“Generally, people like people who are like themselves.” ― Joseph Deitch

In most recovery fellowships I have belonged to over the last 30+ years they promote the slogan “LOOK FOR THE SIMILARITES NOT THE DIFFERENCES?”  when thay talk about listeningand relating to other members. And then I listen to long-term members explain all the ways in which they are different and unique to other fellowships.

http://dictionary.com  says the meaning of the word similarity is  the state of being similar; likeness; resemblance.

There is a chours I learned in the Salvation Army that says:

He’s the same today as yesterday,My great unchanging friend;
He’s the same today as yesterday, Just the same unto the end.
By His mighty power He holds me,
In His arms of love enfolds me;
He’s the same today as yesterday,
My great unchanging friend.

Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus doesn’t change–yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.”

One of the problems I see in the process of recovery is highlighted in the quote above. When it comes to recovery we are going to meet many people who are not like us in many ways and we need to not try and shape them to be like us.

One of the things that blows me away about God is: even though He created us all in His image He also created us as individuals with individual personalities that He wants to us through this porcess called ‘recovery’ to introduce others to a personal relationship woth Him so He can use there iniqueness to reach others who are still caught up in the problems of addiction, compulsion and life struggles.

If you want to look at the similarities look at these:

Romans 3:23  All have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal.

Colossians 1:22-23 By giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message–just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.

Matthew 18:12-14 “Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn’t he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn’t want to lose even one of these simple believers.”

Recovery is not about how we do it but WHO we do it with. Don’t let the difference get in the way.