Today's readings

May 31

Daily Reflections

READINESS TO SERVE OTHERS

. . . our Society has concluded that it has but one high mission--to carry the A.A. message to those who don't know there's a way out. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151

The "Light" to freedom shines bright on my fellow alcoholics as each one of us challenges the other to grow. The "Steps" to self-improvement have small beginnings, but each Step builds the "ladder" out of the pit of despair to new hope. Honesty becomes my "tool" to unfurl the "chains" which bound me. A sponsor, who is a caring listener, can help me to truly hear the message guiding me to freedom.

I ask God for the courage to live in such a way that the Fellowship may be a testimony to His favor. This mission frees me to share my gifts of wellness through a spirit of readiness to serve others.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

I shall not wait to be drafted for service to A.A. I Shall volunteer. 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 to A.A. my interest, my enthusiasm, my devotion, and most of all, myself. Do I also accept this as my AA. credo?

Meditation For The Day

Prayer is of many kinds, but of whatever kind, prayer is the linking up of the soul and mind to God. So, if prayer is only a glance of faith, a look or a word of love, or just a feeling of confidence in the goodness and purpose in the universe, still the result of that prayer is added strength to meet all temptations and to overcome them. Even if no supplication is expressed, all the supply of strength that is necessary is secured, because the soul, being linked and united to God, receives from Him all spiritual help needed. The soul, when in its human body, still needs the things belonging to its heavenly habitation.

Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be taught how to pray. I pray that I may be linked through prayer to the mind and will of God.

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As Bill Sees It

Start by Forgiving, p. 151

The moment we ponder a twisted or broken relationship with another person, our emotions go on the defensive. To escape looking at the wrongs we have done another, we resentfully focus on the wrong he has done us. Triumphantly we seize upon his slightest misbehavior as the perfect excuse for minimizing or forgetting our own.

Right here we need to fetch ourselves up sharply. Let's remember that alcoholics are not the only ones bedeviled by sick emotions. In many instances we are really dealing with fellow sufferers, people whose woes we have increased.

If we are about to ask forgiveness for ourselves, why shouldn't we start out by forgiving them, one and all?

12 & 12, p. 78

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Walk in Dry Places

Are Sobriety Dates Important?

Practical Thinking

Observing anniversaries of getting sober has become a time-honored custom in AA. Many group name lists include the individual members' sobriety dates. It's also customary in many groups to celebrate anniversaries with cakes and to award coins with numerals denoting years of sobriety. To outsiders, this custom may seem frivolous. What is the benefit in celebrating the day one too the last drink or in adding up the number of sober years? These celebrations of sobriety dates actually underscore the important goal of staying continuously sober. We may know alcoholics who "went back out" from time to time, and then failed to come back at all. Members who slip and do come back to tell us that it was an agonizing experience, and that they feared they wouldn't have another chance to lead a sober life. We also hear people say: "I may have another drunk in me, but I'm not sure I can find another sobering up."

The message is clear: Get sober mark that date, and continue to build on it. We stress the importance of sobriety when we acknowledge the importance of sobriety dates.

I'll stay sober today. Whatever my length of sobriety, I want to honor it and build on it.

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Keep It Simple

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself.---Ethel Barrymore

There was a time when we wouldn't let anyone laugh at us---even ourselves. We had to much shame. We had to much pain. We took the world too seriously. If we laughed it was at others---not at ourselves. Over time , real honest laughter returns to us. Laughter is a way of accepting ourselves as human. To be human means we can make mistakes. It means we can lighten up. It also means growing up. And growing up means being happy with all of who we are---even parts of us that may seem odd or funny.Ifwecan't laugh at ourselves,we shut ourselves off from the world. We shut ourselves off from the parts of us we need to accept. Am I willing to accept the fact that I'm human.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You made laughter. Help me us it to make my life easier. Help me accept all of me a funny mistakes I've made.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll share with someone close to me a funny mistakes I've made.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

Well-well-look who's here! Good old Charlie! It's great to see him. How's the boy? A drink? You bet your life! We buy a gallon of "corn" because it is so cheap. Yet I am fairly steady when I go to bed. Morning comes. I feel horribly. A little drink will put me on my feet. But it takes others to keep me there.

p. 211

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."

Whenever our pencil falters, we can fortify and cheer ourselves by remembering what A.A. experience in this Step has meant to others. It is the beginning of the end of isolation from our fellows and from God.

p. 82

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How can we possibly describe feeling the Presence of God? It is the difference between being a child left alone in an empty house at night and a child who knows that her mother is in the next room. Even though she can't see or hear her mother, she feels comforted by her warm, loving, protective presence. And while a human parent can't always be with us, our spiritual parent will never abandon us. --Mary Manin Morrissey

"A good love relationship can reinforce self-esteem, but it cannot create it. Many people carry a lot of unfinished business from childhood into relationships, and look to their partners to fulfill their unmet needs. So you get immature, dependency-type relationships that tend not to work. The more you can complete unfinished business from childhood, the better your chance in relationships as an adult." --Nathaniel Branden, The Art of Living Consciously

Life's lessons are not taught in classrooms. --unknown

Forgiveness is an inner correction that lightens the heart. It is for our peace of mind first. Being at peace, we will now have peace to give to others, and this is the most permanent and valuable gift we can possibly give." --Gerald Jampolsky

"Character is defined by what we are willing to do when the spotlight is turned off, when the applause has died down, and no one is around to give us credit." --Unknown

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

AMBITION

"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure." --Thomas Alva Edison

I need to strive for new things in my life. I need to push out into new areas and discover the richness of God's world. I need to explore the varied creativity of creation.

There is so much that I have not done because of the wasted years of my addiction. So much that I have not seen, countries that I have not visited, languages that I have not learned and experiences that I have missed. My compulsive and obsessive behavior left me a prisoner of self - and also a victim of self.

The spiritual recovery I enjoy today says it is okay for me to have things, enjoy things and do things.

Help me to realize the energy and ambition You have created within me.

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While we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." I Corinthians 15:58

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 130:5

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Daily Inspiration

To feel good about yourself, do things that really matter to you. Lord, help me to know my priorities and act in a manner that will fulfill them.

Loneliness happens when you build walls instead of bridges. Lord, bless me with a welcoming spirit for those that might need me today.

Daily readings

1,461 days ago I took my last drink!  One day at a time! 

May 30

Daily Reflections

OUR PRIMARY PURPOSE

The more A.A. sticks to its primary purpose, the greater will be its helpful influence everywhere. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 109

It is with gratitude that I reflect on the early days of our Fellowship and those wise and loving "foresteppers" who proclaimed that we should not be diverted from our primary purpose, that of carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. I desire to impart respect to those who labor in the field of alcoholism, being ever mindful that A.A. endorses no causes other than its own. I must remember that A.A. has no monopoly on miracle making and I remain humbly grateful to a loving God who madeA.A. possible.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

I am part of A.A., one among many, but I am one. I need the A.A. principles for the development of the buried life within me. A.A. may be human in its organization, but it is Divine in its purpose. The purpose is to point me toward God and a better life. Participating in the privilege 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. To the extent that I fail in my responsibilities, A.A. fails. To the extent I succeed, A.A. succeeds. Do I accept this as my A.A. credo?

Meditation For The Day

"Praise the Lord." What does praising God mean? It means being grateful for all the wonderful things in the universe and for all the blessings in your life. So praise God by being grateful and humble. Praise of this kind has morepowerto vanquish evil thanhas mere resignation. The truly grateful and humble person who is always praising God, is not tempted to do wrong. You will have a feeling of security because you know that fundamentally all is well. So look up to God and praise Him.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may be grateful for all my blessings. I pray that I may humble because I know that I do not deserve them.

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As Bill Sees It

No Boundaries, p. 150

Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, of width or height or depth. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. But its object is always the same; to improve our conscious contact with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love.

And let's always remember that meditation is in reality intensely practical. One of its first fruits is emotional balance. With it we can broaden and deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him.

