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Post by majestyjo on Dec 21, 2014 13:32:58 GMT -5
December 21
Daily Reflections
LISTEN, SHARE AND PRAY
When working with a man and his family, you should take care not to participate in their quarrels. You may spoil your chance of being helpful if you do. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 100
When trying to help a fellow alcoholic, I've given in to an impulse to give advice, and perhaps that's inevitable. But allowing others the right to be wrong reaps its own benefits. The best I can do - and it sounds easier than it is to put into practice - is to listen, share personal experience, and pray for others.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Have I ceased being inwardly defeated, at war with myself? Have I given myself freely to A.A. and to the Higher Power? Have I got over being sick inside? Am I still wandering mentally or am I "on the beam?" I can face anything, if I am sure I am on the way. When I am sure, I should bet my life on A.A. I have learned how the program works. Now will I follow it with all I have, with all I can give, with all my might, with all my life? Am I going to let A.A. principles guide the rest of my life?
Meditation For The Day
In this time of quiet meditation, follow the pressure of the Lord's leading. In all decisions to be made today, yield to the gentle pressure of your conscience. Stay or go as that pressure indicates. Take the events of today as part of God's planning and ordering. He may lead you to a right decision. Wait quietly until you have an inner urge, a leading, a feeling that a thing is right, a pressure on your will by the spirit of God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that today I may try to follow the inner pressure of God's leading. I pray that I may try to follow my conscience and do what seems right today.
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As Bill Sees It
Neither Dependence nor Self-Sufficiency, p.265
When we insisted, like infants, that people protect and take care of us or that the world owed us a living, then the result was unfortunate. The people we most loved often pushed us aside or perhaps deserted us entirely. Our disillusionment was hard to bear.
We failed to see that, though adult in years, we were still behaving childishly, trying to turn everybody--friends, wives, husbands, even the world itself--into protective parents. We refused to learn that overdependence upon people is unsuccessful because all people are fallible, and even the best of them will sometimes let us down, especially when our demands for attention become unreasonable.
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Walk In Dry Places
Keeping the Faith with Guidance Good Orderly Direction Does guidance from our Higher Power always come through? We must believe that it does, even when we don't seem to receive a visible answer. Spiritual guidance usually doesn't come as we think it should. What we're likely to find instead is that over time, a number of unrelated events come together for a good purpose. Although this appears to be chance or coincidence, very important outcomes often develop from simple happenings___ maybe just from meeting someone on the street. We can never really determine how any chain of events will play out. The best we can do is to continue seeking guidance while following the highest principles in our program. Many chance happenings will be recognized as guidance when we look back at an entire chain of events. My best way to seek guidance is simply to remember today that my life and affairs are in God's care and keeping. The highest good will come from this.
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Keep It Simple
Don't give your advice before you are called upon. Desiderius Erasmus If someone wants your advice, the person will ask for it. That's one reason why in Twelve Step programs we don't go around trying to talk people into joining. But people will ask us for advice. They'll see how we've changed, and they'll want what we have. All we have to do is tell them where we found it--in AA, NA or another Twelve Step group. We don't tell them what to do. We tell them our own story--what it was like, what happened, and where we are now. And we invite them to join us. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me carry the healing message of the program to these who ask for advice. Action for the Day: I'll make a decision to spend time with the next person who ask for my help.
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Each Day a New Beginning
Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of her abilities, and no more . . . --Gail Hamilton We have been given the gift of life. Our recovery validates that fact. Our pleasure with that gift is best expressed by the fullness with which we greet and live life. We need not back off from the invitations our experiences offer. Each one of them gives us a chance, a bit different from all other chances, to fulfill part of our purpose in the lives of others. It has been said that the most prayerful life is the one most actively lived. Full encounter with each moment is evidence of our trust in the now and thus our trust in our higher power. When we fear what may come or worry over what has gone before, we're not trusting in God. Growth in the program will help us remember that fact, thus releasing us to participate more actively in the special circumstances of our lives. When we look around us today, we know that the persons in our midst need our best, and they're not there by accident but by Divine appointment. We can offer them the best we have--acceptance, love, support, our prayers, and we can know that is God's plan for our lives and theirs, I will celebrate my opportunities for goodness today. They'll bless me in turn.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens. There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as He would. I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch. I have not had a drink since.
p. 13
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
With the war over and back in Baltimore with the folks, I had several small jobs for three years, and then I went to work soliciting as one of the first ten employees of a new national finance company. What an opportunity I shot to pieces there! This company now does a volume of over three billion dollars annually. Three years later, at twenty-five, I opened and operated their Philadelphia office and was earning more than I ever have since. I was the fair-haired boy all right, but two years later I was blacklisted as an irresponsible drunk. It doesn't take long.
p. 223
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."
"I was bowled over. There were a few twinges of conscience until I saw how really ethical Charlie's proposal was. There was nothing wrong whatever with becoming a lay therapist. I thought of Lois coming home exhausted from the department store each day, only to cook supper for a houseful of drunks who weren't paying board. I thought of the large sum of money still owing my Wall Street creditors. I thought of a few of my alcoholic friends, who were making as much money as ever. Why shouldn't I do as well as they?
pp. 136-137
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Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. --Arnold Schwarzenegger
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. --Buddha
In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us. --Flora Edwards
As long as I am willing, God will always provide the answers. No one said I would like them, but I accept them. --Shelley
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it." --Thomas Paine
Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery.
Recovery is not a race.
Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour.
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
ORIGINALITY
"Originality exists in every individual because each of us differ from the others. We are all primary --numbers divisible only by ourselves." Jean Guitton
For too many years I tried to be "the same" as other people; matched their styles, repeated their words, did what they wanted, lived to please a crowd of people I did not really know and they certainly did not know me! I said other people's prayers, quoted other people's opinions and memorized the ideas of others and I felt empty.
Today I value the lives of others but I am slowly beginning to explore my place in this universe. Today I accept the "specialness" that is me; that uniqueness makes me God's miracle. Now others are listening and benefiting from my life.
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For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-10
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." Luke 10:25-28
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Daily Inspiration
Growth is not easy. It comes from fully experiencing each situation and mastering it with understanding. Lord, Your presence in my life dispels my fears and guides me through all of life's circumstances.
Today be cheerful when it is difficult and patient when that, too, is difficult. Lord, I will let Your love for me flow through me and touch those around me.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 22, 2014 13:27:03 GMT -5
December 22
Daily Reflections
PRINCIPLES, NOT PERSONALITIES
The way our "worthy" alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the "less worthy" is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another! THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 37
Who am I to judge anyone? When I first entered the Fellowship I found that I liked everyone. After all, A.A. was going to help me to a better way of life without alcohol. The reality was that I couldn't possibly like everyone, nor they me. As I've grown in the Fellowship, I've learned to love everyone just from listening to what they had to say. That person over there, or the one right here, may be the one God has chosen to give me the message I need for today. I must always remember to place principles above personalities.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
As we look back over our drinking careers, we must realize that our lives were a mess because we were a mess inside. The trouble was in us, not in life itself. Life itself was good enough, but we were looking at it the wrong way. We were looking at life through the bottom of a whiskey glass, and it was distorted. We could not see all the beauty and goodness and purpose in the world, because our vision was blurred. We were in a house with one-way glass in the windows. People could see us but we could not look out and see them and see what life meant to them and should mean to us. We were blind then, but now we can see. Can I now look at life as it really is?
Meditation For The Day
Fear no evil, because the power of God can conquer evil. Evil has power to seriously hurt only those who do not place themselves under the protection of the Higher Power. This is not a question of feeling, it is an assured fact of our experience. Say to yourself with assurance that whatever it is, no evil can seriously harm you as long as you depend on the Higher Power. Be sure of the protection of God's grace.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that fear of evil will not get me down. I pray that I may try to place myself today under the protection of God's grace.
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As Bill Sees It
The Step That Keeps Us growing, p.264
Sometimes, when friends tell us how well we are doing, we know better inside. We know we aren't doing well enough. We still can't handle life, as life is. There must be a serious flaw somewhere in our spiritual practice and development.
What, then, is it?
The chances are better than even that we shall locate our trouble in our misunderstanding or neglect of A.A.'s Step Eleven--prayer, meditation, and the guidance of God.
The other Steps can keep most of us sober and somehow functioning. But Step Eleven can keep us growing, if we try hard and work at it continually.
Grapevine, June 1958
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Walk In Dry Places
Watching what we think Personal Inventory. It's healthy for AA members to confess personal difficulties with destructive thinking. When we find ourselves becoming too irritable or impatient, it's important to admit this in meetings or one-on-one discussions. Usually, just the admission of the problem helps solve it. It's only false pride that makes us think we should be "above" destructive thinking. As human beings, we'll be susceptible to human failings no matter how long we've been sober. If we continue to watch what we think, we'll also be able to head off very serious problem before they get out of control. Far from being a sign that we're not working the program, the practice of weeding out our current faults is the Tenth Step in action. Continuing to take personal inventory and admitting our wrongs are a safeguard against trouble. Destructive thinking is no respecter of persons, and even as an older member, I could lapse into it today. I always have the Tenth Step, however, to get me back on track.
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Keep It Simple
It is possible to be different and still be right.--Anne Wilson Schaef Each of us is special. In some ways we're all different. It's a good thing too. We'd be bored if we were all the same. Sometimes though, we try to hide the special things about us. We don't want to be "different." But the ways that we're different makes us special. Others have a knack of fixing things. Some of us make beautiful art. Others are great with kids. Our Higher Power made us as different, as unique, as beautiful snowflakes. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me use my special gifts the way You want me to. Help me be thankful that You have given me something special to share with others. Action for the Day: I'll think of one thing about me that's special. I'll talk with my sponsor about it.
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Each Day a New Beginning
Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of her abilities, and no more . . . --Gail Hamilton We have been given the gift of life. Our recovery validates that fact. Our pleasure with that gift is best expressed by the fullness with which we greet and live life. We need not back off from the invitations our experiences offer. Each one of them gives us a chance, a bit different from all other chances, to fulfill part of our purpose in the lives of others. It has been said that the most prayerful life is the one most actively lived. Full encounter with each moment is evidence of our trust in the now and thus our trust in our higher power. When we fear what may come or worry over what has gone before, we're not trusting in God. Growth in the program will help us remember that fact, thus releasing us to participate more actively in the special circumstances of our lives. When we look around us today, we know that the persons in our midst need our best, and they're not there by accident but by Divine appointment. We can offer them the best we have--acceptance, love, support, our prayers, and we can know that is God's plan for our lives and theirs, I will celebrate my opportunities for goodness today. They'll bless me in turn.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
My schoolmate visited me, and I fully acquainted him with my problems and deficiencies. We made a list of people I had hurt or toward whom I felt resentment. I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals, admitting my wrong. Never was I to be critical of them. I was to right all such matters to the utmost of my ability.
p. 13
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
My next job was in sales promotion for an oil company in Mississippi, where I promptly became high man and got lots of pats on the back. Then I turned two company cars over in a short time and bingo--fired again! Oddly enough, the big shot who fired me from this company was one of the first men I met when I later joined the New York A.A. Group. He had also gone all the way through the wringer and had been dry two years when I saw him again.
pp. 223-224
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."
