Celebrate Recovery: Lesson 20- Daily Inventory

December 27, 2023

Principle 7: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! – 1 Corinthians 10:12

Keeping a daily inventory is something that is beneficial to continue throughout the remainder of your recovery journey- which is the rest of your life! Lesson 19 introduced the idea of a daily inventory and encouraged you to keep a daily journal for a week. Hopefully you took advantage of that opportunity and it was an experience of growth and insight.

If you happened to skip the journaling process, or if it wasn’t entirely successful, don’t be discouraged. Stick with it, and just like the rest of your recovery process, you will develop a system and pattern that works best for you. The most important thing is that you are aware of your thoughts and behaviors and that you are intentionally and gradually pointing them towards Jesus.

Ongoing Inventory

It is important to keep an ongoing inventory in the back of our mind as we go about our daily lives. This doesn’t have to be complicated and after a while it will become second nature.

The benefit of keeping an ongoing inventory is that it helps us keep our amends list shorter. We can own our stuff and admit our shortcomings as they happen. Not only will this help our own recovery journey, but it will work wonders for our relationships with others.

Daily Inventory

For most of us, a daily inventory involves sitting down at the end of the day (or the morning of the next day if you’re a morning person) and evaluating the day’s events. We should explore our actions and reactions, the thought patterns or circumstances that contributed to them, and assess where we might need to make changes.

It is important to combine your daily inventory with the other things outlined in Principle 7- daily Bible reading and prayer. It is only with the influence of the Holy Spirit that we can truly see our shortcomings and where we might need to make changes.

Ideas for Journaling

If you aren’t sure where to begin with your daily inventory, Celebrate Recovery has some great ideas to get you started. Ask yourself the following questions and begin each question with the word “today”:

How did I show love to others?
Did others see in me the joy of having a personal relationship with the Lord?
How was my serenity, my peace? Did anything happen that caused me to lose it?
Was I patient? What caused me to lose my patience? Do I owe anyone amends?
Would anyone say that I was kind? In what ways did I act unkind?
How was my faithfulness? Did I keep my word with everyone?
How was my gentleness and self-control? Did I lose my temper, speak a harsh or unkind word to someone?

Periodic Inventory

Some individuals find it helpful to do a more in-depth inventory every few months. During this time, you can reflect on the past months, review your daily journal, and spend time seeking the Lord’s will and insight as you spend time in the Word and reflect on your actions and motivations.

As important as it is to focus on areas of improvement and patterns of behavior, it is also important to focus on your personal victories. Thank God for His strength through your journey and thank Him for the people He has placed in your life to help you along the way.