Daily Recovery Readings - June

[bluidkiti]

June 21

Daily Reflections

FEAR AND FAITH

The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime
undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed.
When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other
condition of insecurity, we shall all react to this
emotion - well or badly, as the case may be. Only the
self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 263

Fear has caused suffering when I could have had more
faith. There are times when fear suddenly tears me apart,
just when I'm experiencing feelings of joy, happiness
and a lightness of heart. Faith--and a feeling of
self-worth toward a Higher Power -helps me endure
tragedy and ecstasy. When I choose to give all of my
fears over to my Higher Power, I will be free.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Intelligent faith in that Power greater than ourselves can
be counted on to stabilize our emotions. It has an
incomparable capacity to help us look at life in balanced
perspective. We look up, around, and away from ourselves,
and we see that nine out of ten things that at the moment
upset us will shortly disappear. Problems solve themselves,
criticism and unkindness vanish as though they had never
been. Have I got the proper perspective toward life?

Meditation For The Day

A truly spiritual man or woman would like to have a serene
mind. The only way to keep calm in this troubled world is to
have a serene mind. The calm and sane mind sees spiritual
things as the true realities and material things as only
temporary and fleeting. That sort of mind you can never obtain
by reasoning, because your reasoning powers are limited by
space and time. That kind of a mind you can never obtain by
reading, because other minds are also limited in the same way.
You can only have that mind by an act of faith, by making the
venture of belief.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may have a calm and sane mind. I pray that I may
look up, around, and away from myself.

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As Bill Sees It

This Matter of Honesty, p. 172

"Only God can fully know what absolute honesty is. Therefore, each of us has to
conceive what this great ideal may be--to the best of our ability.

"Fallible as we all are, and will be in this life, it would be presumption to suppose that
we could ever really achieve absolute honesty. The best we can do is to strive for a
better quality of honesty.

"Sometimes we need to place love ahead of indiscriminate 'factual honesty.' We
cannot, under the guise of 'perfect honesty,' cruelly and unnecessarily hurt others.
Always one must ask, 'What is the best and most loving thing I can do?'"

Letter, 1966

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Walk In Dry Places

Remember the Golden Key
Living in the Spirit
Whenever trouble arises, the first thing to do is to turn it over to our Higher Power. We can take all necessary practical steps to solve a problem, but we don't need to decide what the answer may be. Do this, and you'll soon be out of your difficulty.
This is essentially the formula of the Gold Key as taught by Emmet Fox. It is also the core idea os Steps three and Eleven. It is a manner of living one's life iwht the constant knowledge that a Higher Power is always part of it.
We should also condition ourselves to believe that our Higher Power has been with us all along and will continue to show us the way. Nothing depends on our being "spiritual" or "saintly" or perfect in behavior. With all our shortcomings, we are and ever will be children of God.
My Higher Power is always with me today, supplying whatever I need for the accomplishment of any good purpose.

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Keep It Simple

The future is much like the present, only longer.---Dan Quisenberry
In many way we don't know what the future holds. But in terms of recovery, we know the future holds the Twelve steps. They will be with us for life.
We should never fall into the trap of thinking we "know" the program. We'll never know all the truth and love the Steps hold for us. "Knowing the Steps" is a project we'll never finish. As we change , the Steps change. As the seasons come and go, the same field or the same tree becomes a different picture.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I pray for Your help as I work the Steps and continue my recovery. Help me discover new treasures.
Action for the Day: I will ask long-time members of my program how they keep the program fresh and alive.

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Each Day a New Beginning

There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are interesting monologues, that is all. --Rebecca West
How often we want to be heard, to be truly listened to by our spouse, our children, friends and co-workers. And we deserve to be fully attended to. So do the other persons in our lives who come to us to be heard. We let our minds wander in the midst of important messages. And we may miss the very phrase that we need to hear--the answer to a problem, perhaps. Our minds wander, randomly, looking for a place to light, unconsciously searching for peace, the serenity promised by the Twelve Steps.
Living fully in the present, soaking up all the responses of the life we are immersed in for the moment, is the closest we can get to our higher power, our God. Being there--fully--is conversation with God. How can we know all that God intends for us to know if we don't take advantage of God's many messages? Every moment of every day offers us information, divine information. Each time we turn our minds away to self-centered thoughts, we're refusing the chance to grow.
As I come together with friends and family today, I will remember to listen for God's message. I will hear what I need to hear if I will but listen.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

THERE IS A SOLUTION

An illness of this sort—and we have come to believe it an illness—involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can. If a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt. But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer's. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents—anyone can increase the list.
We hope this volume will inform and comfort those who are, or who may be affected. There are many.

p. 18

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Six - "Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."

When men and women pour so much alcohol into themselves that they destroy their lives, they commit a most unnatural act. Defying their instinctive desire for self-preservation, they seem bent upon self-destruction. They work against their own deepest instinct. As they are humbled by the terrific beating administered by alcohol, the grace of God can enter them and expel their obsession. Here their powerful instinct to live can cooperate fully with their Creator's desire to give them new life. For nature and God alike abhor suicide.

p. 64

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Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.
--Art Linkletter

It is in the silence of the heart that God speaks.
--Mother Teresa

"Our entire life--consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are."

--Jean Anouilh

"You are infinitely lovable, infinitely desirable, because the One who
most desires and loves you is also infinite."
--Deepak Chopra

You will find that the spiritual energy will permit you to perform tasks
far beyond your conditioned capacity in terms of time and
accomplishment.
--John-Roger

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
--Italian Proverb

God, help me stay serene, confident, and joyful as I go through my
day.
--Melody Beattie

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

LIES

"The cruelest lies are often told in
silence."
--Robert Louis Stevenson

In treatment I said that I did not "tell" many lies - and although this
was not true (hence a lie), it missed the fact that most of my lies were
"lies of silence". It was what I did not say that produced the
confusion; the pretended self-confidence that hid the pain and shame;
the half-spoken truth that harbored the disease.

Communication is the key to any spiritual relationship and a sick
silence creates the ultimate blasphemy. God created you and me to
relate. In the interchange of our ideas is the miracle born. A sick,
angry and ego-centered silence is our shouted "no" to God.

O Lord of the paradox, let me see how the lie of silence can be used to
destroy my world.

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"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
Ephesians 6:11

"For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."
I John 3:20b

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13

"But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who
hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully
use you."
Luke 6:27-28

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends."
John 15:13

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Daily Inspiration

Set aside time for quiet because it is here that you will come to know yourself and to know God. Lord, the distractions and interruptions of my day are many, but for a few moments each day we will talk.

When life seems hard and filled with troubles, look for reasons to be thankful. Lord, Your beautiful presence is always with me.