Principle Of Step 8 - BROTHERLY LOVE - Dr. David

Keep It Simple

If you would be loved, love and be lovable.

—Benjamin Franklin

We all want to be loved. and no matter how much we’re loved, we always want more.

How can we be lovable? What does the mean? Should we try to be perfect? Should we act cute and helpless? No, being lovable means that we act ourselves. We let others get to know us. When others love us, we enjoy it. We tell them. We let them know that their love isn’t wasted on us, that it’s important to us. We are lovable, and we are loved!

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me accept the love of others today. Help me be lovable.

Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list all the little things others do that show that they care for me.

Earl H. - "Love and Tolerance is our code"

Keep It Simple

 Hell is not to love anymore.

—George Bernanos

Someone in an AA group said, “From the first day I started this program, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.” This person had walked into a room full of love. In recovery, we are spiritual people because we believe in love. We have faith in love.

Love is respect. Love is truth with kindness. Love is being willing to forgive and help others.

Love is thinking about how our Higher Power wants us to act. Love is what we do best. We have turned our will and our life over to love.

Prayer for the Day: I pray that I may love all parts of life. Higher Power, help me seek out love, not material things.

Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about what I love about recovery. I will share this with a couple of friends and my Higher Power. 

Emmet Fox - Divine Love Never Fails

Divine Love Never Fails. Divine Love solves every problem. Statements like these appear again and again in metaphysical books, and, of course, they are perfectly true; but one does not always feel that either the writers or the readers clearly understand what they signify. Certain it is that many people firmly believe them, and yet have obviously been unable to prove them in demonstration. Why is this?

I think the explanation is that, consciously or unconsciously, people think of Divine Love as some sort of Power outside of themselves; probably up in the sky like the orthodox heaven; and they expect that presently, if they beg hard enough, this Power will come down and rescue them. As a rule they would not admit harboring such an idea, but I believe that some such idea is what they are actually entertaining.

There is, in fact, no such outside power, and therefore you cannot receive help in that way.

The only place where Divine Love can exist, as far as you are concerned, is in your own heart. Any love that is not in your heart does not exist for you, and therefore cannot of course affect you in any way.

The thing for you to do, then, is to fill your own heart with Divine Love, by thinking it, feeling it, and expressing it; and when this sense of Divine Love is vivid enough it will heal you and solve your problems, and it will enable you to heal others too. That is the Law of Being and none of us can change it. Now we see why criticism, grumbling, the nursing of grievances, the desire to overreach others, etc., are fatal to demonstration, because they prevent Divine Love from healing us.

Fox, Emmet (2010-09-07). Make your Life Worthwhile (pp. 38-39). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

The Eye Opener - May 28 2026

Love is as necessary to a human being as sunshine is to a plant. Without it, the soul of man withers, shrivels and dies. Fortunate is the man who has love given to him, but even more fortunate is he who earns it. The only way to earn love is to love. Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself.

He who hoards love shall lose it, but he who scatters love about him as he moves through life finds that it takes root and surrounds him on every side.

Hazelden Foundation

Today’s Gift - May 15 2026

The crisis of our time . . . is a crisis not of the hands but of the hearts. 

— Archibald MacLeish

We singlemindedly search for love, for belonging, for affirmation from others that will wipe out the torment of alienation that haunts our wakefulness and our dreams. “Does he truly care?” we wonder. “Did she try to call as she said?” Our fears, coupled with our loneliness, turn us inward and the seduction of isolation tightens its hold.

Our hearts plead, sometimes silently, other times hysterically, for comfort. And paradoxically, another’s crisis can end our own. If we can hear the call from another’s heart today, our own hearts will discover the comfort we crave.

If we look closely and with love toward the people so carefully placed in our midst, we’ll discover many hearts, like our own, searching for acceptance.

Let’s relieve our haunting alienation and extend a hand in love to a lonely friend today.

