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09-14-2013, 12:38 PM | #30 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
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June 30
Daily Reflections SACRIFICE = UNITY = SURVIVAL The unity, the effectiveness, and even the survival of A. A. will always depend upon our continued willingness to give up some of our personal ambitions and desires for the common safety and welfare. Just as sacrifice means survival for the individual alcoholic, so does sacrifice means unity and survival for the group and for A. A.'s entire Fellowship. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 220 I have learned that I must sacrifice some of my personality traits for the good of A. A. and, as a result, I have been rewarded with many gifts. False pride can be inflated through prestige but, by living Tradition Six, I receive the gift of humility instead. Cooperation without affiliation is often deceiving. If I remain unrelated to outside interest, I am free to keep A. A. autonomous. Then the Fellowship will be here, healthy and strong for generations to come. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Alcoholics are unable or unwilling, during their addiction to alcohol, to live in the present. The result is that they live in a constant state of remorse and fear because of their unholy past and its morbid attraction, or the uncertain future and its vague foreboding. So the only real hope for the alcoholic is to face the present. Now is the time. Now is ours. The past is beyond recall. The future is as uncertain as life itself. Only the now belongs to us. Am I living in the now? Meditation For The Day I must forget the past as much as possible. The past is over and gone forever. Nothing can be done about the past, except to make what restitution I can. I must not carry the burden of my past failures. I must go on in faith. The clouds will clear and the way will lighten. The path will become less stony with every forward step I take. God has no reproach for anything that He has healed. I can be made whole and free, even though I have wrecked my life in the past. Remember the saying: "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more." Prayer For The Day I pray that I may not carry the burden of the past. I pray that I may cast it off and press on in faith. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Imaginary Perfection, p. 181 When we early A.A.'s got our first glimmer of how spiritually prideful we could be, we coined this expression: "Don't try to be a saint by Thursday!" That oldtime admonition may look like another of those handy alibis that can excuse us from trying for our best. Yet a closer view reveals just the contrary. This is our A.A. way of warning against pride-blindness, and the imaginary perfections that we do not possess. << << << >> >> >> Only Step One, where we made the 100 per cent admission that we were powerless over alcohol, can be practiced with absolute perfection. The remaining eleven Steps state perfect ideals. They are goals toward which we look, and the measuring sticks by which we estimate our progress. 1. Grapevine, June 1961 2. 12 & 12, p. 68 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Making all things new Releasing the Past A 12 Step program should give us a new way of life, our friends often say. We should have new attitudes, new experiences, new opportunities. If we're to grasp this new way of life, we must let go of the old habits of the past. No alcoholic can recover, for example, by choosing to remain in the old drinking environment. We must also "recover" from other relationships and patterns that were destructive or kept us from our highest good. "Behold, I make all things new," is the ancient promise. As our thoughts and beliefs change, the old patterns drop away and the new life reveals itself to us. Today I'll drop the negative or outworn relics from the past and press on to find the things that are for my greatest good. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple If you don't know where you are going, You'll probably end up somewhere else.--- Lawrence J. Peter The Twelve Steps are our plan of living. We must have a plan. Without one, we waste our energy. We react instead of think. This is what we did as an addict. We lived our lives as out-of-control people. This caused a lot of pain for us and those around us. Recovery brings us the Twelve Steps, and each Step gives us direction and wisdom. Each Step builds on the progress we made from the Step before it. Sometimes we follow the plan well. Sometimes we think we can do better on our own. Do I believe the Twelve Steps are a good plan of living? Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You have shown me a new way of life, a plan for living. Thank you for leading me to the Twelve Steps. Help me follow them. Action for the Day: Today, I'll take time out to read the Twelve Steps. Then I'll list three reasons why the Steps are a good plan for living. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning . . . in silence might be the privilege of the strong, but it was certainly a danger to the weak. For the things I was prompted to keep silent about were nearly always the things I was ashamed of, which would have been far better aired . . . --Joanna Field It has been said, "We are only as sick as the secrets we keep." Our emotional health as recovering women is hindered, perhaps even jeopardized, each time we hold something within that we need to talk over with others. Sharing our fears, our hurts, our anger, keeps open our channel to God. Secrets clutter our mind, preventing the stillness within where our prayers find answers. Secrets keep us stuck. Our health, emotional and spiritual, depends on our commitment to shared experiences. Every secret we have and tell someone, frees that person also to be herself and to grow. Sharing experiences relieves us of our shame and invites the forgiveness we must allow ourselves. Steps Four and Five facilitate the process of sharing those secrets that block our path to God and to one another. Never can we be fully at peace with secrets left untold. Self-revelation cleanses the soul and offers us life. I will be alert to the opportunities to share myself and cherish the freedom offered. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition THERE IS A SOLUTION Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention. pp. 20-21 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Six - "Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character." We who have escaped these extremes are apt to congratulate ourselves. Yet can we? After all, hasn't it been self-interest, pure and simple, that has enabled most of us to escape? Not much spiritual effort is involved in avoiding excesses which will bring us punishment anyway. But when we face up to the less violent aspects of these very same defects, then where do we stand? p. 66 ************************************************** ********* God, help me to lower my defenses today, to be open to the good in the people around me and to the good that I have to offer them. --Melody Beattie If you desire to align yourself with God's love, take an honest assessment of where love is lacking in your life. Do you embrace the difficult people in your family, work or neighborhood? Do you hold grudges or do you forgive those who betray you? The only way to keep in alignment is to practice choosing love, again and again, even when it's difficult. --Mary Manin Morrissey "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." --John Wooden Forget your old ideas. Forget the lies they told you. Forget them all, and you will begin to remember. --Marianne Williamson Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. --Ambrose Bierce Our outward behavior is just a reflection of our inner balance or our out of balance. --John-Roger *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation HUMOR "The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken seriously." --Nicholas Murray Butler For years I used to take myself too seriously. I thought that everything depended upon my thoughts, actions and decisions. Life was a series of agendas that had to be met; life was too serious to be joked about. I knew that I was not God, but I took responsibility for the whole universe. I had opinions on everything and everybody and I was, of course, always right. As the years passed it grew painful being so responsible -- my control produced stress, tension and loneliness. Then a friend said to me, "Let go and let God." I began to detach and laugh at my insane behavior. I laughed more as I began to accept my humanness. I discovered spirituality in the joke. God must have a sense of humor -- after all, He made me. Help me to laugh at myself in my search for the Kingdom. ************************************************** ********* Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin. Psalms 17:3 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalms 19:14 The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just. Psalms 37:30 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Avoid distraction by concentrating on the task in which you are presently involved. Lord, much that bothers me is useless to my well-being. Help me identify when this happens and replace these thoughts with thoughts that treat me kindly. God will give you strength because He will give of Himself. Lord, thank You for the many gifts of which You always bless me.
__________________
"No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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