Addiction recovery

We visited someone who had overcome an alcohol addiction and recently been baptized but then fell into his old habits and stopped coming to church. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is so important because many of us fall even after we make sacred covenants and promise to live the commandments.

A stake president in my last area said that life is like a single tennis match. The outcome of this match decides your destiny forever. You have been playing for three or four years, but on the other side of the court is Satan, who has been playing for twenty trillion years (figuratively). You cry out to Heavenly Father for help because there is no way you will defeat Satan on your own. Heavenly Father promises you two things: first, he will send Jesus Christ to be your partner on the court (like a doubles game). Jesus Christ will catch all the hits you miss. Heavenly Father will also send the Holy Ghost, which can tell you where the tennis ball will go before it gets there. If you use this help, you cannot fail.

Two ways Heavenly Father helps us become free include:

1. Avoiding addiction in the first place, or preventing it from happening again (the Holy Ghost).
2. Recovering from addiction if you mess up (Jesus Christ's Atonement).

After we repent from sins, we often sin again and again. Heavenly Father understood and planned for this possibility! He gave us commandments knowing perfectly well that we would sometimes surrender to temptations, be weak, and rebel against His commandments. Just as Satan's temptation isn't turned off in this life, we also must not turn off our efforts to repent each and every day. While the Atonement doesn't give us license to sin, it can help us recover.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints runs an Addiction Recovery Program for anyone who is struggling with any kind of addiction. It is based from the Twelve-Step Alcoholics Anonymous program but includes gospel principles from the scriptures and prophets and apostles in our day.