Daily Recovery Readings - May

[bluidkiti]

May 23

Daily Reflections

SPIRITUAL HEALTH

When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out
mentally and physically.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p 64

It is very difficult for me to come to terms with my
spiritual illness because of my great pride, disguised by
my material successes and my intellectual power.
Intelligence is not incompatible with humility, provided
I place humility first. To seek prestige and wealth is
the ultimate goal for many in the modern world. To be
fashionable and to seem better than I really am is a
spiritual illness.
To recognize and to admit my weakness is the beginning of
good spiritual health. It is a sign of spiritual health
to be able to ask God every day to enlighten me, to
recognize His will, and to have the strength to execute
it. My spiritual health is excellent when I realize that
the better I get, the more I discover how much help I
need from others.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The Twelfth Step of A.A., working with others, can be
subdivided into five parts, five words beginning with the
letter C; confidence, confession, conviction, conversion,
and continuance. The first thing in trying to help other
alcoholics is to get their confidence. We do this by telling
them our own experiences with drinking, so that they see
that we know what we're talking about. If we share our
experiences frankly, they will know that we are sincerely
trying to help them. They will realize that they're not alone
and that others have had experiences as bad or worse than
theirs. This gives them confidence that they can be helped.
Do I care enough about other alcoholics to get their confidence?

Meditation For The Day

I fail not so much when tragedy happens as I did before the
happening, by all the little things I might have done, but did
not do. I must prepare for the future by doing the right thing
at the right time now. If a thing should be done, I should deal
with that thing today and get it righted with God before I
allow myself to undertake any new duty. I should look upon
myself as performing God's errands and then coming back to Him
to tell Him in quiet communion that the message has been
delivered or the task done.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may seek no credit for the results of what I do.
I pray that I may leave the outcome of my actions to God.

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As Bill Sees It

A.A.'s School of Life, p. 143

Within A.A., I suppose, we shall always quarrel a good bit. Mostly, I
think, about how to do the greatest good for the greatest number of
drunks. We shall have our childish spats and snits over small
questions of money management and who is going to run our groups
for the next six months. Any bunch of growing children (and that is
what we are) would hardly be in character if they did less.

These are the growing pains of infancy, and we actually thrive on
them. Surmounting such problems, in A.A.'s rather rugged school of
life, is a healthy exercise.

A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 233

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Walk in Dry Places

Avoid the paralysis of analysis
Practical Spirituality
The good news of the Twelve step program is that we have a Higher Power whose presence serves as a source of guidance and understanding as we go through each day. Letting this power work through us is only a matter of will..... God drawsas near to us as we wish to draw near to God.
As we let our Higher Power work, we remember that no scientific explanation for this process is necessary. We could paralyse our spiritual activity by trying to analyze it, thus bringing about an undesirable "paralysis or analysis." It's also not necessary to win another's endorsement of what we're trying to do. We must not be influenced by any scorn or ridicule of our efforts.
All that's necessary is that we know God in our own lives and stay faithful to our program. We let the presence of God work freely and smoothly as we go about our business.
I'll work today with the comfortable knowledge that God is really doing work through me.

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Keep It Simple

The present will not long endure.---Pindar
At certain moments, our best friend is time. Time is a gift given us. Time helps us heal. We need to know that when things are tough, these times will pass, and peace will return. Our Higher Power can be like a parent who comforts a child when there's a storm outside. The parent gently reminds the child the sun will shine again.
Tough times come and go. There will be times when life is ugly and very painful. We can't be happy all the time. Remember, our Higher Power is always there. We must have faith in this. A saying often heard in the program is, "This too shall pass."
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, remind me that things will get better. Even if they get worst for a while, they will get better. Let this be my prayer in hard times.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll list times in my life when I thought I couldn't go on. I'll remember the pain, but I'll also remember how time was my friend.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Give as much of yourself as you can to as much of your higher power as you can understand. --S.H.
The more we are in concert with God, the greater will be our pleasures in life. Recognizing our partnership with our higher power makes every decision easier, facilitates the completion of every task, and removes all uncertainty about our value to this world, particularly to those persons around us.
Knowledge that we are never alone, that in every circumstance our best interests are being cared for, softens whatever blow we encounter. The blows teach us; they are the lessons the inner self has requested, and let us never forget we have a ready tutor to see us through every assignment.
The more we rely on God to see us through the mundane activities as well as the troubling experiences, the greater will be our certainty that all is well, our lives are on course, and a plan is unfolding little by little that has our best interests at its center.
My understanding of God and the power of that presence is proportionate to my reliance on that power. Not unlike the power of electricity, I can plug into the source of the "light" of understanding and for the strength to see my way through any experience today.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

BILL'S STORY

They did not need to tell me. I knew, and almost welcomed the idea. It was a devastating blow to my pride. I, who had thought so well of myself and my abilities, of my capacity to surmount obstacles, was cornered at last. Now I was to plunge into the dark, joining that endless procession of sots who had gone on before. I thought of my poor wife. There had been much happiness after all. What would I not give to make amends. But that was over now.

pp. 7-8

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Four - "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."

Businesswomen in A.A. will naturally find that many of these questions apply to them, too. But the alcoholic housewife can also make the family financially insecure. She can juggle charge accounts, manipulate the food budget, spend her afternoons gambling, and run her husband into debt by irresponsibility, waste, and extravagance.

p. 51

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Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa said:
"What can you do to promote world peace?
Go home and love your family."
--Cited in BITS & PIECES

Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself, and know that
everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no
coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
--Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"There's no elevator, you have to take the steps."
--unknown

"Yard by yard it's very hard. But inch by inch, it's a cinch."
--Anon.

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"If we take care of the inches, we will not have to worry about the
miles."
--Hartley Coleridge

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love;
the more they give, the more they possess.
--Rainer Maria Rilke

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

EFFORT

"Do what you can, with what
you have, where you are."
--Theodore Roosevelt

Because we are not perfect, we need only do our best. Because our
recovery from addiction is an on-going process, we will discover that
our best is improving on a daily basis. It is so easy to beat ourselves up
emotionally by thinking that our best is not good enough. Even after
years of recovery we still hear the old tapes: "People do not want to
listen to you." "Is that all that you can do?"

We need to remember that the disease of addiction still lives in our
recovery. However, our honest attempts at dealing with a problem or
helping another with a problem - provided they are honest attempts -
will usually be more than sufficient.

Today I accept my best attempts with gratitude and I am not too proud
to seek the advice of another.

God, accept the best that I can offer as an instrument of Your peace.

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He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.
Proverbs 21:23

All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received
them, and they shall be granted.
Mark 11:24

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Daily Inspiration

Instead of overreacting, try underreacting because this response shows wisdom, patience and peace. Lord, help me respond to situations in a manner that allows me to solve problems rather than create more.

Be sensitive to the feelings of others and show the same forgiveness and compassion that the Lord gives to you. Lord, give me the wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen.