I occasionally sit in on...
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I occasionally sit in on the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings that are held weekly in our church hall. At every meeting I've attended Bill introduces himself this way:
"My name is Bill and I'm an alcoholic. In Alcoholics Anonymous we are taught that in order to come to terms with our illness we must learn to forgive ourselves. It took me ten years of coming to meetings, falling off the wagon, to learn that in order to forgive myself I first have to believe that I am forgivable.
"That was hard because I've never loved myself. I never felt like I was worth loving. My father drank and every time he drank he'd turn on my mother and me. I swore I'd never do that. But it wasn't long before I was drinking to forget how bad things were at home. And then when I got married I drank so that I'd have the courage to go home and try to live a normal life.
"To make a long story short I found myself doing to my wife and child what my dad did to Mom and me. It wasn't until my wife started blackmailing me into going to church that I learned that I was lovable, that God loved me, and that through Jesus God forgave me. God even gave me the power to forgive myself.
"I'm still an alcoholic. But, I thank God for waking up in the morning with the knowledge that he loves and forgives me and for going to sleep with his name on my lips."
-- Conroy
"My name is Bill and I'm an alcoholic. In Alcoholics Anonymous we are taught that in order to come to terms with our illness we must learn to forgive ourselves. It took me ten years of coming to meetings, falling off the wagon, to learn that in order to forgive myself I first have to believe that I am forgivable.
"That was hard because I've never loved myself. I never felt like I was worth loving. My father drank and every time he drank he'd turn on my mother and me. I swore I'd never do that. But it wasn't long before I was drinking to forget how bad things were at home. And then when I got married I drank so that I'd have the courage to go home and try to live a normal life.
"To make a long story short I found myself doing to my wife and child what my dad did to Mom and me. It wasn't until my wife started blackmailing me into going to church that I learned that I was lovable, that God loved me, and that through Jesus God forgave me. God even gave me the power to forgive myself.
"I'm still an alcoholic. But, I thank God for waking up in the morning with the knowledge that he loves and forgives me and for going to sleep with his name on my lips."
-- Conroy
