“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Babies are resilient. In their attempts to learn to walk, they fall a thousand times. But they keep trying. They don’t know how to give up; in fact, they have to be restrained from trying too hard.

At some stage in my development, I learned how to give up on life. When I came to SA, sobriety eluded me. I couldn’t stay sober for three days and it took over three years to have my first anniversary. What I learned through this experience (aside from humility!) was what it means to “keep coming back.” People in program told me I didn’t have to give up and label myself a failure because I failed to stay sober.

I have not yet returned to that stage of life where I can keep trying, no matter what the outcome or how much it hurts to fail. But like walking, living in recovery teaches me that, despite all my “slips,” I don’t need to give up on myself.

God, thank You for giving me the desire to keep coming back. Help me put my confidence in You, to do for me what I cannot do for myself. Strengthen my resolve today. Help me remember that recovery is never mastered; it is practiced — one day at a time.