From the book:



Worthy of Love by Karen Casey

Worthy of Love by Karen Casey. © 1985 by Hazelden Foundation

ELDER'S MEDITATION - May 14 2026

“The base of all things is love, respect.”

~ Vickie Downey, TEWA/Tesuque Pueblo ~

The greatest weapon of any Spiritual Warrior is love. Love will change minds; love will forgive; love will let go; love will cause good luck; love will heal; love will cry; love will get rid of resentments; love will overcome fear. Love loves love. Any human who is loving will be guaranteed respect. Respect loves love. We need to love and respect ourselves.

Grandmother, Grandfather, today, lead me on the path of love. 

Today’s Gift. - May 6 2026

“Take it away at once,” stormed the Princess, stamping her tiny foot in its embroidered slipper. “I hate real flowers; their petals fall off and they die.” 

–Hans Christian Andersen

If love is reserved for things that never die, love is doomed to die. If flowers fade in a minute or two, will not stones wear to sand in time? Even this earth, this garden of life, one day will be like the dust of stars. We must walk gratefully, carefully on it now. Now is the lifetime that passes here, now is the best of all days; now is the flower’s eternity in the sun, our chance of a lifetime.
This is all we have, this moment. Within it, anything can be done, any dream fulfilled, if we only use it well. Why hold back? There is nothing to stop us.


What can I do to use this moment well?

Emmet Fox - May 6 2026

THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE

Read Matthew 5:43-47.

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Love Your Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor[g] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[h] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren[i] only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors[j] do so?
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But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heave... (Matthew 5:44-45)

Right action is the supreme art of life, and Jesus compressed the secret of that art into a sentence when he said: Resist not evil. A correct understanding of this commandment will regenerate your body, liberate your soul, and remake your life.

Love is God and is therefore absolutely all-powerful. Meeting hatred with Love is the perfect method of self-defense in all circumstances. It renders you absolutely invulnerable to any kind of attack.

If you receive bad news, if you are unhappy in your work, or in your home, feel out mentally for the Presence of divine Spirit, all around you; affirm its actuality; and claim that God has dominion over all conditions, and you will soon be free.



And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also (1 John 4:21).

Keep It Simple - April 30 2026

When you want to be something, it means you really love it.

~ Andy Warhol

At times, we turned to chemicals because we couldn’t love ourselves. Our addiction gave a promise of relief, but it gave us self-hate. We wanted to love, but couldn’t. What is it we really love ? Where should we put out energy ? In raising children ? In creating art ? In helping addicts who still suffer ? There’s much in this world that needs our love. We can be many things in our lives. Let’s
be people we believe in. Let’s be people we can love.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know myself through my inventories. My skills, talents, values, and my loves must be clear to me so I can use them to do Your will.


Action for the Day: Today I’ll think about what I’d really love to do through my work.

EASY DOES IT - April 20 2026

SINCERITY

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

~ Moliere ~

The concern we display for those new to our Program must always be sincere and honest. When beginners ask for advice, our answer mustn’t be phony, but we also need to soften the blow by “truth with love.” We can do this by promising them that life will get better if they really want spiritual growth and if they are freely willing to change their attitudes.

If we “con” anyone with false promises because we don’t want to hurt their feelings, they will become our enemy when they find out the truth. This will surely happen when their recovery becomes secure.

If someone in the Fellowship makes me angry by telling a truth that brings me progress, let me be sincere enough to tell them I am grateful.

©1990 by Anonymous. All rights reserved. Published by Hazelden. 

Grapevine June 1986 - April 17 2026

Thief of Love

I grew up in a lake resort town north of big, bad Chicago. Our house was as good as anyone's and better than some. When you walked in the front door, you saw the bathroom. It was a mark of distinction. No hiding that bathroom down the hall for us.

In our town, there were three churches and seventy-three taverns. In the basement of the church I went to was the seventy-fourth tavern. We had a bar, a juke box, draft beer, and slot machines. We had fish fries caught from a cold lake and served hot for one dollar. From the age of six, I knew which beer belly at the bar was likely to hand a cute little kid a nickel to play the slot machines, and it was likely to be the same one who lost his false teeth throwing up later on.

