LIGHTING THE DARK PAST
Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, the dark past
is the greatest possession you have - the key to life and
happiness for others. With it you can avert death and
misery for them.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p 124
No longer is my past an autobiography; it is a reference
book to be taken down, opened and shared. Today as I report
for duty, the most wonderful picture comes through. For,
though this day be dark - as some days must be - the stars
will shine even brighter later. My witness that they do
shine will be called for in the very near future. All my
past will this day be a part of me, because it is the key,
not the lock.
***********************************************************
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
In A.A. we often hear the slogan "Easy Does It." Alcoholics
always do everything to excess. They drink too much. They
worry too much. They have too many resentments. They hurt
themselves physically and mentally by too much of everything.
So when they come into A.A., they have to learn to take it
easy. None of us knows how much longer we have to live. Its
probable that we wouldn't have lived very long if we had
continued to drink the way we used to. By stopping drinking,
we have increased our chances of living for a while longer.
Have I learned to take it easy?
Meditation For The Day
You must be before you can do. To accomplish much, be much.
In all cases, the doing must be the expression of the being.
It is foolish to think that we can accomplish much in personal
relationships without first preparing ourselves by being honest,
pure, unselfish, and loving. We must choose the good and keep
choosing it, before we are ready to be used by God to accomplish
anything worthwhile. We will not be given the opportunities
until we are ready for them. Quiet times of communion with the
Higher Power are good preparation for creative action.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may constantly prepare myself for better things
to come. I pray that I may only have opportunities when I am
ready for them.
***********************************************************
As Bill Sees It
Willingness
Is The Key, p. 122
No matter how much one wishes to try, exactly how can he turn his
own will and his own life over to the care of whatever God he thinks
there is?
A beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have
placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so
slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more.
Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will
always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.
12 & 12, p. 35
***********************************************************
Walk in Dry Places
Look out for the power trips
Understanding hidden motives
We can often use a lofty reason to disguise a hidden motive behind our
actions. We might be seeking power over people's lives, for
example, while claiming that "we're only out to help them." We
may argue for a point of view only to establish a position of
power. Such power trips are destructive, and others usually see
them for what they really are.
If we've really accepted the principles of the Twelve Steps, we have no
need for power trips. The logic of Step Eleven, for example, is
that we'll always have the power needed to carry out what's in line
with God's will for us. We do not have to jostle and manipulate
others to establish our importance or our authority.
When we really come to terms with our own tendencies to take power
trips, we'll be able to deal with others who come on strong with their
power trips. We'll soon perceive that such threats usually fade when we
refuse to resist them or be upset by them.
I'll undoubtedly meet people today who are maneuvering for power in
different situations. I will neither criticize nor oppose them.My
responsibility today is to avoid any of my own tendencies to take such
power trips.
***********************************************************
Keep It Simple
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.---Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us want to be happy. We just don't know how. We aren't sure
what
happiness is. We've learned the hard way that some things we wanted
didn't make us happy. We're learning that happiness comes when we live
the way our Higher Power wants us to live. That's when we’re honest.
When
we do our best work. When we are a true friend. We make happiness; we
don't find it. Sometimes we don't even know we're happy. We're
too
busy with our work, our recovery program, our friends and family. We
need
to slow down and know that when we do what we need to, happiness
comes.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know that I'm most
happy when I listen to You and
do Your will. You know better than I do what makes me happy.
Action for the Day: What parts of my program am I most happy
about? Today I'll think of these
and enjoy myself.
***********************************************************
Each Day a New Beginning
Insight is cheap. --Martha Roth
For years we kept ourselves in a split condition: With one part of our
minds we looked at ourselves and said, "I do some self-destructive
things because I don't believe I deserve love." When we became involved
with unsuitable people or abused our bodies, we said, "I am punishing
myself--I am expecting too much--I neglect my own needs."
We may see clearly how and why we get in our own way. But unless we
have faith in a power greater than ourselves, we won't step aside. We
won't let go. We'll do the same thing and "understand" ourselves in the
same ways. We may even use our "insight" to keep ourselves stuck--to
protect ourselves from the risk of change.
Now, having had a spiritual awakening, having come to believe that a
higher power can restore us, we possess a gift more powerful than the
keenest insight--faith in our ability to grow and change. We are
children of God. All the creative power of the universe streams through
us, if we don't block it.
Today, I will have faith, and all will be well.
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition
Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS
Therefore, we started upon a personal inventory. This was Step Four. A
business which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke. Taking
commercial inventory is a fact-finding and a fact-facing process. It is
an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade. One object is
to disclose damaged or unsalable goods, to get rid of them promptly and
without regret. If the owner of the business is to be successful, he
cannot fool himself about values.
p. 64
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition Stories
ME AN ALCOHOLIC? - Alcohol's wringer
squeezed this author--but he escaped quite whole.
The other side of the coin is
sinister, baffling. I was inwardly unhappy most of the
time. There would be times when the life of respectability and
achievement seemed insufferably dull--I had to break out. This I
would do by going completely "bohemian" for a night, getting drunk, and
rolling home with the dawn. Next day, remorse would be on me like
a tiger. I'd claw my way back to respectability and stay
there--until the inevitable next time.
p. 382
***********************************************************
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Eleven - "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."
Now, what of prayer? Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to
God--and in this sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it?
And how does it fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood,
is a petition to God. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try
to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the
greatest need. And we think that the whole range of our needs is well
defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: "...knowledge of His
will for us and the power to carry that out." A request for this fits
in any part of our day.
p. 102
***********************************************************
My
experience
has
been
that
putting the program into
practice in my
life is not just turning things over to my Higher Power, but turning
them over and then taking my hands off!
--Nancy S.
God has got us covered today!!
--Anonymous
When self-will is running riot, hit the brakes, take time out, talk to
God.
Reconnect with God to refresh, renew, restore yourself with Him.
--Tammy B.
You can learn many things from children. How much patience you
have, for instance.
--Franklin P. Adams
I bask in the sunshine of God's love.
--SweetyZee
When the pace of change seems overwhelming, we find stability in
God.
--Sherry Holloway
***********************************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
FACTS
"Facts do not cease to exist
because they are ignored."
--Aldous Huxley
Reality is not dependent upon our acceptance. Addiction does not have
to be accepted to be real. Alcoholism was killing people long before it
had a name!
I need to remember this in the recovery program for my life. A big
part of my life was spent denying that I had a problem. My
manipulative art was exercised in discovering more acceptable
excuses for my drunkenness, rather than looking at the problem. I
danced toward death with God and denial on my lips. Belief in the God
of Truth did not stop my dishonesty.
The process of self-love and acceptance began in my cry for help.
Surrender brought me sanity. God was working His purpose out in my
life because I was getting out of my way; I was facing the facts.
Spirituality is making the words fit the feelings, and the feelings make
the action.
***********************************************************
"Therefore
be
imitators
of
God,
as beloved children. And walk in
love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God."
Ephesians 5:1-2
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in
the
eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live
at
peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave
room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will
repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry,
feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this,
you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good."
Romans 12:17-21
***********************************************************
Daily Inspiration
Do not allow yourself to be disappointed by any thing or any person,
but rather have faith that in all things God is leading you to your
ultimate good.
Not one day passes without receiving wonderful blessings from our
loving and generous God. Lord, may I forget the irritations that
distract me from Your happiness.
***********************************************************
NA Just For Today
"Just Maybe...."
"There is one thing more than anything
else that will defeat us in our recovery; this is an attitude of
indifference or intolerance toward spiritual principles."
Basic Text, p. 18
When we first came to NA, many of us
had great difficulty accepting the spiritual principles underlying this
program—and for good reason. No matter how we'd tried to control our
addiction, we'd found ourselves powerless. We grew angry and frustrated
with anyone who suggested there was hope for us, because we knew
better. Spiritual ideas may have had some bearing on other peoples'
lives, but not on ours.
Despite our indifference or
intolerance toward spiritual principles, we were drawn to Narcotics
Anonymous. There, we met other addicts. They'd been where we'd been,
powerless and hopeless, yet they'd found a way not only to stop using
but to live and enjoy life clean. They spoke of the spiritual
principles that had pointed the way for them to this new life of
recovery. For them, these principles were not just theories but a part
of their practical experience. Yes, we had good reason to be skeptical,
but these spiritual principles spoken of by other NA members really
seemed to work.
