A.A. Thought For The Day
When we first came into A.A., the first thing we did was
to admit that we couldn’t do anything about our drinking.
We admitted that alcohol had us licked and that we were
helpless against it. We never could decide whether or not
to take a drink. We always took the drink. And since we
couldn’t do anything about it ourselves, we put our whole
drink problem into the hands of God. We turned the whole
thing over to that Power greater than ourselves. And we
have nothing more to do about it, except to trust God to
take care of the problem for us. Have I done this honestly
and fully?
Meditation For The Day
This is the time for my spirit to touch the spirit of God.
I know that the feeling of the spirit-touch is more
important than all the sensations of material things. I
must seek a silence of spirit-touching with God. Just a
moment’s contact and all the fever of life leaves me. Then
I am well, whole, calm and able to arise and minister to
others. God’s touch is a potent healer. I must feel that
touch and sense God’s presence.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that the fever of resentment, worry and fear may
melt into nothingness. I pray that health, joy, peace and
serenity may take its place.
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Selling myself
Personal Relations
Thoughtful people tell us that every person has to “sell” himself or herself in daily work. As alcoholics, we can find that threatening. Uncertainty and the fear of rejection or failure put us under stress.
We can avoid this stress and tension by putting all responsibility for results in God’s hands. While it is true that we want to succeed and to be accepted, we can never be sure that our idea of success is the right one. There are times when our strong determination to succeed at all costs makes us overbearing and demanding in our approach. We may be so anxious to appear competent and knowledgeable that we overreach our selves and make stupid blunders.
God can show us how to handle each day’s affairs in an orderly, reasonable way. It is not necessary to win every argument or to make every sale. We can sell ourselves mor effectively when we go through the day calmly and take a genuine interest in the ideas and concerns of others.
I will look upon my customers and fellow workers as friends and allies. I don’t have to bludgeon every person into accepting my point of view. If I am sincerely trying to follow God’s will in all my affairs, others will sense my sincerity and will be glad to consider what I have to say.
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Without work all life goes rotten.—Albert CamusWork is more than earning money. Work means using our time and skills to make life better for those around us. Our work can be our hobbies. Growing food or growing flowers can be our work.Raising children or caring for older people who need help can be our work. Building homes or helping people live in them can be our work. Thanks to our program of recovery, we can do our best work again. What a change from the drugged-up and hung over days when we didn’t do anything well. We are sober, and we have something to offer.Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see that work makes me part of the human family. Help me do Your will in my work today.Action for the Day: Good work teaches us good habits. How do the things I’ve learned in my work help me in my recovery program? I’ll list five ways.
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“Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors, the dreams of our old men, given them in the solemn hours of night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.”
~ Chief Seattle, DWAMISH ~
Our Spiritual ways have carefully been given to chosen people. Slowly, through our past generations, through past conflicts, our Elders prayed for guidance, which the Creator provided. Then it was passed down to the next generation through culture, ceremony and oral traditions. our Indian religion has been tested and is about how we should behave and treat other people, animals and the earth. This knowledge is written in the heart of every person. We can find this knowledge by looking inside ourselves.
My Creator, today, when conflict occurs, I will look inside myself for the answers.
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THE CHALLENGE OF FAILURE
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.
~ AS BILL SEES IT, p. 31
How thankful I am today, to know that all my past failures were necessary for me to be where I am now. Through much pain came experience and, in suffering, I became obedient. When I sought God, as I understand Him, He shared His treasured gifts. Through experience and obedience, growth started, followed by gratitude. Yes, then came peace of mind—living in and sharing sobriety.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc
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Sick As Our Secrets
“It would be tragic to write [out an inventory only to] shove it in a drawer These defects grow in the dark and die in the light of exposure.”
~ Basic Text, p. 31
How many times have we heard it said that we are only as sick as our secrets? While many members choose not to use meetings to share the intimate details of their lives, it is important that we each discover what works best for us. What about those behaviors we have carried into our recovery that, if discovered, would cause us shame? How much are we comfortable disclosing, and to whom? If we are uncomfortable sharing some details of our lives in meetings, to whom do we turn?
We have found the answer to these questions in sponsorship. Although a relationship with a sponsor takes time to build, it is important that we come to trust our sponsor enough to be completely honest. Our defects only have power as long as they stay hidden. If we want to be free of those defects, we must uncover them. Secrets are only secrets until we share them with another human being.
Just for today: I will uncover my secrets. I will practice being honest with my sponsor
© 1991 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc
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A.A. Thought for the Day
Some people find it hard to believe in a Power greater than themselves. But not to believe in such a Power forces us to atheism. It has been said that atheism is blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere. That’s practically impossible to believe. I think we all can agree that alcohol is a power greater than ourselves. It certainly was in my case. I was helpless before the power of alcohol. Do I remember the things that happened to me because of the power of alcohol?
