Sponsors and Sober Living Homes in Arizona

Since I have been a sponsor while living in a sober living home in Scottsdale, AZ I have been able to work with many different women of different ages and different backgrounds. What I have found is that it is not so much about the differences I have found in my sponsors, but the similarities in the feelings they felt throughout their journey in recovery. When I first got clean my main concern was whether I related to my sponsor or felt inspired by her story, but later I realized that the sponsor is just the person who guides you through the steps and all the real work is done on your behalf. What my first sponsor always told me was if you’re willing to put the same amount of effort into your recovery as you did into what got you into recovery in the first place then you’ll have no problem staying clean at all.

This has rung true throughout my recovery. I had to not just attend meetings and meet people in the program, but I had to become an active member of the fellowship I was in and really be of service within it as well as take the suggestions of my sponsors. So when my sponsor told me to stay in a sober living home in Arizona, I stayed. When she told me to pick up a service commitment, I did that also. I even began taking meetings into rehabilitation centers and really got to see people right at the point where they are the most willing to pick up a sponsor. When I became a sponsor myself at first I was constantly feeling like I had to make sure these people stayed sober and if they didn’t then I was a bad sponsor, but later I realized that I cannot dwell on helping people keep their sobriety when helping them is more about keeping my own.

So pick up a sponsor and if you’re not sure how to pick up a temporary sponsor and start the step work and as they say in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, “you may have come here to scoff, but you may remain to pray.”

The blog post was written by Dani