Half-nAAked Progress, Not Perfection

I'm making progress in many areas, but certainly have not achieved perfection.

Obviously, if my abs were as chiseled, or my arms as toned as I'd like, I wouldn't have posterized the image. And, note the boxes in the background, STILL waiting to be unpacked.

However, I'm healthier and at my lowest weight in 3 years, I'm eating well, NOT DRINKING, and exercising.

PROGRESS.

Except for a very small pile near the front door (which will be unpacked by the end of this coming weekend) this is the LAST of the boxes (not in storage, that is) and they'll be unpacked during R's semester break.

PROGRESS.

Sometimes in this journey of sober living, I feel as if I'm taking one step forward, and two steps back. But, when I look back and survey the road I've trudged so far, I do see PROGRESS, however slow that may be. And, seeing that gives me the courage and the will and the joy to continue. See some of those who are helping me along the way at Half-nAAked Thursday.

Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

—from How It Works

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on... [O]ne thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize...

—from Philippians 3:12-14, NIV