Discussion Topic "T"

[caressa222]

Journey To The Heart

Transcend Your Limitations

You’re free now, free to take the journey of a lifetime. Free to experience life, in its newness, its freshness, its magic– in a way you never have before.

The only limitations on you are the ones you’ve placed on yourself. Your prison has been of your own making. Don’t blame or chastise yourself. Life has created certain challenges for you. The purpose has been to set you free, to provide you with lessons, experiences, circumstances that would trigger growth and healing. Life has been provoking, promoting, urging you to grow, stretch, learn, heal. Life has been trying to break you out of your prison.

Set yourself free. Let yourself go on a journey of love. Take notes. Be present. Experience. Learn. Love and laugh, and cry when you need to. Rest when you’re tired. Take a flashlight to help you see in the dark. But most of all, take yourself and go.

Go on your journey of joy.

[caressa222]

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

The longer I’m in The Program, the more clearly I see why it’s important for me to understand why I do what I do, and say what I say. In the process, I’m coming to realize what kind of person I really am. I see now, for example, that it’s far easier to be honest with other people that with myself. I’m learning, also, that we’re all hampered by our need to justify our actions and words. Have I taken an inventory of myself as suggested in the Twelve Steps? Have I admitted my faults to myself, to god, and to another human being?

Today I Pray

May I not be stalled in my recovery process by the enormity of The Program’s fourth Step, taking a moral inventory of myself, or by admitting these shortcomings to myself, to God and to another human being. May I know that honesty to myself about myself is all-important.

Today I Will Remember

I cannot mend if I bend the truth.

[majestyjo]

What it Takes by Josh McDowell's Youth Devos

Bible Reading: Galatians 5:16-22

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 Galatians 5:22-23

HERE’S A QUICK little test for you. See if you can match up the trees listed in the column on the left with the fruit those trees bear listed in the column on the right:
apple tree pecans
oak tree pears
banana tree hickory nuts
pear tree acorns
peach tree cherries
hickory tree apples
walnut tree walnuts
cherry tree peaches
pecan tree bananas

Pretty dumb test, huh? Everybody knows that apples come from apple trees and walnuts come from walnut trees. No matter how hard it tries, a cherry tree could never produce apples; a pecan tree couldn’t squeeze out a single banana. Why not? Because neither tree has what it takes to produce that kind of fruit.

Making right choices works the same way. None of us can make right choices all the time. Some days it seems as if we can’t make right choices at all! Because we’re sinners we don’t have what it takes to produce that kind of fruit-not by ourselves, at least. We might as well try to squeeze pears out of our ears!

So, does that mean we should just give up? No, but it does mean that the only way we can consistently make right choices is through the Spirit of Christ living in us. His Spirit lives in everyone who has trusted Christ for salvation. It’s only by relying on him every day-through prayer and Bible reading-that we can consistently make right choices. In fact, you might say that making right choices is the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives when we trust God day by day.

REFLECT: What kind of choices have you been making recently? Have they been sort of prickly, like a pineapple? nutty, like an acorn? sweet, like a cherry? sour, like a crabapple? something else? What kind of choices do you want to make from now on?

ACT: Try making a simple song or poem out of Galatians 5:22 and 23.

PRAY: Here is an example of a prayer you may want to say the first thing every morning: “God, I praise you for this day that you have made. I give your Holy Spirit complete control of everything I do today. Help me to make right choices all day long. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

[majestyjo]

More Language Of Letting Go

The power of thoughts

In 1922, Egypt hailed the discovery of King Tut’s tomb by archaeologist Harold Carter. On the walls of the tomb, the magicians had scrawled that a severe punishment would befall anyone disturbing the contents of the burial site.

Over the next ten years, more than twenty people involved with the excavation died suddenly or mysteriously.

Whether you call it a curse or a hypnotic suggestion of sorts, what we’re talking about is the tremendous impact that suggestions have on us. We’re talking about the power of belief.

Many of us spend thousands of dollars in therapy and years of our lifetime disentangling our thoughts from the beliefs of our parents, beliefs that were passed on to them by their parents, and their grandparents, and even further on down the ancestral line.

Sometimes, the effects of other people’s thoughts are less blatant, and even more controlling. We can react instinctively to the silent demands of a spouse or lover, or a boss. They smile or frown– or just look at us– and we know what they mean and expect. Sometimes a casual comment by a friend can send us into a tailspin when he or she suggests, You can’t do that; it won’t work. Do it this way. Months later, when the way we’re trying to do it isn’t working out and we still keep trying and wonder why, we look back and say, “Oh. My friend told me to do it this way. Maybe he was wrong.”

An important part of living in harmony with others means we enjoy doing things that please them, and we don’t unnecssarily or maliciously hurt those with whom we interact. An important part of being true to ourselves means checking ourselves from time to time to see if the things we’re doing are really what we want, or if we’re just a puppet and someone else is pulling our strings.

God, help me respect the power of belief.

Activity: Try a little experiment to prove to yourself how strong the mind is. Walk up to two people, whether you know them or not. Think something very positive and loving about them, but don’t say these thoughts out loud.

[caressa222]

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

Time after time, we learn in The Program, newcomers try to keep to themselves “shoddy facts” about their lives. Trying to avoid the humbling experience of the Fifth Step, they turn to a seemingly easier and softer way. Almost invariably, they slip. Having persevered with the rest of The Program, they then wonder why they fell. The probable reasons is they they completed their housecleaning. They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock. Have I admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs?

Today I Pray

That I may include all of the sleaziness of my past, my cruelties and my dishonesty, in a complete moral inventory of myself. May I hold back nothing out of shame or pride, for the “exact nature” of my wrongs means just that — a thorough and exact recounting of past mistakes and character flaws. We have been provided with an appropriate “dumping-ground.” May I use it as it was intended. May all my throw-sways, the trash and outgrown costumes of the past, be foundation “fill” on which to build a new life.

Today I Will Remember

Trash can be a foundation for treasures.

We are only as sick as our secrets.  What brings us to the doors of recovery, will take us back out if we don't deal with it.

[majestyjo]

T is for Terrific. We have been gifted a terrific program. I will follow it to the best of my ability. it is up to us to get a program that is good for us. We don't have to take someone else's we need to figure one out for ourselves.

[majestyjo]

T is for Think. That is the Al-Anon slogan. Give big thoughts in today before you take action. The AA slogan, is Think, Think, Think. little thought about the past and the future and focus on today.

Which ever way you chose to look at it, 'Think before you leap into something you want to take back, be it word or deed.

[majestyjo]

T is for Trust. Trust God and He will see you through any and all situations in your life. When we doubt ourselves, we are doubting Him/Her. Trust His Good Orderly Direction, it is there for the asking.

[majestyjo]

T is for Try. Try to be the best you that you can be in today. All we are asked to do is to try to life to the best of our ability. Some days we fall short of our expectations, best we put them aside and find some acceptance of what is in today. The last letter on "JusT foR TodaY, spells try.

[caressa222]

T is for time. We work this rogram one day at a time.  We stay in today.  Let go of the past.  Try not project into the future.

Time is a great healer.