"Almost timidly, one of my friends began to speak. `We know how hard up you are, Bill. It bothers us a lot. We've often wondered what we might do about it. But I think I speak for everyone here when I say that what you now propose bothers us an awful lot more.' The speaker's voice grew more confident. `Don't you realize,' he went on, `that you can never become a professional? As generous as Charlie has been to us, don't you see that we can't tie this thing up with his hospital or any other? You tell us that Charlie's proposal is ethical. Sure, it's ethical, but what we've got won't run on ethics only; it has to be better. Sure, Charlie's idea is good, but it isn't good enough. This is a matter of life and death, Bill, and nothing but the very best will do!' Challengingly, my friends looked at me as their spokesman continued. `Bill, haven't you often said right here in this meeting that sometimes the good is the enemy of the best? Well, this is a plain case of it. You can't do this thing to us!'
pp. 137-138
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Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When The language of truth is simple. --Czech Proverb
"Laughter is by definition healthy." --Doris Lessing
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Your vision will become clear only when You can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. --Carl Jung
"Being quiet does not mean sacrificing productivity." --Jane Nelson
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
PERSEVERANCE
"Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance." -- Samuel Johnson
Today I saw a large 200-pound man drunk in a parking lot. Last night I heard a frail mother celebrate ten years of sobriety. The difference? Perseverance. People get what they really want in life. If you want sobriety more than anything else, are prepared to go to any lengths, then nothing will stop you. Perseverance reveals the "walk" as well as the "talk".
Today I need to remember that what is worth having requires sacrifice and effort. God helps those who are prepared to help themselves. Today I intend to help myself to sobriety.
I pray that I may persevere through my fears towards my goal.
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Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Matthew 19:14
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Timothy 4:12
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen. 1 Corinthians 16:23-24
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Daily Inspiration
If you want peace and goodness in your life you must be kind and loving. Lord, may I avoid creating misery so that my life will reflect my love for You.
God's blessings never end and His mercies are forever. Lord, may I love others as You love me.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 23, 2014 10:33:00 GMT -5
December 23
Daily Reflections
RECOVERY, UNITY, SERVICE Our Twelfth Step - carrying the message - is the basic service that AA's Fellowship gives; this is our principal aim and the main reason for our existence. THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 160
I thank God for those who came before me, those who told me not to forget the Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Service. In my home group, the Three Legacies were described on a sign which said: "You take a three-legged stool, try to balance it on only one leg, or two. Our Three Legacies must be kept intact. In Recovery, we get sober together; in Unity, we work together for the good of our Steps and Traditions; and through Service - we give away freely what has been given to us." One of the chief gifts of my life has been to know that I will have no message to give, unless I recover in unity with A.A. principles.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
We have definitely left that dream world behind. It was only a sham. It was a world of our own making and it was not the real world. We are sorry for the past, yes, but we learned a lot from it. We can put it down to experience, as we see it now, because it has given us the knowledge necessary to face the world as it really is. We had to become alcoholics in order to find the A.A. program. We would not have got it any other way. In a way, it was worth it. Do I look at my past as valuable experience?
Meditation For The Day
Shed peace, not discord, wherever you go. Try to be part of the cure of every situation, not part of the problem. Try to ignore evil, rather than to actively combat it. Always try to build up, never to tear down. Show others by your example that happiness comes from living the right way. The power of your example is greater than the power of what you say.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may try to bring something good into every situation today. I pray that I may be constructive in the way I think and speak and act today.
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As Bill Sees It
Fear And Faith, p.263
The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed.
When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we shall all react to this emotion--well or badly, as the case may be. Only the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear.
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We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up. Sometimes we had to search persistently, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great Reality deep down within us.
1. Grapevine, January 1962 2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p.55
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Walk In Dry Places
AA goes the Distance Fortitude Few societies or organizations have better ways of measuring success than AA. Since we are friends as well as recovering people, some of us get to know others fairly well over long periods of time. Even in a large city, we meet people again and again, year after year. We've come to think it very commonplace that some individuals have been sober ten years or more, and that some members have been in the fellowship more than forty years. The AA program does have staying power; it goes the distance for those who continue to follow it. We should remind ourselves of this when we hear of new, faddish theories about alcoholism and recovery. Most of the time, the results reported are very short-term. What we really need is recovery with staying power, which we can find in the AA program. Today's sobriety can be another link in an endless chain of sobriety. AA will go the distance for me if I take care of each day as it comes.
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Keep It Simple
We not only need to be willing to give, but also to be open to receiving from others.---from On Hope Many of us took so much from others during our addiction that now we may not want to ask for anything. We may be afraid to ask for help, so our needs go unmet. In fact, many of us would rather give than receive. In recovery, we need to understand the difference between taking and receiving. Giving to others is important. So is receiving from others. As we grow spiritually, we learn to accept gifts. The gift of sobriety teaches us this. We need to accept the gifts the world gives us without shame. We are entitled. God loves us and will give us much if we're willing to receive it. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be receptive to Your gifts. Help me see and believe that I'm entitled to all the happiness of the world. Action for the Day: I'll think of what a friend has given me. I'll thank this friend.
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Each Day a New Beginning
. . . The present enshrines the past. --Simone de Beauvoir Each of our lives is a multitude of interconnecting pieces, not unlike a mosaic. What has gone before, what will come today, are at once and always entwined. The past has done its part, never to be erased. The present is always a composite. In months and years gone by, perhaps we anticipated the days with dread. Fearing the worst, often we found it; we generally find that which we fear. But we can influence the mosaic our experiences create. The contribution today makes to our mosaic can lighten its shade, can heighten its contrast, and can make bold its design. What faces us today? A job we enjoy or one we fear? Growing pains of our children? Loneliness? How we move through the minutes, the hours, influences our perception of future minutes and hours. No moment is inviolate. Every moment is part of the whole that we are creating. We are artists. We create our present from influences of our past. I will go forth today; I will anticipate goodness. I will create the kind of moments that will add beauty to my mosaic.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
I was to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within. Common sense would thus become uncommon sense. I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me. Never was I to pray for myself, except as my requests bore on my usefulness to others. Then only might I expect to receive. But that would be in great measure.
p. 13
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
After the oil job blew up, I went back to Baltimore and Mother, my first wife having said a permanent goodbye. Then came a sales job with a national tire company. I reorganized their city sales policy and eighteen months later, when I was thirty, they offered me the branch managership. As part of this promotion, they sent me to their national convention in Atlantic City to tell the big wheels how I'd done it. At this time I was holding what drinking I did down to weekends, but I hadn't had a drink at all in a month. I checked into my hotel room and then noticed a placard tucked under the glass on the bureau stating "There will be positively NO drinking at this convention," signed by the president of the company. That did it! Who me? The Big Shot? The only salesman invited to talk at the convention? The man who was going to take over one of their biggest branches come Monday? I'd show 'em who was boss! No one in that company ever saw me again--ten days later I wired my resignation.
p. 224
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."
"So spoke the group conscience. The group was right and I was wrong; the voice on the subway was not the voice of God. Here was the true voice, welling up out of my friends. I listened, and - thank God - I obeyed."
p. 138
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"The tree in which the sap is stagnant remains fruitless." --Hosea Ballou
Speaking without thinking is shooting without aiming. --French Proverb
Don't let your tongue cut your throat. --Irish Proverb
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you find you are upset over a situation, stop and ask yourself one very important question. "Is this something I can change?" Whether it is or not, turn your negative energy in to productive energy. You can either change the situation, or change your perspective of the situation. --unknown
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
LANGUAGE
"If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." -- George Orwell
Sobriety for me means much more than "not drinking" or "not using" --- it means the daily decision to be a positive and creative human being in all areas of my life: How I treat people. What I eat. The books I read and how I speak! Not even my worst enemy would call me a "prude" but I think that bad language used on a regular basis is unacceptable in sobriety. Why? Because it hurts the listener and does not show respect for self or the God-given gift of communication.
If you have no respect for language, you will ultimately not grow as a spiritual person.
May Your "words of love" be reflected in my speech and writings.
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To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. Psalms 25:1-2
Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalms 25:4-5
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Daily Inspiration
Each time you have a kind thought, say a kind word or do a kind deed you are living your love. Lord, as I see the world through loving eyes, I experience heaven on earth.
Get and keep a good humored attitude toward life. This will bring you support rather than opposition. Lord, may I always be a peacemaker.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 23, 2014 10:38:33 GMT -5
December 24
Daily Reflections
A "SANE AND HAPPY USEFULNESS" We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads in the clouds with Him, but that our feet ought to be firmly planted on earth. That is where our fellow travelers are, and that is where our work must be done. These are the realities for us. We have found nothing incompatible between a powerful spiritual experience and a life of sane and happy usefulness. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 130
All the prayer and meditation in the world will not help me unless they are accompanied by action. Practicing the principles in all my affairs shows me the care that God takes in all parts of my life. God appears in my world when I move aside, and allow Him to step into it.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
We have been given a new life, just because we happened to become alcoholics. We certainly don't deserve the new life that has been given us. There is little in our past to warrant the life we have now. Many people live good lives from their youth on, not getting into serious trouble, being well adjusted to life, and yet they have not found all that we drunks have found. We had the good fortune to find Alcoholics Anonymous and with it a new life. We are among the lucky few in the world who have learned a new way of life. Am I deeply grateful for the new life that I have learned in A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
A deep gratitude to the Higher Power for all the blessings which we have and which we don't deserve has come to us. We thank God and mean it. Then comes service to our fellow men, out of gratitude for what we have received. This entails some sacrifice of ourselves and our own affairs. But we are glad to do it. Gratitude, service, and then sacrifice are the steps that lead to good A.A. work. They open the door to a new life for us.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may gladly serve others, out of deep gratitude for what I have received. I pray that I may keep a deep sense of obligation.
