Month: June 2014

The God Box

I pray all the time for various reasons, but some of those prayers end up being written down and put into something I like to refer to as The God Box.

The God Box is a small wooden chest that I own which is meant to hold all the prayers I’m still waiting for the answers on. A long time ago I realized that God wasn’t always going to answer my prayers right away. Of course there have been those that were answered immediately, but there have also been many others that weren’t. These written prayers are not necessarily just about me either. There are those too that deal with other people, places, and things and each of them are placed in the box as well.

I believe every single written prayer that I placed in The God Box is like planting a seed. At some point in time, I know that each of them will sprout. It may not be in the time frame I hoped for, but at some point it will. This of course means it requires patience and that’s never been a strong suit of mine. The God Box is a tool that I utilize now as a way to help me with those patience issues. So when I place a prayer in it, I make the assumption that God is now going to be fully in charge of taking care of that seed. If you’ve ever gardened before, planting a seed in the ground requires patience because some of them could take a year or more to sprout. I’ve learned that a prayer is really no different. My ego often attempts to tell me otherwise by saying my prayers aren‘t being answered, but the reality is that they probably are, it’s just happening in a way that isn’t meeting my ego’s expectations.

One of the examples of this is a prayer that’s been within The God Box for almost two years now and it deals with my health and healing issues. My ego at times has tried to convince me that God has forgotten about this prayer because I’m still dealing with high levels of pain on a daily basis. As much as my patience levels get tested because of this, I continue to leave that prayer in The God Box because I do trust that it is being answered, it’s just taking more time than my ego really wants.

I truly love The God Box I own because I have seen my written prayers within it get answered. I’m very grateful to my sister’s family because the one I have is hand carved from them. It sits atop my dresser and reminds me every time I see it that the prayers within it are really in God’s hands.

So the next time you find yourself regularly worrying about anything in life, I encourage you to find some type of a container that can be The God Box for you. Say a blessing over it and then write down your worry on a piece of paper. Now open that container and place it within, and then trust that God is going to take it from here. Your worry has now become a prayer for God to handle and trust that it will eventually sprout just like a seed. The only thing needed on your part from this point forward may be just a little bit of patience…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

How Do You Know If You’re An Alcoholic?

“How do you know if you’re an alcoholic?”

That’s a question that has been frequently pondered by so many individuals in this world. At one point in time, I was actually one of them. Unfortunately, the path I took to find that answer wasn’t a short one, as it’s usually not for most others as well.

In my case, the main reason was that I had been a functioning alcoholic. What that meant is that I functioned just fine in life while carrying on my excessive daily drinking. Most of that drinking took place during my college years and somehow I maintained good grades, several leadership positions in my fraternity, a part-time job, and various other social obligations. All of that made it very difficult for me to identify whether I was an alcoholic or not. The fact was I allowed myself to believe that I wasn’t since I handled my duties in life just fine. Add in the notion that many others, who also drank regularly, surrounded me on a daily basis, and that answer became even more clouded.

Once I left college, things became so much clearer though with my drinking. I spent the first six months getting drunk where I would finish each night by hurling into a toilet and then passing out in the living room. I also started playing the sick card due to my hangovers and began having trouble making it into work. Suddenly I found myself not functioning so well anymore as a drinker. The final straw came towards the end of that six-month period and it dealt with my sexuality.

I didn’t want to have an attraction to men back then and it definitely wasn’t a choice. But when I began to notice I was developing romantic feelings for my best friend, I started drowning them with as much alcohol as I could. That led my life to spiral completely out of control and it was then I finally knew that alcohol has become my master.

Thankfully, I am able to say with ease today that I am an alcoholic. It’s been just about 19 years now since I had my last drink and I’m extremely grateful to God because of it. Sadly, there are great numbers of people out there though who are still trying to figure it out for themselves. Some of them may even go their entire life trying to find that answer. I know of one man who spent 50 years living as a functioning alcoholic until his deteriorating health finally gave him it.

If you happen to be someone who has been questioning whether you may or may not be an alcoholic, I encourage you to click the following link. There you will find a self-test, which will hopefully help you arrive at an answer. My only prayer is that if it helps you you’re an alcoholic, that you don’t spend another day drowning it in booze. Please know that your life is worth so much more than that ok?

http://www.ncadd.org/index.php/learn-about-alcohol/alcohol-abuse-self-test

And here is one other good resource as well: http://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Mantra For The Day – To Help You Feel Good Enough

I never felt good enough growing up. In fact, I always felt like I needed to try harder. Much of that belief system stemmed from the dysfunctional household I grew up in. Deep down my parents weren’t happy within themselves and they often chose alcohol to curb that unhappiness. An unfortunate side effect of their addiction and inner misery was that that nothing was ever done right in their eyes. So regardless of whether I did well in sports, school, chores, or anything else, it never mattered. Instead, my youth was spent trying to overachieve because my parents constantly cited out my shortcomings. By the time I reached adulthood, this pattern continued of me not feeling good enough in any area of my life. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I immersed myself in recovery that I even learned I was this way on a daily basis. It honestly had become a part of me because I had lived for so long in that way. Thankfully, I began utilizing mantras to help with negative character traits such as this and the following is a simple one that can help you if you too happen to be one who has never felt good enough…

“I am good enough on every level and in every way and everything I do is good enough too.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson