Journal_2_principles

Principles. Very nice word, don't you think? I believe that most people live their lives by their moral values. When I was growing up, I was taught certain morals. As I grew further and further away from my family, friends and myself, I also lost sight of the morals that I had been taught. I lost sight of everything except darkness.

When I started on the journey in recovery, I was taught to live my life by principles. It took me a couple of years to finally grasp on to what all this meant but in short form it was living life by 12 spiritual principles.

If you recall, I had learned some discipline from being in the Navy but that wasn't enough. There was a set of guidelines that I needed to check myself on, on a daily basis. It was these 12 spiritual principles that were to be the backbone of my day to day living.

1 Honesty
2 Hope
3 Faith
4 Courage
5 Integrity
6 Willingness
7 Humility
8 Brotherly Love
9 Justice
10 Perseverance
11 Spiritual Awareness
12 Service

Without living out these 12 principles daily, I would be lost. I probably wouldn't be here now. I am not saying that I adhere to these perfectly but I practice them in all aspects of my life.

In the past month, I have had to call on my knowledge and experience of these principles. Situations have come up that I have been uncomfortable with and the only way I have been able to deal with these situations is to practice these principles in all my affairs.

Some may think by reading the list of these that it would be a hard thing to do; especially on a daily basis. Well, yes it is. But, I have found that even the smallest effort will make a difference in my outward look of things.

I suppose I could have gone a different route and went back to trying to learn morals again but it was pointed out to me that if I wanted to live and live a productive and spiritual life, I needed to incorporate these into myself. I have done that and will continue to do that for the rest of my days.

I have been given a second chance at life and I want to make the best of it. Living without these would send me back to darkness. It might take 20 years, maybe 10 years, or maybe just a day but I'm not willing to risk it.

Principles. Very nice word, don't you think?