Once we admitted this, we didn't
necessarily accept every single spiritual idea we heard. But we did
start to think that, if these principles had worked for others, just
maybe they'd work for us, too. For a beginning, that willingness was
enough.
Just for today: Just maybe the
spiritual principles I hear spoken of in NA might work for me. I am
willing, at least, to open my mind to the possibility.
***********************************************************
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
A bird came down the walk: He did not know I saw; He bit an angle-worm
in halves And ate the fellow, raw. --Emily Dickinson
We must look very different to the birds than we do to each other.
Likewise, birds seem different to us than they do to each other.
Neither the way we see birds or the way they see us is the "right" way.
They are simply different ways of seeing.
If we could turn birds into people so they would see things the way we
do, eat the way we do, and think the way we do, we would lose the idea
of flying. The knowledge that flight is possible is a gift birds have
given us.
We do well to remember this when we get upset at others for not doing
things the way we would. Varieties of styles, appetites, and ideas are
gifts that enrich the world and bring more possibilities into our lives.
When others disagree with me today, will I accept their gift?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Do not reveal your thoughts to everyone, lest you drive away your good
luck. --Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 8:19
We've had problems in our lives with limits. We have done some things
to excess and others we have endlessly postponed. Sometimes we haven't
had good judgment about what we ought to tell someone or whom we ought
to tell. We may have kept secrets that made us lonely and sick. Other
times we exposed too much in inappropriate situations and hurt someone
else or ourselves. Developing these internal limits is a quiet change
that comes with recovery. Gradually, we gain a stronger feeling of
self-respect and become more intuitive about when to express something
and when not to.
Secrets are links in our chains of bondage to isolation, addiction, and
codependency. Yet, when we are compelled to tell everything, we lack
the feeling of self-containment that comes from maturity. We need a
sense of privacy which is the freedom to choose what and when to
confide in a friend. What does our intuition tell us today about our
privacy and our openness?
Today, I will listen to my inner messages about what I need to discuss
with others and when I need to withhold.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
One must be leery of words because they turn into cages. --Viola
Spolin
We defeat ourselves with labels. We hem ourselves in; we shorten our
vision; we cut off opportunities in the making. We influence how others
think of us, too. Someone wise said that we teach others how to treat
us. Are we teaching people to expect nothing great from us - because we
are always afraid? Do we shatter their vision of our potential--by
never thinking we can handle what may come?
We become the persons we have programmed ourselves to be. We can revamp
the program, anytime. And right now is a good time to begin. We are
surrounded by persons who have done just that.
It's time for praise. We are all that we need to be, and more. We will
be helped to do all we are asked to do. We have an inner beauty that
only needs encouragement to shine forth. If we smile from within today,
we will free ourselves from our negative cages. A new life awaits us.
To catch myself each time I insult myself will be a challenge, but one
worth taking on. And it's one I can win!
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Our Higher Power
For the next twenty four hours ...
In recovery, we live life one day at a time, an idea requiring an
enormous amount of faith. We refuse to look back - unless healing from
the past is part of today's work. We look ahead only to make plans. We
focus on this days activity, living it to the best of our ability. If
we do that long enough, well have enough connected days of healing
living to make something valuable of our life.
...I pray for knowledge of Your will for me only...
We surrender to Gods will. We stop trying to control, and we settle for
a life that is manageable. We trust our Higher Powers will for us -
that its good, generous, and with direction.
Were learning, through trial and error, to separate our will from Gods
will. Were learning that Gods will is not offensive. We've learned that
sometimes there's a difference between what others want us to do and
Gods will. Were also learning that God did not intend for us to be
codependent, to be martyrs, to control or care take. Were learning to
trust ourselves.
. . . and the power to carry that through.
Some of recovery is accepting powerlessness. An important part of
recovery is claiming the power to take care of ourselves.
Sometimes, we need to do things that are frightening or painful.
Sometimes, we need to step out, step back, or step forward. We need to
call on the help of a Power greater than ourselves to do that.
We will never be called upon to do anything that we wont be empowered
to do.
Today, I can call upon an energizing Power Source to help me. That
Power is God. I will ask for what I need.
