I See You, and I Love What I See!

I love this quote! When we look at ourselves in the mirror, this is who we need to see: We need to acknowledge our strength and courage. We’ve made it this far in life; and many of us have done so against extreme odds. Yes, we have our hesitations and fears. It’s hard to take risks and expand beyond our comfort zones, but we’ve learned to take those chances through entering Recovery programs.

Addicts strive just as hard to love others as they strive to treat themselves as unlovable people, oddly enough. The problem is that, before Recovery, we don’t know that the “love” we are feeling for others (and often smothering them with) isn’t really love. It’s addictive attraction and emotional neediness. Real love expects nothing in return. False love is offered to others when we want them to love us back. The difference is in our motivation. Are we loving someone for their sake, or because we want them to rescue us by reciprocating?

The harder we work our recovery programs, the more we grow into being our true selves and the more we heal the wounded inner-child that is still very much alive and hurting emotionally inside of us. Recovery liberates that wounded inner-child and helps him/her to know and believe they are, and always have been, lovable. And it helps the adult that we now are to experience the same release of fear and self-loathing as we replace those character defects with trust and self-love.

And the more we are able to see beneath the brokenness of our vulnerable humanity, the more we are able to see the image and likeness of God that we truly are.

So today, let’s look in the mirror and say to ourselves “I see you, and I love what I see.”