June 27

• JUNE 27 •
A natural pleasure is one thing; an unnatural pleasure, forced upon the satiated mind, is quite another. — Thomas Merton

All around us we come in contact with advertising, movies, music, music videos, TV, books, and magazines that use sex to sell a lifestyle or a product. The news is full of stories about pornography and child molestation; our instincts tell us this is sex addiction, although the news never explains it that way. How do we keep ourselves and our recovery safe in a world where sex addiction is called every name but that? How do we maintain our reality in the midst of society’s denial? How do we stay abstinent when our culture often encourages us to act out? We must be fiercely protective of our recovery and rigorously honest. We are responsible for knowing what triggers our addiction and for staying away from persons, places, and things that might do that. We do not have to worry about educating the world or trying to change it. We have chosen to live another way, safe within our spirituality and our program of recovery.

God, please help me detach from the world’s preoccupation with sex, and help me stay true to my abstinence.