When I look within, I find that I have all that I need. It feels
wonderful to discover that I already am the beautiful person that I
would like to be. --Ruth Fishel
**************************************************
********
Journey to the Heart
See the Divine All Around You
The woman was old, perhaps ninety. She
had the frailness we sometimes see in the elderly, but her life force
was strong, vital. She sat in the cafe eating breakfast with a younger
woman. “You’ve been through a lot,” the younger woman said. “It must be
hard since your husband died. How are you doing?”
The older woman chewed a bite of
toast, then responded. “I’m okay,” she said. “Everything that’s
happened has brought me to a closer walk with the Lord.”
“What do you mean by that?” the
younger woman barked.
“This is what I mean,” the older woman
said. “I see God in everything. In people. In things. In the world. In
myself. It’s just a closer walk.”
I smiled to myself, quit
eavesdropping, and finished my breakfast. Every religious faith has its
own language. Each has its own frame of reference. But most roads lead
to the same destination: taking our place in the Divine rhythm,
recognizing Divinity in all that is– in others, in ourselves, and in
all the creations of the universe.
Open to your connection to the world
around you. Know that we really are one. The connection is God. The
connection is the Divine as each of us understands it. The connection
is love.
**************************************************
********
More Language Of Letting Go
Say when it’s enough
“Say when,” my friend says as she
refills my glass, meaning she wants me to tell her when I have enough
juice.
Saying when is a simple idea that we
can use in our daily lives, as well. Sometimes there is no visible end
to the troubles that beset us, and all we can do is seek shelter from
the storm. But often, it’s up to us to decide when we have had enough.
An irritant might be just a minor inconvenience for a while, but the
longer it lingers, the more irritating it becomes. Say when. Say that
you have had enough, and refuse to let the irritant into your life
anymore.
A draining person can latch on to a
sympathetic ear. Know when that person is starting to take more than
you are willing to give. Say when. The same can also be true of good
things. Some of my friends like to make five, seven, and even ten or
more skydives in a single day. I don’t. I love the sport, but I also
know when it becomes too much of a good thing for me. I say when.
God, help me know and respect my
limits.
**************************************************
********
In God’s Care
It’s not what we don’t know that
hurts, it’s what we know that ain’t so.
~~Will Rogers
Much of our spiritual progress is an
unlerning process. So many “truths” we thought we could bank on have
turned out to be bankrupt. Too many time-honored sentiments that are
accepted as noble truths are misleading, false, or exaggerated.
For instance, contrary to what many of
us were taught, God’s love isn’t dependent on anything we do or don’t
do. Our happiness isn’t found in another person, a possession, or the
other places we might look – we need to look inside. We really only
gain when we give. Struggle brings defeat; surrender brings victory.
I can unlearn my errors by putting
God’s truth to work.
**************************************************
****
Appreciating What Is
Enjoying Your Age by Madisyn Taylor
Try to enjoy the age you are at now,
for each age presents its own unique wisdom to savor.
In each stage of life, there are
wonderful experiences one can savor and valuable insights one can
absorb. Every new decade and, in fact, every new year brings with it
wisdom, transformation, and growth, as well as ends and beginnings.
Many people, however, believe that there is one age that eclipses the
others. They expend energy trying to reach it and, once it has passed,
trying to retain it. But wishing to be younger or older is a denial of
the joys that have been and the joys yet to be, as well as the beauty
of your life in the present. Holding on to one age can make it
difficult to appreciate each new milestone you reach. Taking pleasure
in the delights of your age, whether you are in your 20s, 40s, 60s, or
80s, can help you see the magnificence and usefulness of the complex
seasons of your life.
Each new year gifted to us by the
universe is replete with exciting and unfamiliar experiences. In our
20s, we can embrace the energy of youth and the learning process,
knowing it’s okay to not have all the answers. As we move through our
third decade, we grow more self-assured as the confusion of our young
adulthood melts away. We can honor these years by putting aside our
fears of aging and concentrating instead on solidifying our values and
enjoying our growing emotional maturity. In our 40s, we become
conscious of the wisdom we have attained through life experience and
are blessed with the ability to put it to good use. We are not afraid
to explore unfamiliar territory or to change. In our 50s, we tend to
have successfully navigated our midlife reevaluations and have
prioritized our lives. In the decades beyond, we discover a greater
sense of freedom than we have ever known and can truly enjoy the memory
of all we’ve seen and done.
