Big Book - May 11 2026

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. we asked His protection and care with complete abandon.

Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


~ Chapter 5 How It Works (pg 59 &60)

BIBLE QUOTE - May 3 2026

The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.

 

~ Nahum 1:7

RANDOM BIG BOOK ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS #essentialsofrec #Fear #Recovery #Mastery

He spent eighteen years in running away, and then found he didn’t have to run. So he started A.A. in Detroit.
Have I ever wanted a drink during these years? Only once did I suffer from a nearly overpowering compulsion to take a drink. Oddly enough, the circumstances to take a drink and surroundings were pleasant. I was at a beautifully set dinner table. I was in a perfectly happy frame of mind. I had been in A.A. a year, and the last thing in my mind was a drink. There was a glass of sherry at my place. I was seized with an almost uncontrollable desire to reach out for it. I shut my eyes and asked for help. In fifteen seconds or less, the feeling passed. There have also been numerous times when I have thought about taking a drink. Such thinking usually began with thoughts of the pleasant drinking of my youth. I learned early in my A.A. life that I could not afford to fondle such thoughts, as you might fondle a pet, because this particular pet could grow into a monster. Instead, I quickly substitute one or another vivid scene from the nightmare of my later drinking.


~ pp. 256-257 The Man Who Mastered Fear

Bible Quote #essentialsofrecovery

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~ Romans 8:38-39

Bible Quote #essentialsofrecovery

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children,you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matthew 18:3-4

#Bible #Quotes

Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak! Matthew 26:41

Random Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous – Fourth Edition #essentialsofrec #BigBook #Quote

Returning home we find a place where we can be quiet for an hour, carefully reviewing what we have done. We thank God from the bottom of our heart that we know Him better. Taking this book down from our shelf we turn to the page which contains the twelve steps. Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last. Is our work solid so far? Are the stones properly in place? Have we skimped on the cement put into the foundation? Have we tried to make mortar without sand?

~ Chapter 6 – INTO ACTION - p. 75 

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Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. ~ How It Works, pg. 64 ~

Life is a banquet but there are many starving fools Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

~ Leo Buscaglia

BIG BOOK - ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS - Chapter 6 - To Wives (pg 104 & 105)

WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, our book thus far has spoken of men. But what we have said applies quite as much to women. Our activities in behalf of women who drink are on the increase. There is every evidence that women regain their health as readily as men if they try our suggestions. But for every man who drinks others are involved-the wife who trembles in fear of the next debauch; the mother and father who see their son wasting away. Among us are wives, relatives and friends whose problem has been solved, as well as some who have not yet found a happy solution. We want the wives of Alcoholics Anonymous to address the wives of men who drink too much. What they say will apply to nearly everyone bound by ties of blood or affection to an alcoholic. As wives of Alcoholics Anonymous, we would like you to feel that we understand as perhaps few can. We want to analyze mistakes we have made. We want to leave you with the feeling that no situation is too difficult and no unhappiness too great to be overcome. We have traveled a rocky road, there is no mistake about that. We have had long rendezvous with hurt pride, frustration, self-pity, misunderstanding and fear. These are not pleasant companions. We have been driven to maudlin sympathy, to bitter resentment. Some of us veered from extreme to extreme, ever hoping that one day our loved ones would be themselves once more.

  BIG BOOK - ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS - Chapter 6 - To Wives (pg 104 & 105)

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Random Big Book 'Alcoholics AnonyMous'

In case he does stumble, even once, you will have to decide whether to let him go. If you are sure he doesn’t mean business, there is not doubt you should discharge him. If, on the contrary, you are sure he is doing his utmost, you may wish to give him another chance. But you should feel under no obligation to keep him on, for your obligation has been well discharged already. ~ Chapter 10 To Employers (pg 147 & top 148)

RANDOM BIG BOOK ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

We of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th edition, There Is A Solution, page 17

Bible Quote #essentialsofrecovery

The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ~ Job 33:4

#Bible #Recovery #Quotes

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16

RANDOM BIG BOOK ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS #essentialsofrec #Recovery #BigBook

That may be true of certain nonalcoholic people who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been damaged as ours were. But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly any exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience. Let us take another illustration.
p. 39 MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM

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Many times I have gone to my old hospital in despair. On talking to a man there, I would be amazingly lifted up and set on my feet. It is a design for living that works in rough going.”

~ 4th edition, Bill’s Story, page 15 ~

RANDOM BIG BOOK ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS #essentialsofrec #Recovery #BigBook #Quotes

…we aren't a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn’t want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life.

~The Family Afterward, pg. 132 ~

RANDOM BIG BOOK ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS #essentialsofrec #BigBook #Resentment #Quotes

It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while.
~ How It Works, pg. 66 

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RANDOM BIG BOOK ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS #essentialsofrec #AA #Recovery #BigBook

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We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, Page 46 ~