few of the pages are missing and a couple of pages have water stains on them making them unreadable. Would you throw the bible away because it wasn't perfect, or would you still cherish it, imperfections and all, simply because it was a gift God chose you to have and take care of for him.

The alcoholic is the bible. God loves them and has placed them in your life for His own reasons. They have pages missing and water stains, but they are still beautiful gifts from God.

StandingStrong

While I get the gist of the post, I have to say that I don't think it's really a true analogy for a lot of people. Please understand that I'm not trying to argue, I just wanted to post my thoughts.
Not every alcoholic (or person in general) in our lives is someone we have a loving relationship with. I'm sure that many would agree that it's very hard to have a loving relationship with an addict. Perhaps if you look at it as "I love this person" than maybe you could think of it as a loving relationship, but in my world, I look at a relationship being between two people, therefore when that loving part of the relationship is one sided, it's not a true relationship.
Another point I want to make is that the Bible in your post is an object. It can provide guidance, love, peace, etc. in a way. However, it can't hurt us in the sense of hurting our feelings, belittling us, physically assaulting us, lying to us, etc. Therefore, while God may give you this gift to take care of and cherish - it's not something that could hurt us. It is a book versus an alcoholic that is not an object but a living person.
As I said, I understand the gist of the post. I'm just not sure I like the analogy it was going for as I don't see it quite the same way as you seem too. However, if it brings you comfort, by all means, use it! Just wanted to share my honest thoughts.

elizabeth1979

I am glad you found peace in something today! I have a feeling this thread may get heated.
I choose to believe that God brings me trials and tribulations for a reason and if I do not learn the lesson he is trying to teach me, I will keep getting that same lesson in various forms, UNTIL I GET IT!

While this probably belongs more in the spirituality forum, I can tell you that the Bible does say, thou shalt have no other gods before me in the ten commandments and when in active addiction, god to the addict in my opionion is the substance. Now, I am not about to judge any one else for their actions because I am a sinner like everyone else, but I don't really agree that the alcoholic is like the Bible.

The Bible is the word of God, and for me and my religion, that means the standards by which I should live. Not quite like an alcoholic to me.

I do not think that God wishes for anyone to enable one to turn away from him. Thats what I do when I enable and promote addiction. As for taking care of...thats not what I think he intended either. Love the sinner, not the sin. All I can do is be an example of Godly love, not judge, and take care of myself.

God did not give us the Bible to cherish, in my opinion, he gave it to us as a guide...how is the alcoholic a guide? Perhaps its just my belief system that differs from others.

Personally, I can tell you that for ME, when I choose to minimize the alcoholics actions, it takes away from my walk with my HP, and I do not think that God wants ME to take care of someone else if it hinders me and my growth.


Harleygirl, like StandingStrong, I see where your friend was going with this, but have to disagree with most of it. But, in any event, I do hope something brought you peace today

walkingtheline

Since it's a thing, don't we have more choices? Couldn't we choose to send it out for repairs and restoration and loveingly have it restored? Or to take a class in book restoration to learn to restore it ourselves? Or perhaps, using our free will that God so graciously gave us, perhaps we're supposed to find the same volume and edition in great condition and share the new copy with others...maybe the flawed copy was just an example, not meant to be used as anything but reference.

What am I missing?

best

What you do for the least of them, you do unto me.

Wonderful post harleygirl... now comes the hard part. Learning what love is.
As Elizabeth post shows... some things people may think are love when the opposite may be true.
By being an example of joy and not enabling others (learning how to do this) to my understanding is how and why the Anon groups work.
What have you done for yourself today? Not asked or done so you can be selfish but asked and done because the outcome of our actions brings us to become an example of joy to others.

best

Not missing anything. You posted your own answer

*Smile*

Sigh

I don't think it's being said that addicts are like the bible. I think that's just an analogy. I think what is being said is that people we have loving relationships with are a gift from God. I agree with that.

I don't think this means we have to compromise our own values, enable an addict or live within someone else's active addiction.

I think it means to treat others with respect, with compassion, despite whatever difficulties they might be experiencing.

sigh

elizabeth1979

Sigh, I agree with you on that and think that is all very very true.

harleygirl92156

Please try and understand, it is the GIFT from God, not the item mentioned. It means that God loves us all imperfections and all. We, if we follow God's word will also love the alcoholic, not enable them, not take care of them, not encourage them in their addiction, to SIMPLY LOVE THEM as creatures God has made. That is all. I don't think the gist was understood.
We need to use compassion, forgiveness and understanding with the alcoholics in our lives. This does not mean we assist them in their addiction or allow them to hurt us or take advantage of us, it simply means if we love them, then we love them in a way God would want us to love a defective GIFT he gave us.
Get it......I did when it was told to me, maybe I just don't get the point across as well as that person did.
Sorry!!!

walkingtheline

I think you expressed it very well and have nothing to be sorry about. I love it when things are shared here whether I agree or disagree I think it is very helpful to see many points of view...I would NOT want to live in Stepford in reality or in my mind! Sometimes I read or hear something and it gets me thinking and rethinking. It's good to review, to see if perhaps I'm just being closed minded or if my reasons for thinking something are flawed. I appreciate dissent as much as I do affirmation.

I just had a hard time with this one, but I agree that we are all children of God, no matter what our warts or foibles.

EndOfRoadWife

I was feeling sorry for myself last night wondering why God has let me suffer for the past 3 years while my AH just hurts me over and over and then I flipped through the channels and there was a minister on TV and he said "You are going through trials and tribulations and you wonder why..He said "They are on purpose" He said "God is testing you in order to get you ready..He wants you to turn to HIM"..(I wish God didn't trust me so much)...As much as my AH hurts me and betrays me and lies to me, I do realize that we are all God's children and HE loves us all..I'm just hoping that my AH could hurt and feel the hurt that he has caused me...I know. I have to Let go and Let God"...I have to practice this..Thanks for a great thread!

JessicaNAJ

Harleygirl.....

Thank you for sharing this!!!

Jessica

Zoey

Harleygirl...... Thanks for shareing, I agree with last post by walkingtheline, I like to hear and think about everyones thoughts and findings. We can take what we want and leave the rest, or skip it all, or maybe it is just what we want or need. That is why SR is such a great site. Thanks to you all. clancy46