Try to enjoy the age you are at now,
for each age presents its own unique wisdom to savor. Published with
permission from Daily OM
**************************************************
********
A Day At A Time
Reflection For The Day
When I was drinking, I was certain
that my intelligence, backed by will poewr, could properly control my
inner life and guarantee me success in the world around me. This brave
and grandiose philosophy, by which I played God, sounded good in the
saying, but it still had to meet the acid test: How well did it
actually work? One good look in the mirror was answer enough. Have I
begun to ask God each day for strength?
Today I Pray
May I stop counting on my old
standbys, my “superior intelligence” and my “willpower,” to control my
life. I used to think, with those two fabulous attributes, that I was
all-powerful. May I not forget, as my self-image is restored, that onl
through surrender to a Higher Power will I be given the power that can
make me whole.
Today I Will Remember
Check for “head-tripping.”
**************************************************
********
One More Day
Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the
best ends by the best means.
– Francis Hutchinson
Remember when we were youngsters and
used to say, “When I grow up, I’m going to . . . “? Somehow that magic
moment never arrives. We grow a little each day, but change comes
slowly.
We realize we have matured when we
recognize our days as a series of options. Diminished health may change
those options somewhat, but we still have choices to make.
We do not have a choice over the state
of our health, but we can “grow into” acceptance and into more positive
attitudes. We can achieve the best for ourselves.
Although some of my choices will be
different from those I have originally planned, I can choose the best
that life has to offer me now.
************************************
Food For Thought
Commitment
Our commitment to OA is total. The program is not something we pick up
and put down according to whim. Abstinence is not a diet that we go on
and off as it pleases us. Perhaps a seeming inability to commit
ourselves to anything permanently has been one of our problems in the
past. If so, we are now all the more aware of the necessity for
genuine, total commitment to this program.
Most of us tried just about everything else before we came to OA. We
may even have tried OA previously and left, thinking that there must be
an easier way. Now we are desperate because we know that there is no
other way for us. Our recovery depends on our willingness to commit
ourselves honestly to the OA program and to work it day by day to the
very best of our ability.
When we are firmly committed to the Twelve Steps and the OA principles,
we are able to apply them to all aspects of our daily lives with
astonishing results.
Strengthen my commitment, Lord.
*****************************************
One Day At A Time
HELPING OTHERS
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one life the aching or
cool one pain
or help one fainting Robin unto his
nest again
I shall not live in vain
Emily Dickinson
Somewhere along the way I found myself
to be a caretaker. Injustices, pain, discrimination, bullying; all
these things affected me deeply. I carried it too far. It reached a
point where I truly believe I began taking better care of others than I
did myself. Was this ego? Codependency? Altruism? Or was this a
guiltless way I found to deflect my own problems, pain, injustices and
needs?
When I was doing my first 4th Step
inventory, I learned something very important. As my sponsor read over
one "bad thing" I had done after another she cautioned me to take a
broader look at myself. Finally, she made me do my entire inventory
over and for every 5th character defect or offense to someone, I was
required to write something good about myself. She explained that an
inventory is never meant to be focused on just the bad ... but the good
also. After all, when a store takes inventory on its products, it
counts bent cans of beans as well as the perfect cans of beans and
crushed boxes of cereal as well as the perfect ones.
This helped me to see that my life's
purpose was not just to help others but also to nurture me when my
heart was breaking, to make my own life good and to have a nest for
myself that was safe and serene. After working the Steps, I know that
I'm not living my life in vain and I still want to help others as much
as I possibly can, but not to the detriment of myself ... and certainly
not to keep me from looking at my own life and my own problems
realistically.
One day at a time...
May I help others who are less
fortunate than I find their way. And let me also make my own nest as
comfortable as it can be.