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As Bill Sees It
Individual Responsibilities, p.262
Let us emphasize that our reluctance to fight one another, or anybody else, is not counted as some special virtue which entitles us A.A.'s to feel superior to other people. Nor does this reluctance mean that the members of A.A. are going to back away from their individual responsibilities as citizens. Here they should feel free to act as they see the right upon the public issues of our times.
But when it comes to A.A. as a whole, that's quite a different matter. As a group we do not enter into public controversy, because we are sure that our Society will perish if we do.
12 & 12, p.177
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Walk In Dry Places
Jealousy toward loved ones Feeling Though resentment gets more attention in AA than jealousy, both of these ugly emotions can plague us in sobriety. Some of us can be very distressed and ashamed when the green demon of jealousy suddenly assaults us. Does this mean we're not working our program? No, because the purpose of our program is to bring honesty and healing into our lives, not denial of basic human emotions. It's very understandable that we have pangs of jealousy even in sobriety. Quite often, this jealousy will be felt toward loved ones and close friends. One young AA father disclosed he was jealous of his wife when their infant son seemed more responsive to her than to him. We can also experience jealousy when others close to us receive things we'd like to have. It's even possible to be jealous of another's standing in AA. When such feelings arise, we always have the answer: We must discuss our feelings with certain AA friends and turn these problems over to our Higher Power. This, not denial, is always the solution. If the green demon of envy and jealousy arises today, I'll let the healing power of the Twelve Steps go to work on it.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
We must all hang together or we will hang separately.---Ben Franklin We didn't get ourselves sober. And we don't keep ourselves sober. Our program does this. That is why the Twelfth Step is important. We must be willing to give service to our program whenever it's needed. When a friend calls and say he or she feels like using, we don't say we're sorry. We get our friend and take him or her to a meeting. Our survival depends on this kind of action. We are to carry the message. We carry the message by deeds, not words. We are part of a fellowship based on action. A fellowship guided by love. It is not words that keep us sober--it is action. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be ready whenever there's a need. Help me be ready to put my self-will aside. Give me strength. Action for the Day: I will think of my group members. Who could use a supportive call or visit? I will call or visit those who need my help.
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
Follow your dream . . if you stumble, don't stop and lose sight of your goal, press on to the top. For only on top Can we see the whole view . . . --Amanda Bradley Today, we can, each of us, look back on our lives and get a glimmering of why something happened and how it fit into the larger mosaic of our lives. And this will continue to be true for us. We have stumbled. We will stumble. And we learn about ourselves, about what makes us stumble and about the methods of picking ourselves up. Life is a process, a learning process that needs those stumbles to increase our awareness of the steps we need to take to find our dream at the top. None of us could realize the part our stumbling played in the past. But now we see. When we fall, we need to trust that, as before, our falls are "up," not down. I will see the whole view in time. I see part of it daily. My mosaic is right and good and needs my stumbles.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
My friend promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements. Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all. These were revolutionary and drastic proposals, but the moment i fully accepted them, the effect was electric. There was a sense of victory, followed by such a peace and serenity as I had ever known. There was utter confidence. I felt lifted up, as though the great clean wind of a mountain top blew through and through. God comes to most men gradually, but His impact on me was sudden and profound.
pp. 13-14
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
As long as things were tough and the job a challenge, I could always manage to hold on pretty well, but as soon as I learned the combination, got the puzzle under control, and the boss to pat me on the back, I was gone again. Routine jobs bored me, but I would take on the toughest one I could find and work day and night until I had it under control; then it would become tedious, and I'd lose all interest in it. I could never be bothered with the follow-through and would invariably reward myself for my efforts with that "first" drink.
pp. 224-225
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
This Tradition is packed with meaning. For A.A. is really saying to every serious drinker, "You are an A.A. member if you say so. You can declare yourself in; nobody can keep you out. No matter who you are, no matter how low you've gone, no matter how grave your emotional complications - even your crimes - we still can't deny you A.A. We don't want to keep you out. We aren't a bit afraid you'll harm us, never mind how twisted or violent you may be. We just want to be sure that you get the same great chance for sobriety that we've had. So you're an A.A. member the minute you declare yourself."
p. 139
************************************************** *********
Sharing our experiences with other people gives them hope. --unknown
What I am is God's gift to me. What I make of myself is my gift to Him. --unknown
"An apology is the superglue of life: it can repair just about anything." --Unknown
A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror. --Kahlil Gibran
"Joy is not in things; It is in us" --Richard Wagner
"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect." --Oren Arnold
"At this time of the year, we need to remind ourselves that what we give from deep within has a much greater worth than what we give from our wallets. Some attempt to impress others with their contributions, but the real acts of kindness are when we give our time, our talents, and gifts that are a reflection of our hearts. -*Neil Eskelinn
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
BROTHERHOOD
"I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world." -- Socrates
My recovery has enabled me to see that I belong; I belong not simply to a race or nation but to the world. The freedom experienced in my recovery enables me to embrace different cultures, races and religions. Spirituality has brought harmony into my life.
Today I can go where I please. I can learn languages and communicate with people in foreign lands. I can listen to ideas and philosophies that enrich God "as I understand Him". The healing that I have experienced in my recovery is more than discovering my choice around alcohol, it is discovering my choice around life. Today I am not content to exist in my life, I choose to live it. Welcome to my world!
May I always choose to see and appreciate the richness of my life.
************************************************** *********
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. Psalm 25 9-10
"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." Psalm 143:10
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
As you draw closer and closer to God, you won't have to tell anyone because it will show in your face. Lord, teach me Your ways as I am ready and let Your love and peace flow through me even in my difficult moments.
When you live in the spirit of God you will always feel the love within you. Lord, may I seek peace in You and not from the outside world.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 24, 2014 16:45:01 GMT -5
December 25
Daily Reflections
AT PEACE WITH LIFE
Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85
I read this passage each morning, to start off my day, because it is a continual reminder to "practice these principles in all my affairs." When I keep God's will at the forefront of my mind, I am able to do what I should be doing, and that puts me at peace with life, with myself and with God.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good Christmas for me." They will be looking back over the past Christmases which were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their new found life. They will be thinking about how their lives have changed when they came into A.A. They will be thinking that perhaps God let them live through all the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were perhaps often close to death, in order that they may be used by Him in the great work of A.A. Is this a happy Christmas for me?
Meditation For The Day
The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the sinners, the repentant. "And they presented unto him gifts--gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Bring your gifts of gold--your money and material possessions. Bring your frankincense--the consecration of your life to a worthy cause. Bring your myrrh--your sympathy and understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet of God and let Him have full use of them.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas day. I pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
"Fearless and Searching", p.261
My self-analysis has frequently been faulty. Sometimes I've failed to share my defects with the right people; at other times, I've confessed their defects, rather than my own; and still other times, my confession of defects has been more in the nature of loud complaints about my circumstances and my problems.
********************************
When A.A. suggests a fearless moral inventory, it must seem to every newcomer that more is being asked of him than he can do. Every time he tries to look within himself, Pride says, "You need not pass this way," and Fear says, "You dare not look!"
But pride and fear of this sort turn out to be bogymen, nothing else. Once we have a complete willingness to take inventory, and exert ourselves to do the job thoroughly, a wonderful light falls upon this foggy scene. As we persist, a brand-new kind of confidence is born, and the sense of relief at finally facing ourselves is indescribable.
1. Grapevine, June 1958 2. 12 & 12, pp.49-50
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Liking Ourselves Self-esteem. It's maybe unsettling to learn that we need to like ourselves more, especially when we've often been accused of being conceited. Being conceited does not mean liking oneself; it's really a matter of being smug and contemptuous in our dealing with others. This attitude is easily recognized by others, and it causes them to dislike us. However, if we like ourselves in the right way, others sense this too, and they will be drawn to us. We will truly like ourselves more as we learn to practice the principles of AA. We will like the kind of life we are trying to live. We will like ourselves for practicing fairness and honesty. We will also like ourselves for letting people see us as we are and feel comfortable doing so. In liking ourselves, we feel no need to impress or dazzle others. I'll remember today that I have a right to be in the world. I will do my best to be fair toward others, but I will like myself regardless of their reactions.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.--Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz. Not that we're getting well. We feel the need for love more than ever. We tried to avoid love by using chemicals to feel good. But it didn't work. Addiction cut us off even more from people. How do we fill our needs for love? We can think about this fact: People give us love all the time. Only we just haven't seen it. Every time someone comes to a meeting to get well with us, that is love. Love isn't all-or-nothing. Little gems of love are all over. Watch them. Enjoy them. Give them to others. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, love comes from You. Help me see it, and give it. Action for the Day: I'll look three persons in the eye today and send them love in my smile.
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
What we suffer, what we endure . . is done by us, as individuals, in private. --Louise Bogan Empathy we can give. Empathy we can find, and it comforts. But our pain, the depth of it, can never be wholly shared, fully understood, actually realized by anyone other than ourselves. Alone, each of us comes to terms with our grief, our despair, even our guilt. Knowing that we are not alone in what we suffer, makes the difficulties each of us must face easier. We haven't been singled out, of that we're certain. Remembering that our challenges offer us the lessons we need in the school of life makes them more acceptable. In time, as our recovery progresses, we'll even look eagerly to our challenges as the real exciting opportunities for which we've been created. Suffering prompts the changes necessary for spiritual growth. It pushes us like no other experience to God--for understanding, for relief, for unwavering security. It's not easy to look upon suffering as a gift. And we need not fully understand it; however, in time, its value in our lives will become clear. I will not be wary of the challenges today. I will celebrate their part of my growth.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
For a moment I was alarmed, and called my friend, the doctor, to ask if I were still sane. He listened in wonder as I talked. Finally he shook his head saying, "Something has happened to you I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it. Anything is better than the way you were." The good doctor now sees many men who have such experiences. He knows that they are real.
p. 14
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
After the tire job came the thirties, the Depression, and the downhill road. In the eight years before A.A. found me, I had over forty jobs--selling and traveling--one thing after another, and the same old routine. I'd work like mad for three or four weeks without a single drink, save my money, pay a few bills, and then "reward" myself with alcohol. Then I'd be broke again, hiding out in cheap hotels all over the country, having one-night jail stands here and there, and always that horrible feeling "What's the use--nothing is worthwhile." Every time I blacked out, and that was every time I drank, there was always that gnawing fear, "What did I do this time?" Once I found out. Many alcoholics have learned they can bring their bottle to a cheap movie theater and drink, sleep, wake up, and drink again in the darkness. I had repaired to one of these one morning with my jug, and, when I left late in the afternoon, I picked up a newspaper on the way home. Imagine my surprise when I read in a page-one "box" that I had been taken from the theater unconscious around noon that day, removed by ambulance to a hospital and stomach-pumped, and then released. Evidently I had gone right back to the movie with a bottle, stayed there several hours, and started home with no recollection of what had happened.
p. 225
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
To establish this principle of membership took years of harrowing experience. In our early time, nothing seemed so fragile, so easily breakable as an A.A. group. Hardly an alcoholic we approached paid any attention; most of those who did join us were like flickering candles in a windstorm. Time after time, their uncertain flames blew out and couldn't be relighted. Our unspoken, constant thought was "Which of us may be the next?"
p. 139
************************************************** *********
Every day is a gift. That is why we call it the present. --unknown
"Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others." --Brian Tracy
"The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors." --Samuel Smiles
"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don't say, 'Come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you.'" --unknown
Life's lessons are not taught in classrooms. --unknown
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them." --Henry David Thoreau
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
GENEROSITY
"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us." -- John (1:14)
There is a beautiful fairy tale about a land where everybody had an abundance of "warm fuzzies" that they exchanged with each other and shared with each other. Everything in this land was wonderful because all the people were generously giving and receiving "warm fuzzies".
