Addiction/Recovery
It has been said that alcoholism is a family disease. Why? Alcoholism affects the entire family—everyone in the family needs to get help. If you have a family member who struggles with alcohol or drug addiction, is there a healthy way to respond to them? Yes, absolutely! You must understand family roles, and understand what your next step should be.
What Are the Family Roles?
In looking at families of addicts, there are different behavioral roles:
The Dependent: this is the alcoholic/addict in the family. He or she has the real problem.
The Chief Enabler: this role is typically taken up by a spouse (more…)
Addiction/Recovery
If you have a family member who struggles with addiction, you may be tempted to take responsibility for them . . . don’t!
Truth is, you are only responsible for your choices—your loved one is responsible for theirs. One day we will all give an account to the Lord. Romans 14:12 says, “Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.”
Just as you have the freedom to make your own choices, others have the freedom to make their choices. You give people freedom by not enabling them. It helps to understand the difference between enabling and helping.
What is enabling?
It’s doing for someone what they CAN do for themselves. (more…)
Life Issues
We deny
It’s easy to ignore our issues. Like the disabled man in John 5 who waited for years by a pool to be healed, so we are looking for a magical cure to make us whole. But healing doesn’t come instantaneously. In fact, it takes hard work to stop reacting and turn to Christ who encourages us to “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” (John 5:8).
We minimize
Let’s face it: Our issues are huge! However, we try to make ourselves feel better by saying that they’re small. Admit the truth, and you will be on the road to recovery. The Living Bible puts it this way: “You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there,” (Jeremiah 6:14). (more…)
