The WISDOM series wrapped up with a message on the Wisdom of Making Amends.
The service featured Lynzy sang Adele’s “HELLO”.
Since the subject was Amends, one of our Celebrate Recovery leaders sent some thoughts on Step 9, making amends. Here’s DeLynn’s reflections:
When making the amends you should go in with No expectations. It’s about cleaning up your side of the street… It’s not about the other person’s stuff. They may accept it, they may not. I tell my girls they need to come from a pure of heart place ( pure motive ). You should be praying about it before you do it. Asking God to guide you and checking with you sponsor before you do it… Just to double check to see if they have any suggestions… Especially on the really big ones. If you’re struggling with it you should be praying for the willingness to be willing. Especially if you feel the other person owes you an amends too. Remember you may not get one from them, that’s why you definitely need to have no expectation.
You don’t want to make amends if it’ll harm someone. Example: You had an affair with a married person. You don’t want to make an amends to the spouse because they may not know about the affair and their marriage might be in good standing now. You would be harming them to make yourself feel better. We don’t do that. That’s where a living amends comes into play. You no longer participate in that behavior.
As for me I continue to make a living amends to my kids by not getting high anymore and being a better mom everyday. And I did make a verbal amends to them as well.
Also I had stolen from my drug dealer. I didn’t search him out to make amends because that would harm me. Bad idea.
Oh and being able to forgive is a big part of it too
Now for some pics from the great Dan Matticks…
