When I first started going to 12 step meetings a little over 20+ years ago, I was told that I could redefine my God. I was told that I was able to make him anything that I wanted to.

This was a great thing to discover as at that time in my life, the diety of my childhood wasn’t very nice.

I won’t allege that I was taught about a punishing God. But, I will say what I was taught.

Most of this ‘education’ included matters related to self esteem and self confidence.

So, when I learned that my God could be redefined, it was a great relief. I was allowed to define my God as very Kind and that cared for me no matter what. I heard a person say that his God “knew what I was doing and loved me while I did it”.

I believe that a lot of us have learned “to act as if God is watching, because he is”. And, if this was the case, I was in bad trouble because of some of the things I had done while growing up.

Now that I did not have to worry about being cast into the “depths of Hell” for what I had done in my youth, I could start living a good life.

So, if you have a God that is not Kind, the best thing for you to do is to sit down and create a “designer God”.

I do not intend to be flippant about this but you need to have a God that is loving if you are going to live a comfortable life.

We do not need to be “looking over our shoulder” to make sure that our “punishing God” is not breathing down our neck.

Life is too short to be lived running from a God of our parents. It is time to define a God for you that is caring and loving.

I have heard it said that our only problem in life is our “perceived separation from God”. That separation is very easy to imagine if the God of your understanding is punishing and mean.

If you want the see a unique view of how to be happy, visit Dave Owen’s site “I Choose Happiness”. You will find ways to be happy, one smile at a time.