Meditation for the Day
The spiritual and moral will eventually overcome the material and unmoral. That is the purpose and destiny of the human race. Gradually the spiritual is overcoming the material in our minds. Gradually the moral is overcoming the unmoral. Faith, fellowship, and service are cures for most of the ills of the world. There is nothing in the field of personal relationships that they cannot do.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may do my share in making a better world. I pray that I may be part of the cure for the ills of the world.
© 1954, 1975, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation
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Page 56 ~
Facing Criticism
Sometimes, we register surprise, shock, and anger when people find fault with A.A. We are apt to be disturbed to such an extent that we cannot benefit by constructive criticism.
This sort of resentment makes no friends and achieves no constructive purpose. Certainly, this is an area in which we can improve.
<< << << >> >> >>
It is evident that the harmony, security, and future effectiveness of A.A. will depend largely upon our maintenance of a thoroughly nonaggressive and pacific attitude in all our public relations. This is an exacting assignment, because in our drinking days we were prone to anger, hostility, rebellion, and aggression. And, even though we are now sober, the old patterns of behaviour are to a degree still with us, always threatening to explode on any good excuse.
But we now know this, and therefore I feel confident that in the conduct of our public affairs we shall always find the grace to exert restraint.
~ 1. GRAPEVINE, JULY 1965 ~
~ 2. TWELVE CONCEPTS, P. 71 ~
© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc
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MALICIOUS GOSSIP
Honest Motives
“Without really knowing what was happening, I said something bad today about a person I secretly resented. When it occurred to me that my remark could come back to hurt me, I had a moment of panic,” an AA member said. “With a little reflection, however, I realized that the more serious problem was the dishonesty that caused me to belittle somebody behind his back!”
We are growing up when we come to see that gossip feeds on our own insecurity and self- deception. When we are unwilling to part company with gossip, we devise subtle ways to keep it in our lives. We can gossip by steering the conversation to a topic that is likely to bring revealing comments. We also gossip by reveling in lurid accounts of others’ sins and failings. We should even ask ourselves if we are gossiping when we “discuss” another member who is not living up to our ideas of true Twelve Step standards. This is often prefaced by the remark, “I don’t want to take Joe’s inventory, but…”
We cannot live freely and happily if we practice gossip in any form. The practice may be hidden, but it leaves us with guilt, fear, and shame. We cannot gossip and be completely trustworthy and reliable.
© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
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Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
~ William James
Step Two speaks of believing. For many years, we had given up believing in ourselves, in a Higher Power, and in others. We believed in getting high.
Now our program tells us to believe in love. We are lovable, and we can love others without hurting them.
Of course, believing is an important part of recovery. Tb believe means to put aside our doubts, to believe means to have hope. Believing makes the road a little smoother. So, believing lets the healing happen a little faster.
All of this is how we get ready to let in the care of our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day
I pray for the courage to believe. I’ll not let doubt into my heart. I can recover. I can give myself totally to this simple program.
Action for the Day
I’ll list four times doubt got in my way. And I’ll think of what I can do to not let that happen again.
Copyright © 1988 by Hazelden Foundation
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AMBITION
“The child without ambition is like a watch with a broken spring.”
~ R.W. Stockman ~
It is not wrong to have ambition. It is not wrong to want to be somebody. The tragedy is that this has to be said!
For too long, I played the tapes in my head that discouraged ambition and creative pride. I confused humility with timidity and self-abuse. I waited for things to happen, rather than making them happen for myself.
Today I know I am a creature of God, created to create. God is at work in my life. I am part of God’s miracle for the world.
God, may I always have ambition for those things that are good and true.
© 2008 Leo Booth
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Reflection for the Day
Before we came to the Program, fear ruled our lives. Tyrannized by our addictions and obsessions, we feared everything and everybody. We feared ourselves and, perhaps most of all, feared fear itself. These days, when I am able to accept the help of my Higher Power, it makes me feel capable of doing anything I am called upon to do. I am overcoming my fears and acquiring a comfortable new confidence. Can I believe that “courage is fear that has said its prayers…”?
Today I Pray
God grant that through faith in Him I may overcome my obsessive fears. I have been running scared for so long it has become a habit. God help me to see that I may be purposely clinging to my fears to avoid making decisions, perhaps even to shirk the responsibility of success.
Today I Will Remember
Fear keeps me safe from risk-taking.
© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation
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THE TENTH PROMISE
We will instinctively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
~Big Book ~
By using such slogans as “Easy Does It,” “One Day at a Time,” “Together We Can Do What I Can’t,” we find solutions for problems that seemed unsolvable before. By working the Steps, we learn to face up to and solve the problems of everyday living that used to cause us to seek relief in our addictions.