Then a rumor began that there was to be a shortage of "warm fuzzies," and people began to hoard and selfishly protect their supply of "warm fuzzies." At this point, "cold pricklies" were introduced into the land. Sadness, pain, tension and persecution developed in the land, and the growth of the "cold pricklies" kept people separated, fearful and alone.
The tragedy of this tale is that the rumor was not true! As long as people generously share their "warm fuzzies", they will never disappear. The "warm fuzzies" only disappear when they are not shared. The more we give, the more we receive. Abundance rests in giving, never hoarding!
Master, may I always be generous with all that You have given me.
************************************************** *********
"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11
"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" John 20:29
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Enthusiasm keeps the mind young and the spirit growing. Lord, may I always see wonder in the ordinary happenings of my day.
No detail is too insignificant for God's attention. Lord, You encourage me daily as You guide my humblest moments.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 25, 2014 11:49:10 GMT -5
December 25
Daily Reflections
AT PEACE WITH LIFE
Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85
I read this passage each morning, to start off my day, because it is a continual reminder to "practice these principles in all my affairs." When I keep God's will at the forefront of my mind, I am able to do what I should be doing, and that puts me at peace with life, with myself and with God.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good Christmas for me." They will be looking back over the past Christmases which were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their new found life. They will be thinking about how their lives have changed when they came into A.A. They will be thinking that perhaps God let them live through all the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were perhaps often close to death, in order that they may be used by Him in the great work of A.A. Is this a happy Christmas for me?
Meditation For The Day
The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the sinners, the repentant. "And they presented unto him gifts--gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Bring your gifts of gold--your money and material possessions. Bring your frankincense--the consecration of your life to a worthy cause. Bring your myrrh--your sympathy and understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet of God and let Him have full use of them.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas day. I pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
"Fearless and Searching", p.261
My self-analysis has frequently been faulty. Sometimes I've failed to share my defects with the right people; at other times, I've confessed their defects, rather than my own; and still other times, my confession of defects has been more in the nature of loud complaints about my circumstances and my problems.
********************************
When A.A. suggests a fearless moral inventory, it must seem to every newcomer that more is being asked of him than he can do. Every time he tries to look within himself, Pride says, "You need not pass this way," and Fear says, "You dare not look!"
But pride and fear of this sort turn out to be bogymen, nothing else. Once we have a complete willingness to take inventory, and exert ourselves to do the job thoroughly, a wonderful light falls upon this foggy scene. As we persist, a brand-new kind of confidence is born, and the sense of relief at finally facing ourselves is indescribable.
1. Grapevine, June 1958 2. 12 & 12, pp.49-50
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Liking Ourselves Self-esteem. It's maybe unsettling to learn that we need to like ourselves more, especially when we've often been accused of being conceited. Being conceited does not mean liking oneself; it's really a matter of being smug and contemptuous in our dealing with others. This attitude is easily recognized by others, and it causes them to dislike us. However, if we like ourselves in the right way, others sense this too, and they will be drawn to us. We will truly like ourselves more as we learn to practice the principles of AA. We will like the kind of life we are trying to live. We will like ourselves for practicing fairness and honesty. We will also like ourselves for letting people see us as we are and feel comfortable doing so. In liking ourselves, we feel no need to impress or dazzle others. I'll remember today that I have a right to be in the world. I will do my best to be fair toward others, but I will like myself regardless of their reactions.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.--Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz. Not that we're getting well. We feel the need for love more than ever. We tried to avoid love by using chemicals to feel good. But it didn't work. Addiction cut us off even more from people. How do we fill our needs for love? We can think about this fact: People give us love all the time. Only we just haven't seen it. Every time someone comes to a meeting to get well with us, that is love. Love isn't all-or-nothing. Little gems of love are all over. Watch them. Enjoy them. Give them to others. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, love comes from You. Help me see it, and give it. Action for the Day: I'll look three persons in the eye today and send them love in my smile.
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
What we suffer, what we endure . . is done by us, as individuals, in private. --Louise Bogan Empathy we can give. Empathy we can find, and it comforts. But our pain, the depth of it, can never be wholly shared, fully understood, actually realized by anyone other than ourselves. Alone, each of us comes to terms with our grief, our despair, even our guilt. Knowing that we are not alone in what we suffer, makes the difficulties each of us must face easier. We haven't been singled out, of that we're certain. Remembering that our challenges offer us the lessons we need in the school of life makes them more acceptable. In time, as our recovery progresses, we'll even look eagerly to our challenges as the real exciting opportunities for which we've been created. Suffering prompts the changes necessary for spiritual growth. It pushes us like no other experience to God--for understanding, for relief, for unwavering security. It's not easy to look upon suffering as a gift. And we need not fully understand it; however, in time, its value in our lives will become clear. I will not be wary of the challenges today. I will celebrate their part of my growth.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
For a moment I was alarmed, and called my friend, the doctor, to ask if I were still sane. He listened in wonder as I talked. Finally he shook his head saying, "Something has happened to you I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it. Anything is better than the way you were." The good doctor now sees many men who have such experiences. He knows that they are real.
p. 14
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
After the tire job came the thirties, the Depression, and the downhill road. In the eight years before A.A. found me, I had over forty jobs--selling and traveling--one thing after another, and the same old routine. I'd work like mad for three or four weeks without a single drink, save my money, pay a few bills, and then "reward" myself with alcohol. Then I'd be broke again, hiding out in cheap hotels all over the country, having one-night jail stands here and there, and always that horrible feeling "What's the use--nothing is worthwhile." Every time I blacked out, and that was every time I drank, there was always that gnawing fear, "What did I do this time?" Once I found out. Many alcoholics have learned they can bring their bottle to a cheap movie theater and drink, sleep, wake up, and drink again in the darkness. I had repaired to one of these one morning with my jug, and, when I left late in the afternoon, I picked up a newspaper on the way home. Imagine my surprise when I read in a page-one "box" that I had been taken from the theater unconscious around noon that day, removed by ambulance to a hospital and stomach-pumped, and then released. Evidently I had gone right back to the movie with a bottle, stayed there several hours, and started home with no recollection of what had happened.
p. 225
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
To establish this principle of membership took years of harrowing experience. In our early time, nothing seemed so fragile, so easily breakable as an A.A. group. Hardly an alcoholic we approached paid any attention; most of those who did join us were like flickering candles in a windstorm. Time after time, their uncertain flames blew out and couldn't be relighted. Our unspoken, constant thought was "Which of us may be the next?"
p. 139
************************************************** *********
Every day is a gift. That is why we call it the present. --unknown
"Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others." --Brian Tracy
"The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors." --Samuel Smiles
"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don't say, 'Come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you.'" --unknown
Life's lessons are not taught in classrooms. --unknown
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them." --Henry David Thoreau
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
GENEROSITY
"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us." -- John (1:14)
There is a beautiful fairy tale about a land where everybody had an abundance of "warm fuzzies" that they exchanged with each other and shared with each other. Everything in this land was wonderful because all the people were generously giving and receiving "warm fuzzies".
Then a rumor began that there was to be a shortage of "warm fuzzies," and people began to hoard and selfishly protect their supply of "warm fuzzies." At this point, "cold pricklies" were introduced into the land. Sadness, pain, tension and persecution developed in the land, and the growth of the "cold pricklies" kept people separated, fearful and alone.
The tragedy of this tale is that the rumor was not true! As long as people generously share their "warm fuzzies", they will never disappear. The "warm fuzzies" only disappear when they are not shared. The more we give, the more we receive. Abundance rests in giving, never hoarding!
Master, may I always be generous with all that You have given me.
************************************************** *********
"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11
"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" John 20:29
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Enthusiasm keeps the mind young and the spirit growing. Lord, may I always see wonder in the ordinary happenings of my day.
No detail is too insignificant for God's attention. Lord, You encourage me daily as You guide my humblest moments.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 25, 2014 11:49:59 GMT -5
December 26
Daily Reflections
ACCEPTING SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to either without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty, sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity? Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied us? TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 112
After I found A.A. and stopped drinking, it took a while before I understood why the First Step contained two parts: my powerlessness over alcohol and my life's unmanageability. In the same way, I believed for a long time that, in order to be in tune with the Twelve Steps, it was enough for me "to carry this message to alcoholics." That was rushing things. I was forgetting that there were a total of Twelve Steps and that the Twelfth Step also had more than one part. Eventually I learned that it was necessary for me to "practice these principles" in all areas of my life. In working all the Steps thoroughly, I not only stay sober and help someone else to achieve sobriety, but also I transform my difficulty with living into a joy of living.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I am glad to be a part of A.A., of that great fellowship that is spreading over the United States and all over the world. I am only one of the many A.A.'s, but I am one. I am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help A.A. to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and so find it again. Am I grateful to be an A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of service to other people in a small way at least. And we can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power. We can go along through life doing the best we can, but without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same time depend deeply on God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may give my life to this worthwhile cause. I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from good work well done.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Accepting God's Gifts, p. 168
"Though many theologians hold that sudden spiritual experiences amount to a special distinction, if not a divine appointment of some sort, I question this view. Every human being, no matter what his attributes for good or evil, is a part of the divine spiritual economy. Therefore, each of us has his place, and I cannot see that God intends to exalt one another.
