She found the freedom to choose in sobriety.

Sobriety is a gift that your wise decisions give you. Sobriety is not limited to stopping sexual relations with another person or with yourself—that is only the beginning. Sobriety is having sanity in the face of life. It is exercising the self-control that already resides within you, that was given to you by your Higher Power to choose between what is good for you and what harms you.

Living in sobriety is much more than a phase, period, or endurance test. It is surrendering to God’s will. It is the freedom of being released from your own prisons and opening your arms to that lasting sense of freedom. It is freeing your emotions from the little tormentors that had turned into strongholds and paralyzed your being.

Living in sobriety is living in the freedom to choose. It means placing yourself above circumstances, not beneath them. It is saying goodbye to letting someone else decide for you.

It is walking hand in hand with your Higher Power and together choosing what is best. Sobriety is forever. Sobriety is clarity, wholeness, and freedom. When I desire and reclaim the will that I had once given over to lust, emotions and circumstances no longer dominate me.

That is why sobriety is the first step toward recovery—the other gifts follow in due course.