Who is to Blame?

Often we attempt to attach a body to our own bad decisions. We try to push fault on our broken childhood, or our misguided parents or care givers. Maybe our environment. A tangible bad event that occurred earlier in life. What ever happened ultimately it was our decisions that netted the bad consequences we suffered. We are free moral beings. We decided for ourselves are direction and course. Even in mandated situations where we had no choice,  but to follow a course of action, it remains our decision to stay on a given path. The decision to remain a victim or choose courage and leap into the arms of God as we understand him. There remains a valid  decision to recover and live or not and die.  Blame is for the victim, victims choose fear over courage. To choose to live requires faith and the courage to change that which you can. Change or die. Nobody is responsible for your recovery but you. Regardless of whom you blame to get to where you are . Only you can recover you. With Gods strength and immense mercy we recover. We do better, we improve. We live again. Listen as Trent proclaims who is to blame.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:22

Welcome to the Recovery is a Process of Decisions podcast. This is Trent Thomas, your peer support recovery specialist. This week's episode is entitled, Who is to Blame? Most often, while dealing with the consequences for my bad past decisions, I sought to lay blame or causation at the feet of another body. For many suffering with the ravages of bad past decisions while undering their grips of the disease of addiction, they rarely lay blame on their childhood and the action of their parents or caregivers. While it is true, we are affected by the environment and teachings given to us as children. We, however, are free moral agents and have an inbred morality system. In other words, if we never read the Bible or listened to a preacher, we would know right from wrong. As such, we're all responsible for our own decisions. Everyone reaps the reward of good decisions and suffers the consequences of bad decisions. Many attempt to blame their parents for decisions they made. The truth is that we learn what to do and what not to do from our parents. There is no perfect parent. There is no instruction book being the perfect parent. From our parents, we learn bad as well as good. Before my father passed away, he shared a powerful statement with me. He stated, he had nothing to give me except what not to do in living life. In other words, he lived his life as a demonstration of the consequences one would suffer if I was to make the same decisions as him. At the time he told me this, I did not understand. Today, I absolutely get it. We must learn life's lessons by watching others' mistakes. We cannot touch every stove to see that it is hot. Our parents suffered consequences for their bad decisions, just as we do. I cannot blame my bad decisions on my parents. I must accept responsibility for my own decisions. Did their decisions affect me? Absolutely. From them I learned what to and what not to do. If I don't like the way my parents did something, then don't repeat it. Their bad decisions become learning steps. That is why the expression of truth is so important. We cannot learn if we don't know. That is why I share the raw truth with my kids. How can you know I am better if you don't know what I used to do? Therefore, I put a bright light on my bad past decisions. I openly share. I used women, liquor, and drugs until women, liquor, and drugs used me. These things used me up and spit me out, left me morally and spiritually broke and destitute. I found myself homeless, jobless, lost with no hope or answers to my depravity and destitution. I was of the lost, hopeless, with no vision of my future. I was truly stuck on stupid, wandering in the world of darkness, falling in every trap hole, and walking off cliff after cliff. Each cliff afforded me the walk of unpleasant death. I was of the living dead, no spiritual connection, no light from the truth that is God. In my lifeless state, it was only a power greater than me that could save me from me. It was the light of truth, a truth that comes from God. God is truth. Everything God does is truthful. God cannot lie. Every utterance that comes from God meets his desired outcome. It is impossible for God to fail. God needs nothing from the natural world to bring his purpose to life. In the beginning, he said, let there be light, and there was light. Then he created the sun. He did not need the physical nature of the sun to bring light into existence. Light is truth. The truth that emanates from God is all-powerful, immense, and cannot be subdued. The truth is radiant and expels the darkness of the lie. No lie can last forever, and the lie is a forever-vanishing thing. The truth stands alone and needs no support. The truth is the truth today, tomorrow, and forever. The truth is contagious and it is attractive. It looks and feels good. Truth has a feeling. That is why when you hear it, you can't help but clap your feet and nod your head. The truth feels good because the truth emanates from God. Truth is the treatment for the disease of self-deception, which is addiction. In addiction, you lie to yourself first, and then everyone you come into contact with. The truth about who you are, what you used to do, and the truth about where you are and what you will become. Truth will surely set you free. In the end, we can only blame ourselves for our bad past decisions. Decisions we cannot change. We can only just do better. This is Trent Thomas, and I would like to thank you for listening to another episode of Recovery is a Process of Decisions Podcast. You can now subscribe to this podcast and receive rich, deep episodes from subscribers only, as well as a private personal email account to communicate directly with me for comments and show suggestions. I also would like to invite everyone to check out my new ebook publication entitled Recovery: The Seven Steps to Sustain Recovery, available at Amazon.com. Written for those in recovery seeking a formula to sustain recovery. As always, your inspiring comments can be left at transnetrecover.com forward slash podcast. Please feel free to follow me on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you and have a blessed day.