"So it is necessary for all of us to accept whatever positive gifts we receive with a deep humility, always bearing in mind that our negative attitudes were first necessary as a means of reducing us to such a state of that we would be ready for a gift of the positive ones via the conversion experience. Your own alcoholism and the immense deflation that finally resulted are indeed the foundation upon which your spiritual experience rests."
Letter, 1964
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Walk In Dry Places
Humility: Teachable and Honest Open to growth. Humility& is often used in the context of being honest enough to admit one's faults, but it also means being teachable. The truly humble person realizes there's always more to learn and is open to such learning. If we think we have humility, we usually don't. However, we can look back and recognize times when we made wonderful progress while being deeply humble. This was particularly true when we recognized our alcoholism and achieved sobriety. In this one action, we changed our lives. If we continue to practice the honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness that helped get us sober, these traits will be apparent in other areas of our lives. Though humility isn't generally sought as a way of life, it's the right way for recovering people. I'll be open today to ideas from any direction. I can learn something from every person.
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Keep It Simple
To be emotionally committed to somebody is very difficult, but to be alone is impossible. --Stephen Sondheim. Let's face it, relationships are hard to work! But we are lucky! Recovery is about relationships. We learn how to set limits. We learn how to listen to and talk to others. In Step One, we begin a new relationship with ourselves. In Step Two and Three, we begin a relationship with our Higher Power. In later Steps, we mend our relationships with family and friends. In our relationship with our sponsor, we learn about being friends. And our past relationships with alcohol and other drugs is being replaced by people and our Higher Power. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for all the new relationships. Thank-you for teaching me how to feel human again. Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a list of all the new relationships I have now, due to my sobriety.
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Each Day a New Beginning
It is only framed in space that beauty blooms; only in space are events, and objects and people unique and significant and therefore beautiful. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh We must look closely; focus intently on the subjects of our attention. Within these subjects is the explanation of life's mysteries. To observe anything closely means we must pull it aside with our minds and fondle it, perhaps. We must let the richness of the object, the person, the event, wash over us and savor its memory. Many of us only now are able to look around ourselves slowly, with care, noting the detail, the brilliant color of life. Each day is an opportunity to observe and absorb the beauty while it blooms. I will look for beauty today, in myself, and in a friend, and I will find it.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
While I lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given me. Perhaps I could help some of them. They in turn might work with others. My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs. Particularly was it imperative to work with others as he had worked with me. Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.
pp. 14-15
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
The mental state of the sick alcoholic is beyond description. I had no resentments against individuals--the whole world was all wrong. My thoughts went round and round with, What's it all about anyhow? People have wars and kill each other; they struggle and cut each other's throats for success, and what does anyone get out of it? Haven't I been successful, haven't I accomplished extraordinary things in business? What do I get out of it? Everything's all wrong and the hell with it. For the last two years of my drinking, I prayed during every drunk that I wouldn't wake up again. Three months before I met Jackie, I had made my second feeble try at suicide.
pp. 225-226
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
A member gives us a vivid glimpse of those days. "At one time," he says, "every A.A. group had many membership rules. Everybody was scared witless that something or somebody would capsize the boat and dump us all back into the drink. Our Foundation office* asked each group to send in its list of `protective' regulations. The total list was a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, so great was the sum of our anxiety and fear.
pp. 139-140
*In 1954, the name of the Alcoholic Foundation, Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.
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The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we have. --Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
A person who possesses true peace is not one whose life is without problems and turmoil but is rather a person who has peace in spite of it. --unknown
If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been. --unknown
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. --unknown
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
APATHY
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
I read about the Holocaust and I am ashamed. I am ashamed to belong to the human race that allowed, by an overwhelming silence, the slaughter of millions. The ultimate in people-pleasing is to do nothing. The fear of being an outcast or traitor allows the addiction to Power to develop. Power is an addiction that is rarely discussed in society. And yet evil needs people and politics to function alone it is but a word.
With this new day I seek to be involved in the good life. Today I am not afraid to stand alone for what I believe to be the principles of a God-given spirituality. I know evil because I know myself. I know tyranny and injustice because for years I perpetrated negativity in my life. Now I choose to say "no". Today I seek to make amends for past wrongs by being rigorously honest in all my affairs. Because I know what it is to hate, I seek to love. I wish to be responsible in God's world.
Teach me not only to learn from past mistakes but translate this knowledge into action.
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"Nothing will be impossible with God." Luke 1:37
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3
"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
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Daily Inspiration
If you think success and really believe it will happen, you will perform in a manner that leads to success. Lord, may I always avoid negative thoughts and visualize myself in the manner that You intended for me.
We are powerless to change our past, but we can change how we look at it. Lord, help me to realize that my past has made me a stronger person and show me that these experiences have taught me valuable life lessons.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 27, 2014 12:44:58 GMT -5
December 27
Daily Reflections
PROBLEM SOLVING
"Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems." ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 42
Through the recovery process described in the Big Book, I have come to realize that the same instructions that work on my alcoholism, work on much more. Whenever I am angry or frustrated, I consider the matter a manifestation of the main problem within me, alcoholism. As I "walk" through the Steps, my difficulty is usually dealt with long before I reach the Twelfth "suggestion," and those difficulties that persist are remedied when I make an effort to carry the message to someone else. These principles do solve my problems! I have not encountered an exception, and I have been brought to a way of living which is satisfying and useful.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I need the A.A. principles for the development of the buried life within me, that good life, which I had misplaced, but which I found again in this fellowship. This life within me is developing slowly but surely, with many set-backs, many mistakes, many failures, but still developing. As long as I stick close to A.A., my life will go on developing, and I cannot yet know what it will be, but I know that it will be good. That's all I want to know. It will be good. Am I thanking God for A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
Build your life on the firm foundation of true gratitude to God for all His blessings and true humility because of your unworthiness of these blessings. Build the frame of your life out of self-discipline, never let yourself get selfish or lazy or contented with yourself. Build the walls of your life out of service to others, helping others find the way to live. Build the roof of your life out of prayer and quiet times, waiting for God's guidance from above. Build a garden around your life out of peace of mind and serenity and a sure faith.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may build my life on A.A. principles. I pray that it may be a good building when my work is finished.
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As Bill Sees It
Servant, Not Master, p.259
In A.A., we found that it did not matter too much what our material condition was, but it mattered greatly what our spiritual condition was. As we improved our spiritual outlook, money gradually became our servant and not our master. It became a means of exchanging love and services with those about us.
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One of A.A.'s Loners is an Austrian sheepman who lives two thousand miles from the nearest town, where yearly he sells his wool. In order to be paid the best prices he has to get to town during a certain month. But when he heard that a big regional A.A. meeting was to be held at a later date when wool prices would have fallen, he gladly took heavy financial loss in order to make his journey then. That's how much an A.A. meeting means to him.
1. 12 & 12, p.122 2. A.A. Comes Of Age, p.31
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Walk In Dry Places
Limiting Gossip No harm to others. "When you've told me their names, do not tell me their faults," a person said at an AA meeting. She was explaining how careful we must be to keep gossip within tight limits. However, it is possible to identify people in gossip without actually speaking their names. We can give so many facts that the listener can identify whom we're discussing. This is no less malicious and thoughtless than actually naming the person. We can avoid these dangers by giving up both the desire to gossip and the wish to listen to gossip. We will always have matters to gossip about; we can always find weaknesses in those we envy, faults in people we want to see taken down a notch or two. But if we persist in the program, we should find ourselves moving out of this limited way of thinking. We'll put severe limits on gossip at the same time. I'll sidestep gossip if it starts to find a way into my life today. Under God's guidance, I have better things to do.
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Keep It Simple
Reading is to the Mind, what exercise is to the body. Good ideas are the seeds that start our growth. We hear things at meetings. We listen to our sponsor. Maybe we listen to program tapes. And we read. Reading is special because we do it when we're alone. We read in quiet times, when we can think. We can read as fast or as slow as we want. We can mark special words and come back to them again and again. We'll figure things out in our way, but we need help to get started. That's why we read. It gives us good ideas to think about. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, speak to me through helpful readings and help me learn at my best pace. Action for the Day: Reading is easier the more I do it. Today I'll feel proud that I've read program ideas to get my mind thinking in a healthy way.
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Each Day a New Beginning
One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have wholehearted enthusiasm. --Hannah Senesh Life offers little, if we sit passively in the midst of activity. Involvement is a prerequisite if we are to grow. For our lives' purposes we need enthusiasm; we need enthusiasm in order to greet the day expectantly. When we look toward the day with anticipation, we are open to all the possibilities for action. We must respond to our possibilities if we are to mature emotionally and recover spiritually. Idly observing life from the sidelines guarantees no development beyond our present level. We begin to change once we start living up to our commitment to the program, its possibilities and our purpose, and it's that change, many days over, that moves us beyond the negative, passive outlook of days gone by. The program has offered us something to believe in. We are no longer the women we were. So much more have we become! Each day's worth of recovery carries us closer to fulfilling our purpose in life. I believe in recovery, my own; when I believe in success, I'll find it. There is magic in believing.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems. It was fortunate, for my old business associates remained skeptical for a year and a half, during which I found little work. I was not to well at the time, and was plagued by waves of self-pity and resentment. This sometimes nearly drove me back to drink, but I soon found that when all other measures failed, work with another alcoholic would save the day. 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.
p. 15
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
This was the background that made me willing to listen on January 8. After being dry for two weeks and sticking close to Jackie, all of a sudden I found I had become the sponsor of my sponsor, for he was suddenly taken drunk. I was startled to learn he had only been off the booze a month or so himself when he brought me the message! However, I made as SOS call to the New York Group, whom I hadn't met yet, and they suggested we both come there. This we did the next day, and what a trip! I really had a chance to see myself from a nondrinking point of view. We checked into the home of Hank, the man who had fired me eleven years before in Mississippi, and there I met Bill, our founder. Bill had then been dry three years and Hank, two. At the time, I thought them just a swell pair of screwballs, for they were not going to save all the drunks in the world but also all the so-called normal people! All they talked of that first weekend was God and how they were going to straighten out Jackie's and my life. In those days we really took each other's inventories firmly and often. Despite all this, I did like these new friends because, again, they were like me. They had also been periodic big shots who had goofed out repeatedly at the wrong time, and they also knew how to split one paper match into three separate matches. (This is very useful knowledge in places where matches are prohibited.) They, too, had taken a train to one town and had wakened hundred of miles in the opposite direction, never knowing how they got there. The same old routines seemed to be common to us all. During that first weekend, I decided to stay in New York and take all they gave out with, except the "God stuff." I knew they had to straighten out their thinking and habits, but I was all right; I just drank too much. Just give me a good front and a couple of bucks, and I'd be right back in the big time. I'd been dry three weeks, had the wrinkles out, and had sobered up my sponsor all by myself!
