Day 7-"This I Promise!"

Today marks the one-year anniversary of when our son entered the John Volken Academy to receive help and freedom from addiction.  The John Volken Academy (previously named Welcome Home Addiction Recover Academy) is a long-term residential drug and alcohol treatment center for young men and women ages 19-34.  

I remember when our son finally admitted he was an addict, the intervention that took place, how God moved mountains to have him get in the car with me to drive home from where he had been, and then to make the two-year commitment to attend the academy.  The road has not been easy before or since, but it has been better.  

The students in the academy memorize and recite the following promise daily:

My life was out of control.  My addiction was controlling me.

I had the choice to continue on my path of self-destruction 

or change and rebuild my life.  I chose to change.

Welcome Home provides all the tools I need to change

and as brothers and sisters we help each other in this struggle.

However,

I must and do take full responsibility for my recovery.

I am changing my attitude;

I am changing my behavior; 

I am changing my values;

I am changing my life!

The power to succeed lies within me.

I will graduate from Welcome Home Program

and be the best person I can be

for myself, for my family, and for my community

This I promise!

This promise can be applied to any area of our lives as we become the best person we can be for ourselves and others.  I adore President Gordon B. Hinckley who served as the 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and miss his warm smile as he waved his cane to the crowd.  I loved how he would chuckle after telling a joke or gently hold his wife's hand.  In the April 1995 General Conference he gave a talk entitled 'We Have a Work to Do' and stated:

Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing.  We can be a little more kind.  We can be a little more merciful.  We can be a little more forgiving.  We can put behind us our weaknesses of the past, and go forth with new energy and increased resolution to improve the world about us, in our homes, in our places of employment, in our social activities. . . .We have work to do, you and I, so very much of it.  Let us roll up our sleeves and get at it, with a new commitment, putting our trust in the Lord.

Proverbs 3:5-6 reads:  "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." With any commitment we set out to do, the power to succeed is within us as we put our trust in the Lord and work hard.  I am so proud of my son!

John Volken Academy in Canada