On occasion, I like to tell this story to newcomers who want to treat me as if my 40 years of sobriety and gray hair give me some great wisdom: I bought an old house and moved in without doing any repairs.

Accepting God’s will for my life, when it conflicts with my own desires, is a difficult part of recovery for me. One of the things that helps me do this, however, is to remember that I’m incapable of properly running my own life. When I was in charge, things got messed up badly—and not just because of my addiction.

I wanted it: a beautiful leather reclining chair and ottoman. Ads claim it as the most comfortable chair in the world. I’d tend to agree because a friend I was visiting offered me the use of his chair when I contracted a cold at his house.

One morning this past winter, during a depression, I was meditating downstairs in my bedroom while my wife was eating breakfast upstairs in the kitchen. She sneezed, and my initial reaction was annoyance (not the most spiritual reaction, but human enough).

Recently, when our SA regional representative joined one of my regular face-to-face meetings, I shared how important my morning sobriety renewal phone meeting calls have been for my recovery.

SACFC is dedicated to carrying the message of SA recovery to incarcerated sexaholics. We provide the literature commonly used for doing Twelve Step work to members, groups, and Intergroups who work with people in correctional facilities.

On July 26, 2007 at 5:00 p.m., I was arrested in a small Southern city for propositioning an undercover police officer in a city park. I never wanted to go to that city again and legally can never be in one of their parks again. Last night, however, business travel took me there briefly.

While in prison, some of my fellows and I found that we all spoke fondly of one particular board game from our youth. After recounting past glories, we sought to obtain a copy of the game.

One morning in the spring of 2000, my mother threatened to throw me out of the house when I arrived home at 5:00 a.m. I ran away that night so I could continue acting out. I was 21. I had been attending college full-time and had two part-time jobs, but I dropped out of school and didn’t show up at work so I could act out.

Sometimes we need to get away from our day-to-day recovery and take a look at our program from a different point of view. The Serenity in the Rockies conference is designed to help members do just that.

Dear Fellow SA Members:
I’ve asked Dave Mc., Finance Committee member, to take my space this month to provide a brief overview of the 2008-2009 budget. We are grateful for the service of all Finance Committee members.

I am a sexaholic from Peru. For the last eight months, I have regularly attended an SA group in Lima. In our group, we practice writing affirmations as part of our Step Three work.

Over the holidays, I attended a French-speaking meeting in Canada. I enjoyed seeing their black-and-white copies of ESSAY. But I found that the language barrier has kept them from hearing of lot of experience, strength, and hope.

I’m Brian, a grateful recovering sexaholic and chair of SA’s International Committee. Our committee focuses on the still-suffering sexaholics outside of North America, Australia, the UK, and Germany.

My AA sponsor used to say “Thinking, not drinking is your problem.” Today I realize that thinking has caused as many problems for me as drinking, drugging, and lusting.

I read this today: “God won’t help me do my will, but He’ll gladly help me do His will.”

I am powerless over lust. Lust has made my whole life unmanageable. Without this program I could never stop acting out, no matter how hard I tried. I found the SA program in 2003, but left after I decided I could work the program on my own.

I’m Dave, a grateful recovering sexaholic, sober by God’s grace since January 2004. My wife has been active in recovery working both Al-Anon and S-Anon for many years. We share “the Real Connection” because we each work our own programs.

Sponsorship in SA has been a great blessing for me, and continues to be a (sometimes humbling) learning experience. In fact, I learn as much from the men I sponsor as I have from my sponsors!

In November 1971, I had a spiritual experience that changed my life direction. But for some reason God did not take away my bad habits when I asked Him to. My spiritual awakening that happened “as a result of these Steps” changed my life direction again—this time pointing me toward promoting life in myself and others.