pp. 226-227
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
"We were resolved to admit nobody to A.A. but that hypothetical class of people we termed `pure alcoholics.' Except for their guzzling, and the unfortunate results thereof, they could have no other complications. So beggars, tramps, asylum inmates, prisoners, queers, plain crackpots, and fallen women were definitely out. Yes sir, we'd cater only to pure and respectable alcoholics! Any others would surely destroy us. Besides, if we took in those odd ones, what would decent people say about us? We built a fine-mesh fence right around A.A. "Maybe this sounds comical now. Maybe you think we oldtimers were pretty intolerant. But I can tell you there was nothing funny about the situation then. We were grim because we felt our lives and homes were threatened, and that was no laughing matter. Intolerant, you say? Well, we were frightened. Naturally, we began to act like most everybody does when afraid. After all, isn't fear the true basis of intolerance? Yes, we were intolerant."
p. 140
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A person who possesses true peace is not one whose life is without problems and turmoil but is rather a person who has peace in spite of it. --unknown
"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." --Tom Wilson
Everyone has a gift for something, even if it is the gift of being a good friend. --Marian Anderson
Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret. --Mary Kay Ash
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. --Anna Quindlen
It's never too late — in fiction or in life — to revise. --Nancy Thayer
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
LIES
"Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
To lie is to rob life of meaning. In my addiction I was a liar, not just by what I said but by what I did, what I left unsaid and by my manipulation with half-truths. All lies shut out truth making us prisoners of fantasy and illusion. The world becomes what we want it to be rather than what it is and reality is lost. The liar is forced into the prison of loneliness, despair and isolation because nobody can know him, nobody can understand him. His language and communication are ego-centered. The liar is not living in the real world. He is living in his own world, with his own rules and definitions. The lies are the killing wounds, and they are self-inflicted.
Today I prefer the pain of truth to the passing satisfaction of the lie and the habit of telling the truth is growing in me!
God of Truth, may You ever be reflected in the life I seek to live.
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Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2
"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Galatians 5:22-23
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Daily Inspiration
When we become aware that we possess all the spiritual treasures necessary for a productive and happy life, we will never want for anything. Lord, You are a limitless source of abundance and love.
There is not one moment that we are separated from God's care unless we choose to be. Lord, You provide for my daily needs and deliver me from evil. You are my refuge.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 27, 2014 12:45:45 GMT -5
December 28
Daily Reflections
SUIT UP AND SHOW UP
In A.A. we aim not only for sobriety - we try again to become citizens of the world that we rejected, and of the world that once rejected us. This is the ultimate demonstration toward which Twelfth Step work is the first but not the final step. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 21
The old line says, "Suit up and show up." That action is so important that I like to think of it as my motto. I can choose each day to suit up and show up, or not. Showing up at meetings starts me toward feeling a part of that meeting, I can talk with newcomers, and I can share my experience; that's what credibility, honesty, and courtesy really are. Suiting up and showing up are the concrete actions I take in my ongoing return to normal living.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
A.A. may be human in its organization, but it is divine in its purpose. The purpose is to point me toward God and the good life. My feet have been set upon the right path. I feel it in the depths of my being. I am going in the right direction. The future can be safely left to God. Whatever the future holds, it cannot be too much for me to bear. I have the Divine Power with me, to carry me through everything that may happen. Am I pointed toward God and the good life?
Meditation For The Day
Although unseen, the Lord is always near to those who believe in Him and trust Him and depend on Him for the strength to meet the challenges of life. Although veiled from mortal sight, the Higher Power is always available to us whenever we humbly ask for it. The feeling that God is with us should not depend on any passing mood of ours, but we should try to be always conscious of His power and love in the background of our lives.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that today I may feel that God is not too far away to depend on for help. I pray that I may feel confident of His readiness to give me the power that I need.
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As Bill Sees It
Alone No More, p.252
Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded by people who loved us. But when our self-will had driven everybody away and our isolation became complete, we commenced to play the big shot in cheap barrooms. Failing even in this, we had to fare forth alone on the street to depend upon the charity of passers-by.
We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by being dependent upon others. Even when our fortunes had not totally ebbed, we nevertheless found ourselves alone in the world. We still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence.
For those of us who were like that, A.A. has a very special meaning. In this Fellowship we begin to learn right relations with people who understand us; we don't have to be alone any more.
12 & 12, pp. 116-117
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Walk In Dry Places
Rehearing Rejection Fortitude The possibility of rejection exists with almost everything we do, if we are free to choose. We might not like rejection, but we want the same freedom to reject others. As freely choosing people, we need to turn down ideas or proposals we don't like. One thing we should never do, however, is rehearse rejections before they occur. If we do this, we may give up even before we have attempted what we hope to accomplish. In effect, we will be killing our hopes even before others have a chance to review them. This is always a ticket to failure. Rejection is really a feedback mechanism that reports information we ought to have. It tells us either to change our approach or to seek acceptance elsewhere. It is not evidence that we're completely unacceptable. Our problem with any single rejection may be that it causes us to recall all the rejections we ever had. We can learn to see any rejection as a normal event that can be beneficial if we accept it properly. I'll not let any fear or visualization of rejection keep me from actions I ought to take today. I am an acceptable person, and there is a place for what I have to offer.
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Each Day a New Beginning
The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making. --Lillian Smith As the sore tooth draws our tongue, so do rejections, affronts, painful criticisms, both past and present draw our minds. We court self-pity, both loving and hating it. But we can change this pattern. First we must decide we are ready to do so. The program tells us we must become "entirely ready." And then we must ask to have this shortcoming removed. The desire to dwell on the injustices of our lives becomes habitual. It takes hours of our time. It influences our perceptions of all other experiences. We have to be willing to replace that time-consuming activity with one that's good and healthy. We must be prepared for all of life to change. Our overriding self-pity has so tarnished our perceptions that we may never have sensed all the good that life daily offers. How often we see the glass as half-empty rather than half-full! A new set of experiences awaits me today. And I can perceive them unfettered by the memories of the painful past. Self-pity need not cage me, today.
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Keep It Simple
If You Walk With Lame Men You'll soon Limp Yourself. Seaman McManus Before recovery, we kept company with people who were as sick as us, or worse. We got angry and made fun of people who were trying to improve their lives. They scared us. They were like mirrors that reflected how spiritually lost we were becoming. Now we walk in the crowd we avoided. Now we have values. We have spiritual beliefs. Living up to these values and beliefs can be hard. We need to be around people who live by their values. In recovery, we learn that we need others. Remember, the first word in Step One is we. We need good people in our lives. We need friends who will not tell us what we want to hear, but what we are doing wrong. Prayer for the Day: Sometimes I act like I need no one. Help me pick my friends wisely, for my life is at stake. Action for the Day: Today, I'll pick one friend, and we'll talk about how we can better help each other.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
We commenced to make many fast friends and a fellowship has grown up among us of which it is a wonderful thing to feel a part. The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty. I have seen hundreds of families set their feet in the path that really goes somewhere; have seen the most impossible domestic situations righted; feuds and bitterness of all sorts wiped out. I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities. Business and professional men have regained their standing. There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us. In one western city and its environs there are one thousand of us and our families. We meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship they seek. At these informal gatherings one may often see from 50 to 200 persons. We are growing in numbers and power.*
* In 2001, A.A. is composed of over 100,000 groups.
pp. 15-16
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
Bill and Hank had just taken over a small automobile polish company, and they offered me a job--ten dollars a week and keep at Hank's house. We were all set to put DuPont out of business.
p. 227
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
How could we then guess that all those fears were to prove groundless? How could we know that thousands of these sometimes frightening people were to make astonishing recoveries and become our greatest workers and intimate friends? Was it credible that A.A. was to have a divorce rate far lower than average? Could we then foresee that troublesome people were to become our principle teachers of patience and tolerance? Could any then imagine a society which would include every conceivable kind of character, and cut across every barrier of race, creed, politics, and language with ease?
pp. 140-141
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"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." --Charles A. Beard
"Learn from the negative as well as the positive, from the failures as well as the successes." --Jim Rohn
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening." --Marge Piercy
"In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change--breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place." --Susan Taylor
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
HUMOR
"Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him." -- Romain Gary
Today I laugh at myself. Today I need to laugh at myself in order to stay sane. Today I choose not to take myself too seriously.
When I tell jokes about the alcoholic, I am not belittling the person. I am making fun of the disease that nearly killed me. For me to live with the disease, I need to be able to laugh at the disease in this way I stop it from having power in my life.
Also I catch something of the symptoms of the disease in the jokes: the grandiosity, arrogance, manipulation, insanity, ego, selfishness and exaggeration. The joke allows me to face reality with a smile.
O God, thank You for the healing gift of humor.
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"For you are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord shall enlighten my darkness." II Samuel 22:29
"Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!" 1 Chronicles 16:11
See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. 1 John 3:1
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13
"Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed." Isaiah 49:23
"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7
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Daily Inspiration
Do not run ahead of the Lord, but walk with Him, pray for His guidance and listen to His answers. Lord, let me put Your will first in my life.
Do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord and receive the fullness of His blessings. Lord, I thank You for the gifts that I have received and ask forgiveness for all that I have done wrong.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 29, 2014 13:07:07 GMT -5
December 29
Daily Reflections
THE JOY OF LIVING
. . . . therefore the joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 125
A.A. is a joyful program! Even so, I occasionally balk at taking the necessary steps to move ahead, and find myself resisting the very actions that could bring about the joy I want. I would not resist if those actions did not touch some vulnerable area of my life, an area that needs hope and fulfillment. Repeated exposure to joyfulness has a way of softening the hard, outer edges of my ego. Therein lies the power of joyfulness to help all members of A.A.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Participating in the privileges of the movement, I shall share in the responsibilities, taking it upon myself to carry my fair share of the load, not grudgingly but joyfully. I am deeply grateful for the privileges I enjoy because of my membership in this great movement. They put an obligation upon me which I will not shirk. I will gladly carry my fair share of the burdens. Because of the joy of doing them, they will no longer be burdens, but opportunities. Will I accept every opportunity gladly?