I learned about life on my parents' knees as they hung out on the bar stools. Lots of it was fun. At my favorite bar, a place called "Hello Folks," a red-faced, red-haired, boisterous lady played the piano and everybody sang and my parents were happy. They drank shots and beers and my father swept the ladies around doing the polka and my mother was the prettiest one there and everybody packed up all their cares and woes and took them to "Hello Folks" every night.

Somehow, it began to change. The man who gave me the most nickels died and after his funeral everybody got drunk because that's the way he would have wanted it. The jolly lady who played happy music cried into the glass on her piano because she had loved him. My parents began to argue, first with words, then with fists. Another baby was born and she wouldn't stop crying at night and my mother wouldn't wake up to take care of her. My parents were passed-out drunk while the house got colder and the nights got longer and the baby cried harder.

I was ashamed of our house now. It was a mess when I got home from school and my mother told me to clean it up before my father got home, and when my father got home he looked at my work, but he didn't look at me. At twelve years old I was held responsible for the havoc created by four younger children and, by God, I had better get the job done and keep my mouth shut, or else. Once I stamped my foot and yelled, "Unfair!" Once.

I missed my loving parents. They didn't look at me anymore. They avoided me or glared. Once upon a time, I was a feast to their eyes, and when they gazed at me it was like sunshine enveloping me and I felt wrapped in their arms. I was bursting with love at those moments; at six, I knew I could move mountains.

When I was old enough to drink, I did my folks one better. I arrived at the lakeside taverns courtesy of boyfriends with brand new rip-snorting powerboats. In the winter, it was by snowmobile or ice skates and I always had a wonderful time. No shots and beers for me. I drank like a lady. I drank martinis. Lots of them. If I got home at five in the morning, I'd merely say, "Hello Folks."

Three husbands and seven children later, I was still drinking martinis. I drank them until 4:30 in the morning the day my youngest daughter was born. By three years old, she was begging me to stop fighting with her daddy. Before she was ten, I didn't want her to look at me anymore because I didn't want her to see what I was doing. I was killing the joy of life, killing her love, and killing myself. She was too young to understand that I needed those martinis to fill the empty, hungry, gnawing void. It was later that I realized I was using alcohol to replace the love that was stolen from me by alcohol in the first place. The first few drinks gave me back a touch of that sunlight, and I wanted that so much I paid the price of the blackness and cold that inevitably followed. I would lie on the floor by my bed and cry in anguish while my daughter listened, and the look on her face was a mirror image of my own face at the same age.

I tried to stop for her sake, but I couldn't stop for anything or anybody, until one morning when I got up with a pounding head, exhausted and depleted from the previous night's drinking. Bent and aching and sick to my stomach, lackluster, weeping outside and inside, beaten and alone with my clutching devils that gave me no rest, I had a vivid, terrifying thought. "What if she turns out like me, as I and two of my brothers and sisters turned out like our parents? How long can alcohol keep a family whipped?"

I went to Alcoholics Anonymous and I shared at my first and second meetings. I saw the love I'd been missing in the eyes of those people. I felt something I can only describe as a wave of love sweeping over me, and I was relieved of my obsession to drink.

For five months, I have felt the arms of love around me, and I know I need never again let alcohol--cunning, baffling, and oh so powerful--steal any more love from me or my folks.

H. H.

Costa Mesa, California

DAILY REFLECTIONS - April 17 2026

LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES

All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right.

~ TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49 

“Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there.” I don’t know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates very clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself.
I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn’t know that one of the definitions of “courage” is “the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear.” Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear.

During the times I didn’t have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.

Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY - April 16 2026

A.A. Thought for the Day

In A.A. we have insurance. Our faith in God is a kind of insurance against the terrible things that might hap-pen to us if we ever drink again. By putting our drink problem in the hands of God, we’ve taken out a sort of insurance policy, which insures us against the ravages of drink, as our homes are insured against destruction by fire. Am I paying my A.A. insurance premiums regularly?