~ Mari
*****************************************
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
We doctors have realized for a long
time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to
alcoholics, but it's application presented difficulties beyond our
conception. What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific
approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the
powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge. - Pg. xxvii -
4th. Edition - The Doctor's Opinion
Hour To Hour - Book - Quote
'For a time we are living inside a
scream where there seems to be no exit, only echoes. The small cares
that seemed so important yesterday seem like nothing, and our daily
concerns become petty and irrelevant. When we finally reclaim
ourselves, as we ultimately do, we are changed.'-- Kent Nerburn, Simple
Truths
I am swept into a reality where I see
what is truly important, my recovery, and I carry that knowledge back
to my daily life.
Opening to the New
Today I will be open to what life
offers to me. The world comes to greet me like an old friend each
morning. My daily habits comfort and ground me. The thought of moving
into my day pleases me. Life unfolds one second at a time and today I
will be present to witness it. How much of my life do I let pass by
unnoticed? How many of my feelings go unfelt? Today I will recognize
that my time on Earth is limited. I choose to value my life a day at a
time and embrace it while I have it.
I am open to life
- Tian Dayton PhD
Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote
They say that young people don't get
sober, they get caught. Getting caught is a great way to find recovery.
We don't care how you get here, whether it is your parents that force
you, a school counselor, the courts, or a guilty conscious--you're
here. So decide not to get recaught, but to recover instead.
If I'm young, I am respectful of the
old farts. If I'm an old fart I don't recite platitudes to the young.
"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book
If you are in the wrong place, the
right place is empty.
Time for Joy - Book - Quote
Today I am open to making small
changes in my life that lead me, a step at a time, on my spiritual path
to recovery. I have faith in the guidance that I am receiving. I trust
that I will know intuitively when the time is right for those changes.
Alkiespeak - Book - Quote
The secret to long sobriety: Don't
drink and don't die. - Anon.
*****************************************
AA Thought for the Day
May 2
Secrets
I can neither love nor be loved if I
allow my secrets to get in the way.
It's the side of myself that I refuse
to look at that rules me.
I must be willing to look at the dark
side in order to heal my mind and heart
because that is the road to freedom.
It's the side of me that I refuse to
look at that rules me.
- Daily Reflections, p. 130
Thought to Ponder . . .
I must walk into darkness to find the
light.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness,
Willingness.
~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
Humility
"I am still arrogant, self-righteous,
with no humility, even phony at times,
but I'm trying to be a better person
and help my fellowman.
Guess I'll never be a saint,
but whatever I am,
I want to be sober and in AA.
The word 'alcoholic' does not turn me
off any more;
in fact, it is music to my ears
when it applies to me."
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 463
Thought to Consider . . .
"Many people haven't even a nodding
acquaintance
with humility as a way of life."
Bill W., Twelve Steps and Twelve
Traditions, p. 70
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
KISS
Keep It Simple, Surrender
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Strong
From "From Loneliness to Solitude":
"A.A. members are not emotional
cripples who need someone to hold their hands every moment of the day
and night to
prevent their falling. We grow up with
the help of God, as we understand Him, and the fellowship of the group,
and by
applying the Twelve Steps to our
lives."
1973 AAWS, Inc.; Came to Believe, 30th
printing 2004, pg. 109
*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*
God has given me this day to use as I
wish; Alcoholics Anonymous shows me how to live it without a drink."
Somerville, Mass., September 1995
"Changes for the Better,"
In Our Own Words
~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve
Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*
"At a certain point in the drinking of
every alcoholic, he passes
into a state where the most powerful
desire to stop drinking is of
absolutely no avail. This tragic
situation has already arrived in
practically every case long before it
is suspected."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition,
There Is A Solution, pg. 24~
"When the spiritual malady is
overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition,
How It Works, Page 64~
It is A.A.’s experience that
particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God’s will, whatever
it is, be done for others
as well as for ourselves.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.
104
Misc. AA Literature - Quote
Willingness Is the Key
No matter how much one wishes to try,
exactly how can he turn his own will and his own life over to the care
of
whatever God he thinks there is?
A beginning, even the smallest, is all
that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock
and have
the door ever so slightly open, we
find that we can always open it some more.
Though self-will may slam it shut
again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we
again pick up the
key of willingness. TWELVE AND TWELVE,
P. 35
Prayer For The Day: Dear Father, thank you for the life you
have given me. Thank you for giving me a family that is so
understanding and supportive of me in everything I do.