Meditation For The Day
Work and prayer are the two forces which are gradually making a better world. We must work for the betterment of ourselves and our fellow men. Faith without works is dead. But all work with people should be based on prayer. If we say a little prayer before we speak or try to help, it will make us more effective. Prayer is the force behind the work. Prayer is based on faith that God is working with us and through us. We can believe that nothing is impossible in human relationships, if we depend on the help of God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that my life may be balanced between prayer and work. I pray that I may not work without prayer or pray without work.
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As Bill Sees It
Unlimited Choice, p. 201
Any number of alcoholics are bedeviled by the dire conviction that if they ever go near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some particular brand of faith or theology.
They just don't realize that faith is never an imperative for A.A. membership. That sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it, and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God--as we understand Him--afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.
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In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him.
The main thing is that he is willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.
1. Grapevine, April 1961 2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 93
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Walk In Dry Places
Mending the past No Regrets of the Past "The past is best mended by living so fully today that its errors have no place in our lives." These words by an AA member suggest an approach for healing from the past. All of us would benefit to use today's knowledge to deal with situations we mishandled in the past. But we must remember that whatever mistakes we made, we had available only the knowledge and resources we possessed the, and we may have done about as well as we possibly could at this time. We should also remember that active alcoholism is a crippling and ugly disease with many terrible consequences. It's not surprising that bad things happened to others and us when we were drinking. We can only be grateful that we are now recovering and that matters are better, not worse, than they once were. I'll live fully today, allowing no thoughts of regret from my past to intrude.
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Keep It Simple
Many people are living in an emotional jail without recognizing it. Virginia Satir. Our disease was our jail. We felt so bad that we were sure we must have done something awful. But we didn't cause our disease. We have done nothing to deserve our disease. We aren't responsible for the fact that we have a disease. But we ARE responsible for our recovery. We have been granted probation. The terms of our probation are simple: don't drink or use other drugs, and work the Steps. If we follow these simple rules, we'll be free. And it will be clear to us that only a Power greater than ourselves could give us this freedom. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to stay free. For this next twenty-four - hour period, take from me any urge to drink or use other drugs. With Your help, I'll be free. Action for the Day: Today, I'll think about my disease. I am not morally weak. I have a dangerous illness. What can keep me free from my disease?
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Each Day a New Beginning
Kindness and intelligence don't always deliver us from the pitfalls and traps. There is no way to take the danger out of human relationships. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison Relationships with other people are necessary to escape loneliness; however, relationships do not guarantee freedom from pain. Nurturing a meaningful relationship with another human being takes patience, even when we don't have any. It takes tolerance, even if we don't feel it. It takes selflessness, at those very moments our own ego is crying for attention. Yet, we need relationships with others; they inspire us. We learn who we are and who we can become through relationships. They precipitate our accomplishments. Our creativity is encouraged by them, and so is our emotional and spiritual development. We can look around us, attentively. We can feel blessed, even when it's a negative situation. Every situation is capable of inspiring a positive step forward. Every situation is meant for our good. There's risk in human relationships, and it's often accompanied by pain. But I am guaranteed growth, and I will find the happiness I seek. I will reach out to someone today.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BILL'S STORY
An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature. Our struggles with them are variously strenuous, comic, and tragic. One poor chap committed suicide in my home. He could not, or would not, see our way of life. There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.
Bill W., co-founder of A.A., died January 24,1971.
p. 16
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
At that time the group in New York was composed of about twelve men who were working on the principle of every drunk for himself; we had no real formula and no name. We would follow one man's ideas for a while, decide he was wrong, and switch to another's method. But we were staying sober as long as we kept and talked together. There was one meeting a week at Bill's home in Brooklyn, and we all took turns there spouting off about how we had changed our lives overnight, how many drunks we had saved and straightened out, and last but not least, how God had touched each of us personally on the shoulder. Boy, what a circle of confused idealists! Yet we all had one really sincere purpose in our hearts, and that was not to drink. At our weekly meeting I was a menace to serenity those first few months, for I took every opportunity to lambaste that "spiritual angle," as we called it, or anything else that had any tingle of theology. Much later I discovered the elders held many prayer meetings hoping to find a way to give me the heave-ho but at the same time stay tolerant and spiritual. They did not seem to be getting an answer, for here I was staying sober and selling lots of auto polish, on which they were making one thousand percent profit. So I rocked along my merry independent way until June, when I went out selling auto polish in England. After a very good week, two of my customers took me to lunch on Saturday. We ordered sandwiches, and one man said, "Three beers." I let that sit too. Then it was my turn--I ordered, "Three beers," but this time it was different; I had a cash investment of thirty cents, and, on a ten-dollar-a-week-salary, that a big thing. So I drank all three beers, one after the other, and said, "I'll be seeing you, boys," and went around the corner for a bottle. I never saw either of them again.
pp. 227-228
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
Why did A.A. finally drop all its membership regulations? Why did we leave it to each newcomer to decide himself whether he was an alcoholic and whether he should join us? Why did we dare say, contrary to the experience of society and government everywhere, that we would neither punish nor deprive any A.A. of membership, believe anything, or conform to anything? The answer, now seen in Tradition Three, was simplicity itself. At last experience taught us that to take away any alcoholic's full chance was sometimes to pronounce his death sentence, and often to condemn him to endless misery. Who dared to be judge, jury, and executioner of his own sick brother?
p. 141
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Keep your sobriety first to make it last. --unknown
Having the world's best idea will do you no good unless you act on it. People who want milk shouldn't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow will back up to them. --Curtis Grant
When you make a mistake, make amends immediately. It's easier to eat crow while it's still warm. --Sherrie R.
"When nobody around you measures up, it's time to check your yardstick." --Bill Lemly
Without God's inner source of enlightenment and refreshment, I would soon stagnate and feel despair. --Shelley
The heart of AA is the act of one person giving to another.
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
MADNESS
"The madman who knows that he is mad is close to sanity." -- Juan Ruiz de Alarcon
An alcoholic who continues to drink is committing suicide. An addict who continues to use is committing suicide. An overeater who continues to eat compulsively and destructively is committing suicide. Madness.
It is like a man standing in the town square stabbing himself with a knife and asking the passer-by, "Why am I bleeding?"
Today I accept my past destructive behavior and try to change it on a daily basis. Spirituality is loving yourself enough to "see" the writing on the wall and do something about it. Change is sanity for the madman!
God, You seem to have given me a dose of insanity. Let me use it to Your glory.
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"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Philippians 2:3
"Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand." Romans 14:4
"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17
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Daily Inspiration
Today picture yourself as the happiest person that you know and watch how contagious this enthusiasm for life is. Lord, may I bring out the best in those with whom I share today so they can in turn bring out more of my best.
Choose God instead of choosing to worry. Lord, in Your justice, rescue and deliver me.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 29, 2014 13:07:47 GMT -5
December 30
Daily Reflections
ANONYMITY
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 564
Tradition Twelve became important early in my sobriety and, along with the Twelve Steps, it continues to be a must in my recovery. I became aware after I joined the Fellowship that I had personality problems, so that when I first heard it, the Tradition's message was very clear: there exists an immediate way for me to face, with others, my alcoholism and attendant anger, defensiveness, offensiveness. I saw Tradition Twelve as being a great ego-deflator; it relieved my anger and gave me a chance to utilize the principles of the program. All of the Steps, and this particular Tradition, have guided me over decades of continuous sobriety. I am grateful to those who were here when I needed them.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
To the extent that I fail in my responsibilities, A.A. fails. To the extent that I succeed, A.A. succeeds. Every failure of mine will set back A.A. work to that extent. Every success of mine will put A.A. ahead to that extent. I shall not wait to be drafted for service to others, but I shall volunteer. I shall accept every opportunity to work for A.A. as a challenge, and I shall do my best to accept every challenge and perform my task as best I can. Will I accept every challenge gladly?
Meditation For The Day
People are always failures in the deepest sense when they seek to live without God's sustaining power. Many people try to be self-sufficient and seek selfish pleasure and find that it does not work too well. No matter how much material wealth they acquire, no matter how much fame and material power, the time of disillusionment and futility usually comes. Death is ahead, and they cannot take any material thing with them when they go. What does it matter if I have gained the whole world, but lost my own soul?
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I will not come empty to the end of my life. I pray that I may so live that I will not be afraid to die.
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As Bill Sees It
We Cannot Stand Still, p. 25
In the first days of A.A., I wasn't much bothered about the areas of life in which I was standing still. There was always the alibi: "After all," I said to myself, "I'm far too busy with much more important matters." That was my near perfect prescription for comfort and complacency.
<< << << >> >> >>
How many of us would presume to declare, "Well, Im sober and I'm happy. What more can I want, or do? I'm fine the way I am." We know that the price of such self-satisfaction is an inevitable backslide, punctuated at some point by a very rude awakening. We have to grow or else deteriorate. For us, the status quo can only be today, never for tomorrow. Change we must; we cannot stand still.
1. Grapevine, June 1961 2. Grapevine, February 1961
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Walk In Dry Places
Maturity means principles Right Action A principle is sometimes defined as a fundamental guide to action. The more mature we become, the more likely it is that we'll work from principles rather than blind feelings. The principles outlined in the Twelve Steps are good guide for mature living. They call for honesty in motive, fair and considerate treatment of others, and reliance on our Higher Power throughout each day. As we continue on such a path, we will outgrow the childish selfishness and reactions that were so destructive in our old lives. We will be viewed by others as mature, responsible, reliable people. We also grow into maturity by acting according to sound principles even when we don't always feel like it. Whatever our feelings might be at any given moment, we can choose actions that are sound and constructive. Whatever my feelings might be from moment to moment, I"ll act according to the best principles today. I know this is a part of growing up.
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Keep It Simple
Keep It Simple.---AA slogan Addiction messed up our thinking. We know that from taking Step One. We forgot things. We had blackouts. We made excuses, and we even started to believe them. We were mixed up. We couldn't figure things out. We decided to get high and forget about it. Now our minds are clear. We can keep thinking clearly if we work our program and Keep It Simple. Don't drink or use other drugs. Go to meetings. Work the Steps. Be yourself. Ask for help. Trust your Higher Power. Two thoughts will always mess us up if we let them in. They are "Yes, but..." and "What if?" Don't let them in. Keep It Simple. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for recovery. Help me stay sober and clean today. Action for the Day: Today, I'll take one thing at a time and Keep It Simple.