Meditation for the Day

I must try to love all humanity. Love comes from thinking of every man or woman as your brother or sister, because they are children of God. This way of thinking makes me care enough about them to really want to help them. I must put this kind of love into action by serving others. Love means no severe judging, no resentments, no malicious gossip, and no destructive criticism. It means patience, understanding, compassion, and helpfulness.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may realize that God loves me, since He is the Father of us all. I pray that I in turn may have love for all of His children.

© 1954, 1975, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation

KEEP IT SIMPLE - April 16 2026

No human creature can give order to love.
~ George Sand ~
If we are trying to get others to love us, all we’re really doing is trying to be in control. Trying to control others can be a powerful drug. Remember, we can’t control others. We can’t make others love us.

Our Higher Power has control, not us. So, what do we need to do? Turn things over to our Higher Power and just be ourselves. Sure, it can scare us to just be ourselves. The truth is, not everyone will love us. But if we’re honest about who we are, others will respect us. We’ll like ourselves better. And we’ll have a better chance of loving others and being loved.

Prayer for the Day:
I pray to have my need for control lifted from me. I pray to be rid of self-will.

Action for the Day:
Today, I’ll list five ways my self-will – my need to control – has gotten me in trouble.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation

A WOMAN’S SPIRIT - April 15 2026

Work for justice. Struggle for forgiveness.
Choose love.

~ Patricia Benson ~

Justice, forgiveness, and love sound far loftier than they are. Developing these qualities requires only that we live as we think God wants us to live. It’s as simple as that. Admittedly, when we have wanted to punish a significant person in our lives, we have often preferred “justifiable” anger or resentment over love. However, the emotional hangover that has followed the expression of our outrage has diminished any pleasure we might have gained.

Our inclination to forgive other people and our-selves, coupled with our decision to love rather than punish those who irritate us, seems to grow daily. Our changed perspective comes from our willingness to grow in recovery. We can be as peace-filled and as loving as we want. We’re in charge!

I will stay in control of who I am today. I can fulfill God’s wishes.

© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation

KEEP IT SIMPLE - April 12 2026

Life I love you, all is groovy.

~ Paul Simon 

Working the Twelve Steps is more than recovery from alcohol or other drug addiction. It’s also about how to enjoy life.

Our illness pulled us toward death. Our spirits were dying, and maybe our bodies were dying. Now our spirits are coming to life. We feel more alive than ever before. Our feelings are coming alive. We feel hope and faith, love, and joy, and even hurt and fear. We notice the sunshine as well as the clouds. We know life needs both sunshine and rain, both joy and pain. We are alive!

Prayer for the Day:

Higher Power, help me let go of my fears and enjoy life. I haven’t always known how to enjoy life, but You can teach me. All life is from You, so teach me to be free in Your light and love.

Action for the Day:

Right now, I can think of at least three things in life that make me feel like sunshine. What are they?

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation

ONE DAY AT A TIME - 2nd April 2026

LOVE
There is only one happiness in life … to love and be loved.

~ George Sand ~
It took me many, many years to really and truly discover what turned out to be something that I have yearned for all of my life. That “something” was love ~ both the ability to love and to accept love.

As a child, I felt I had to achieve to be loved and, in the process of achieving, lost a great deal of my childhood. This carried over to adulthood and thus began the years of doing what was expected of me (or so I thought) in order to be loved, valued and respected.

Recovery has taught me so much about myself and about love. One of the greatest truths I have learned about myself and my ability to love is that for me to love someone, it is not necessary that they love me back. My loving someone else never depends on their loving me … but how wonderful it is when they do.

One Day at a Time . . .
Let me realize that love is something that just happens … I can’t make it happen … and I can’t stop it from happening.

~ Mari ~

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY FOLKS HAVE A LOVE FILLED DAY

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