Thank you for choosing to read today’s Grateful Heart Monday entry, which is a relatively new series where I begin my week writing about an important piece of gratitude from my life, as I feel it truly helps to start it off on a positive note. And after considerable thought, I decided that what I’m most grateful for this week is each the sponsees I work with in the 12 Step recovery world from addiction.
Sponsorship has blessed my life incredibly for plenty of reasons. The biggest being that having sponsees has helped me to remain clean and sober from all of my past addictions. Whenever I find myself tempted or triggered to return to any of the former addictions that once robbed my life, I think about each of those I regularly work with in the Steps who are desperately doing everything they can to remain clean and sober themselves. Sponsees look to their sponsor as the first line of defense from their own disease of addiction, especially early on in sobriety. Thus, that’s something I constantly am reminded of anytime I think about picking one of my former addictions back up. In other words, a sponsee helps to keep me in check too.
A second reason to be thankful for all of the sponsees I’ve worked with is the joy I receive in watching them spiritually grow in their recovery. I have several sponsees who went for a number of decades living deeply in their addictions and couldn’t ever seem to make any bit of sober time last. But through the work that God has guided me in helping them, I’ve seen them gain multiple years of clean and sober time, I’ve seen their families come back together, I’ve seen their jobs become more stable for them, and I’ve seen all of their relationships deepen, which are definitely all things to be joyful for.
A third reason to be grateful for all of the sponsees I’ve worked with is seeing them move on to sponsor others just like I once sponsored them. I always find it to be an honor when I see a former sponsee using the tools I taught with another suffering soul, which is truly what the 12thStep says is meant to happen by the time a person reaches that stage in their recovery work.
A fourth and final reason to be grateful for all of the sponsees I’ve worked with is the friendships and unconditional love that tend to develop through the 12 Step process of recovery. There is a bond that usually forms during the bulk of that work and a level of spiritual connection that’s hard to break, especially with having two people spend a year or two of their lives together going through all of the 12 Step work.
So, yes, I’m absolutely, positively, 100% grateful for all of the sponsees I’ve ever worked with in the 12 Step world of recovery from addiction, as each have blessed my life beyond measure. In all honesty, words really can’t even describe how much my life has benefitted from sponsoring others and thus, I thank each of you who’ve ever chosen me to guide you through the 12 Steps, as it’s been an honor and a privilege in doing so…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
