Let Them and Letting God

Popular podcaster, mental health advocate, and author Mel Robbins has shared the advice that when we are getting wound up about not being included by someone else, or we want to control someone in a situation, that the fastest, happiest path is to instead “let them” do/be/act as they intend.

As a father of seven, I had to “let go” a lot after raising my oldest four children, and my younger three seem a lot less anxious and a lot more confident so far. I don’t have conclusive evidence that it works, but I do have a lot of anecdotal evidence and hope that it will.

In Step 4, we take a personal inventory of impactful and traumatic events in our life, we examine what part we had to play - if any - in what occurred. My first few go arounds were admittedly very traumatic. But later passes with more experienced sponsors became empowering.

I accepted where I couldn’t have done anything different given the set of circumstances and experiences. And then I let go of it and gave it to God. In a sense I “let them” and left things in the past where they belong.

One act of surrendering to God is letting others be. To accept the things we cannot change but to work to change the things we can.

I’m challenging myself and inviting you to examine stressful situations and feelings of exclusion and let others do as they may without letting it get under your skin.

AA Big Book page 86:

In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision.

We relax and take it easy.

We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.

By Pete, Writing Team