February 15: Binding Up a Broken Heart

Maybe yesterday reminded you of someone who isn’t here anymore. Someone you lost, partly because of the drinking.

The psalmist says God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. It’s a picture of a doctor wrapping an injury. Careful. Patient. Up close. Not from a distance, but with His own hands.

Many people come into recovery with a broken heart. A marriage that ended. A partner who left. A relationship barely holding on. Children who won’t call. Friends who gave up. And often there’s a hard truth inside the grief: drinking had something to do with it.

That makes the grief complicated. You miss them. You’re sad. And you also feel guilty, because you know you contributed. Some people get stuck there, swinging between grief and shame, unable to move.

It helps to separate those two things. Grief is the right response to losing someone you love. You’re allowed to feel it fully. Cry. Talk about it. Don’t rush it. Responsibility is a separate thing, and it will be addressed honestly later in the steps, when you look at your part and make amends where you can. You don’t have to resolve all of it today.

For now, Step Two invites you to bring your broken heart to a Power greater than yourself. Not to fix the situation overnight, but to start healing you. God binds wounds. He doesn’t ignore them or tell you to get over it.

Be careful in grief. Heartbreak is one of the strongest triggers for drinking. The ache makes the bottle look like comfort. It isn’t. It will deepen the wound and may close doors that might otherwise reopen.

Talk to someone instead. A sponsor, a pastor, a friend. Jimmy and Sarah in the Steps & Scripture app are there for a late-night conversation when it’s hard to reach a person.

One thing today

Write a short letter to the person you’re grieving. You won’t send it. Say what you miss and what you’re sorry for. Then pray over it.

A prayer

Lord, my heart is broken, and I know I had a part in breaking it. Bind up my wounds. Heal what You can, and help me grieve without drinking.

If shame is tangled in your grief, this page may help. This month: Step Two.

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