We no longer have doubts about our ability to do for ourselves what we once expected others to do for us. If we don’t know the answers, we know we can find them by asking the advice of fellow members who have faced the same problems.
The instincts which once compelled us toward our addiction have been redirected toward solving problems during recovery. We are confident that there are solutions to all problems, including some we haven’t faced yet. We no longer have to dodge what we used to feel were certain failures.
I use the tools built by those who have already experienced the problems I am facing for the first time.
©1990 by Anonymous, Published by Hazelden
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STARTING OVER
Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist,
but in the ability to start over.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Before coming into this program I was, and probably still am to a certain extent, a perfectionist, so one of the things I really struggled with is being able make mistakes without feeling bad about myself. So when I came into the program, I decided that I was going to do this program perfectly, and proceeded to do just that. I followed a meal plan, lost weight and worked the steps, and I really thought I had it made. But I hadn’t counted on the fact that this is a disease, and it is both cunning, baffling and powerful. So when I had my first slip, I was devastated and felt a real failure.
Fortunately for me, with the help of many loving sponsors over the years, I have realised that I am not a failure if I slip, but I am only one if I fail to get up. This program has enabled me to learn that when I make a mistake, I am not that mistake, and that all I need to do is to pick myself up and start over. In the old days if I failed at a diet, I would never have been able to pick myself up so soon, and it would always be an excuse to carry on eating and start the diet again on Monday. Now I know that my abstinence can even start at the end of the day, rather than waiting till tomorrow, next week or even next month. I am slowly starting to let go of the guilt I feel when I slip, and am also learning to love myself even when I do flounder, because with the love and support I am given in this program, I know I can always start over.
One day at a time…
I will remember that I can start afresh any time I like, and don’t need to feel as if I have failed.
~ Sharon
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No one can tell you which choices to make. We can only show you by good example.
~ Jan Pishok
We are attracted to men and women who share their wisdom and their hope freely, to people whose behavior reflects thoughtfulness of others. We recognize the love that radiates from some people as they enter a room or speak to others. We are nil creating examples for others in every move we make.
One of the first principles we learned about recovery was that this is a program of “attraction rather than promotion.” Though we may not have understood the meaning initially, we now appreciate how valuable that principle is. None of us like to be told what to do. Even when we ask for advice, we seldom really want it. But we can willingly follow the example someone sets, particularly 11 the outcome was successful. Let’s learn from the good example of others. Let’s be good examples as well
I am someone’s example for healthy behavior today. I won’t steer anyone wrong.
© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation
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A.A. Thought for the Day
After I became an alcoholic, alcohol poisoned my love for my family and friends, it poisoned my ambition, it poisoned my self-respect. It poisoned my whole life, until I met A.A. My life is happier now than it has been for a long time. I don’t want to commit suicide. So with the help of God and A.A., I’m not going to take any more of that alcoholic poison into my system. And I’m going to keep training my mind never even to think of liquor again in any way except as a poison. Do I believe that liquor will poison my life if I ever touch it again?
Meditation for the Day
I will link up my frail nature with the limitless Divine Power. I will link my life with the Divine Force for Good in the world. It is not the passionate appeal that gains the Divine attention as much as the quiet placing of the difficulty and worry in the Divine Hands. So I will trust God like a child who places its tangled skein of wool in the hands of a loving parent to unravel. We please God more by our unquestioning confidence than by imploring Him for help.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may put all my difficulties in God’s hands and leave them there. I pray that I may fully trust God to take care of them.
© 1954, 1975, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation
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SHINING SHOES FOR SUBORDINATES
Growing in Humility
Did you ever hear of a man named Samuel Logan Brengle? He was a Salvation Army officer whose spiritual consciousness was legendary. But he didn’t start out that way. A gifted ministerial student of the nineteenth century, he joined the Salvation Army only to find himself sent to a cellar to clean the shoes of other cadets-most of them far below him in learning and intelligence.
Brengle used that humbling experience to conquer his pride and resentment. He later recalled the utter joy he felt as he cleaned the shoes and prayed for each person. Later on, Brengle became an inspiration to thousands.
It’s not likely any of us will have to clean shoes for subordinates today. What’s more likely is that we’ll encounter situations that wound our pride or churn up resentment. We can turn any such experience into an opportunity for growth by praying to see God’s hand in the matter and refusing to fight about it. The peace and serenity we feel is our reward, and, like Brengle, we’ll become better people who can be of real service to others.
Somebody may come at me today with something that makes my blood boil. I won’t be a doormat, but I will remember that I always have the choice of making anything a positive, spiritually uplifting experience.
© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
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