Which Wolf Will Win? *

When first attending addiction recovery meetings I came with the attitude and idea that it would be a gathering of people who focused and shared on what they had changed in their lives to help them overcome their addictions. Such as putting up layers of defense – blocks on the internet, accountability, and various other secular and “logical” methods of overcoming an addiction to pornography.

I was wrong. There was little to nothing secular about the people’s methods that actually helped them overcome their addiction. Real recovery has nothing to do with the various little secular tweaks to one’s lifestyle and everything to do with coming to Jesus Christ.

One can come unto Jesus Christ through the various “dailies” (Scripture study, Prayer, Pondering, etc.) that strengthen the relationship between God and man.

One of my favorite quotes is as follows:

‘An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is [addiction], anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

 He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”’

The principle taught by the old Cherokee is true for all of us. Which one do you feed the most in your life? If we want to overcome our addictions, we have to overcome all the evil and the bad in our lives. What better way to do this than to come unto the Savior by emulating His actions and goodness in our everyday lives? The Savior is the epitome of Good. We must feed the good within us every day if we desire to overcome the evil.

We all make mistakes in our everyday lives and there will be ups and downs, sobriety and relapses. The Savior will help pick us up when we fall down. Recovery is a learning process, a hard process, but one worth doing.

God and His Son love us and want us to succeed in our endeavors and this is possible through coming unto Christ.

Don’t give up, don’t give in. Let us feed the good within ourselves and we will come out on top. We've got this!

* This post was written my good friend Caleb!

P.S.  Some additional thoughts on this subject can be found in the article: Why We Shouldn't Focus on Avoiding Sin

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