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Each Day a New Beginning
And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised! --Colette What does it mean to say we "despise" someone? Usually it means that we have invested a lot of energy in negative feelings; it means that we have let ourselves care deeply about someone. We would never say we "despised" someone who wasn't important to us. Why have we chosen to let negative feelings occupy so much of our hearts? Sometimes, in the past, that negative energy has become almost an obsession, consuming our time, gnawing at our self-esteem. But in recovery there comes a moment of lightning change; a moment of release from the bonds of obsession. The other person is, after all, just another person--a seeker, like ourselves. And, since we cared enough to devote our time and energies to disliking her, she is probably someone who would be rewarding to know. Recovery has given us the opportunity to turn over many negative feelings, to discover that "friend" and "enemy" can be two sides of the same person. Today, I will look into my heart and see whether I am clinging to obsessive concerns with other people. I will resolve to let them go.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
THERE IS A SOLUTION
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. We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain's table. Unlike the feelings of the ships passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined.
p. 17
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
I had completely forgotten the January 8 when I found the Fellowship, and I spent the next four days wandering around New England half drunk, by which I mean I couldn't get drunk and I couldn't get sober. I tried to contact the boys in New York, but telegrams bounced right back, and when I finally got Hank on the telephone he fired me right then. This was when I really took my first good look at myself. My loneliness was worse than it had ever been before, for now even my own kind had turned against me. This time it really hurt, more than any hangover ever had. My brilliant agnosticism vanished, and I saw for the first time that those who really believed, or at least honestly tried to find a Power greater than themselves, were much more composed and contented than I had ever been, and they seemed to have a degree of happiness I had never known.
pp. 228-229
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
As group after group saw these possibilities, they finally abandoned all membership regulations. One dramatic experience after another clinched this determination until it became our universal tradition. Here are two examples: On the A.A. calendar it was Year Two. In that time nothing could be seen but two struggling, nameless groups of alcoholics trying to hold their faces up to the light.
p. 141
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Don't hate - it's too big a burden to bear. --Martin Luther King, Sr.
Never be afraid to entrust the unknown future to the all-knowing God." --unknown
"We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future." --unknown
God can make all things new, even you. --unknown
When you find you are upset over a situation, stop and ask yourself one very important question. "Is this something I can change?" Whether it is or not, turn your negative energy in to productive energy. You can either change the situation, or change your perspective of the situation. --unknown
You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. --Oliver Goldsmith
You cannot raise a man up by calling him down. --William Boetcker
Don't let yesterday use up too much of today. --Will Rogers
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
BALANCE
"A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure, and to another class all the burdens of work, dooms both classes to spiritual sterility." -- Lewis Mumford
Spirituality brings with it balance. In order to be relaxed, healthy and alive, I need both work and leisure. For me I need to remember it is okay to take a day off; to stay in and relax is not a waste; play time is creative time!
I was not only compulsive around alcohol and people but I was also obsessive about work. I was and am a work-aholic. I need to remember to H.A.L.T.: Don't get too Hungry. Don't get too Angry. Don't get too Lonely. Don't get too Tired.
Work for me can be a form of escape. In leisure I have the opportunity to meet with myself.
Go on enjoy yourself, with yourself!
You, who made me a laborer in the vineyard, also expected me to sit and enjoy it.
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"I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." Isaiah 41:10
"Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3
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Daily Inspiration
Begin every day as if it were your very first because you really are always at the beginning. Lord, thank you for the constant ability to stop any offensive behaviors that I have and the gift of being forgiven and being able to forgive myself.
Imagine that you were paid for every kindness and charged for every unkindness. Would you be rich or poor? Lord, I often pray for material wealth. Let me not neglect my soul by now praying for the ability to build my spiritual wealth also.
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Post by majestyjo on Dec 31, 2014 8:10:14 GMT -5
December 31
Daily Reflections
Daily Resolutions
The idea of "twenty-four-hour" living applies primarily to the emotional life of the individual. Emotionally speaking, we must not live in yesterday, nor in tomorrow. As Bill Sees It, p. 284
A New year: 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes--a time to consider directions, goals, and actions. I must make some plans to live a normal life, but also I must live emotionally within a twenty-four hour frame, for if I do, I don't have to make New Year's resolutions! I can make every day a New Year's day! I can decide, "Today I will do this . . . Today I will do that." Each day I can measure my life by trying to a little better, by deciding to follow God's will and making an effort to put the principles of our A.A. program into action.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I shall be loyal in my attendance, generous in my giving, kind in my criticism, creative in my suggestions, loving in my attitudes. I shall give A.A. my interest, my enthusiasm, my devotion, and most of all, myself. The Lord's Prayer has become part of my A.A. thoughts for each day: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Have I given myself?
Meditation For The Day
As we look back over the year just gone, it has been a good year to the extent that we have put good thoughts, good words, and good deeds into it. None of what we have thought, said, or done need be wasted. Both the good and the bad experiences can be profited by. In a sense, the past is not entirely gone. The result of it, for good or evil, is with us at the present moment. We can only learn by experience and none of our experience is completely wasted. We can humbly thank God for the good things of the year that has gone.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may carry good things into the year ahead. I pray that I may carry on with faith, with prayer, and with hope.
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As Bill Sees It
Wider Understanding, p.255
To reach more alcoholics, understanding of A.A. and public good will towards A.A. must go on growing everywhere. We need to be on still better terms with medicine, courts, prisons, mental hospitals, and all enterprises in the alcoholism field. We need the increasing good will of editors, writers, television and radio channels. These publicity outlets need to be opened ever wider.
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Nothing matters more to A.A.'s future welfare than the manner in which we use the colossus of modern communication. Used unselfishly and well, it can produce results surpassing our present imagination. Should we handle this great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego manifestations of our own people. Against this peril, A.A. members' anonymity before the general public is our shield and our buckler.
1. Twelve Concepts, p.51 2. Grapevine, November 1960
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Walk In Dry Places
Has it been a Year of Growth? Growth As any year draws to a close, we should reflect on how we have grown in sobriety. We should also identify changes during the year that enabled us to overcome bad habits and to move closer to better patterns of living. Though we never are guaranteed favorable outcomes, we should always remember that sobriety is its own reward. We want a full life of course, but it must begin with a decision to seek and to maintain sobriety at all costs. We find that with sobriety, lots of other problems seem to solve themselves. Even if they don't we have the tools to move forward and to achieve goals that always eluded us while we were drinking. Every year in sobriety is a year of growth. I'll be conscious today of recent improvements I've made in my life and all my affairs. With sobriety, these improvements will go on for a lifetime.
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Keep It Simple
May you live all the days of your life'--Jonathan Swift. Tonight, at midnight, a New Year will begin. None of us know what the New Year will hold. But we can trust ourselves to hold on to the spirit of recovery as we go through the year. As a New Year is about to begin, we can rejoice in our new way of life. We can give our will and our life to our HP. By doing these things, we'll be ready for the New Year. PRAYER: Higher Power, I pray that I'll start the New Year safe in Your loving arms. I pray that I'll keep working my program. ACTION: Tonight, at midnight, I'll say the Serenity Prayer. I will think of all the others who have read this meditation book and who will join me in this prayer. We are a recovering community.
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Each Day a New Beginning
In the process of growing to spiritual maturity, we all go through many adolescent stages. --Miki L. Bowen Progress, not perfection, is our goal in this recovery program. And many days we'll be haunted by the feeling that we've regressed. We will display old behavior. We will feel unable to change, to go on, to make gains once again. But these periods will pass, and soon progress will be evident again. We must be wary of our need for perfection. It's this need that makes normal progress seem not good enough. And yet, that's all we're capable of--and all we'll ever need to be capable of. The program, its Steps and the promises offered, provide the tools we have lacked, yet need to use in order to accept ourselves wholly and imperfectly. Daily attention to our spiritual side will foster the spiritual and emotional health we long for. Prayer and meditation, combined with honest inventory-taking, can show us the personal progress needed, the personal progress made. However, we will falter on occasion. We will neglect our program some days. But it won't ever be beyond our reach. And each day is a new beginning. Today is before me, and I can make progress. I will begin with a quiet prayer and a moment of meditation.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
THERE IS A SOLUTION
The tremendous fact for everyone of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism.
p. 17
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.
Peddling off my polish samples for expenses, I crawled back to New York a few days later in a very chastened frame of mind. When the others saw my altered attitude they took me back in, but for me they had to make it tough; if they hadn't I don't think I ever would have stuck it out. Once again, there was the challenge of a tough job, but this time I was determined to follow through. For a long time the only Higher Power I could concede was the power of the group, but this was far more than I had ever recognized before, and it was at least a beginning. It was also an ending, for never since June 16th, 1938, have I had to walk alone.
p. 229
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."
A newcomer appeared at one of these groups, knocked on the door and asked to be let in. He talked frankly with that group's oldest member. He soon proved that his was a desperate case, and that above all he wanted to get well. "But," he asked, "will you let me join your group? Since I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism, you may not want me among you. Or will you?" There was the dilemma. What should the group do? The oldest member summoned two others, and in confidence laid the explosive facts in their laps. Said he, "Well, what about it? If we turn this man away, he'll soon die. If we allow him in, only god knows what trouble he'll brew. What shall the answer be - yes or no?"
pp. 141-142
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"Wherever you go, whomever you meet, look for an opportunity to help, to inspire, to lend support." --Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Most people search high and wide for the keys to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within. --George Washington Carver
Look for the Good. --unknown
The traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous help me play well with others, when what I really want to do is take my toys and go home! --unknown
"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." --Henry Ford
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
CHANGE
"It is not necessary to get away from human nature but to alter its inner attitude of heart and mind." -- J. F. Newton
An understanding of sobriety and serenity that has proved helpful to me is that we are not only changing but involved in change. We determine the results of the change.
I can change for good or bad. I can stay sober or drink. I can be cheerful and creative or negative and destructive. My attitude determines the results of my changing life.
Spirituality has been given, but it also needs to be nurtured. I need to surround myself with loving and honest people if I am to allow my spirituality to grow in my life. My continued willingness is essential to my sobriety and serenity.
Thank You for making me with a mind and heart that together create the action.
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I believe that I am now a child of God . 1 John 3:1-3
I believe that I was saved by the grace of God through faith, that it was a gift and not the result of any works on my part. Ephesians 2:8
I choose to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Ephesians 6:10
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Daily Inspiration
To have courage, think courageous, act courageous, and pray to God for courage. Lord, You are full of love for all who come to You.
Abundance is God's to give, so shut out all limited thoughts. Lord, my faith in You and my faith in the talents and abilities You have given me makes me able to achieve my goals.
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