12 & 12, pp. 101-102

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Walk in Dry Places

Civilians who show resentments Healthy Thinking As compulsive people, we're urged to watch resentments carefully. These negative feelings can flare up out of nowhere and bring terrible destruction. This sensitivity in spotting our own resentments also makes us more aware of resentments in others— perhaps people who are not alcoholics and thus are considered NORMAL. (Earth people I call them even if I doubt that anyoneis reallynormal) When this happens, we have no responsibility to point their resentment out to them. Our best approach is to deal with them as cordially as possible and to withdraw gracefully if their resentment is directed at us. This teaches us that resentment is a universal human problem — not just an affliction of alcoholics and other compulsive people. While guarding against resentment in myself today, I'll not be surprised or hurt when it appears in others. If it does, I will not feel hurt or surprised, knowing that it's a human problem.

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Keep It Simple

One Day at a Time ---AA program slogan One Day at a Time reminds us to live in a sane, natural way. It reminds us we can't control the past. It reminds us we can't control the future. We can live only in the present. We have only the moment. We have only today. Before recovery, our worries about the past and the future put stress in our lives We need to live in a way that doesn't put us in danger. We need to live in a way that lets us enjoy things. We need to live in a way that lets us stay close to others, ourselves, and our Higher Power. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, teach me to really live One Day at a Time. Action for the Day: Today, I'll keep reminding myself that I have the moment. No more, no less.AmI using my moments theway my Higher Power wants me to?

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

I am a traveling salesman. The day is over and business has been not so good. I'll go to bed. I wish I were home with the family and not in this dingy hotel.

p. 211

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to makeamends to them all."

Having carefully surveyed this whole area of human relations, and having decided exactly what personality traits in us injured and disturbed others, we can now commence to ransack memory for the people to whom we have given offense. To put a finger on the nearby and most deeply damaged ones shouldn't be hard to do. Then, as year by year we walk back through our lives as far as memory will reach, we shall be bound to construct a long list of people who have, to some extent or other, been affected. We should, of course, ponder and weigh each instance carefully. We shall want to hold ourselves to the course of admittingthethings wehavedone,meanwhile forgiving the wrongs done us, real or fancied. We should avoid extreme judgments, both of ourselves and of others involved. We must not exaggerate our defects or theirs. A quiet, objective view will be our steadfast aim.

pp. 81- 82

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"Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do." --Pope John XXIII

"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips." --Goldsmith

"The value of all service lies in the spirit in which you serve and not in the importance or magnitude of the service. Even the lowliest task or deed is made holy, joyous, and prosperous when it is filled with love." --Charles Fillmore

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. Honesty is telling the truth to other people." --Spencer Johnson

"A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside." --Denis Waitley

"When you talk, you can only say something that you already know. When you listen, you learn what someone else knows." --Unknown

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

POSTERITY

"We need to make a world in which fewer children are born, and in which we take better care of them." --Dr. George Wald

Spirituality is concerned for the physical. How we plant seeds, do exercises and develop a healthy food plan is as important as prayer, reading and meditation. The body is part of the soul. Also we have a responsibility for the future; for those who follow us on this planet. The ecological welfare of our world is spiritual. An irresponsibility concerning childbirth reveals an arrogance that does not belong to the spiritual program. The satisfaction of our personal desires should never hurt the lives of others - including the unborn. Teach me to have a spiritual responsibility to the future.

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This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and trainingin righteousness, so thattheman ofGod may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:43-45

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Daily Inspiration

Look beyond people's behaviors and have compassion for what may be causing their insensitivities. Lord, I will not take everything personal because I don't know the weight of my neighbor's cross.

We are on earth to discover our own path and will never be happy trying to live someone else's idea of life. Lord, may I behappywith who I am and not evaluate myself in terms of someone else's success.

Today's readings

o thank bluidkiti for making these readings possible.

May 29

Daily Reflections

TRUE TOLERANCE

The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 139

I first heard the short form of the Third Tradition in the Preamble. When I came to A.A. I could not accept myself, my alcoholism, or a Higher Power. If there had been any physical, mental, moral, or religious requirements for membership, I would be dead today. Bill W. said in his tape on the Traditions that the Third Tradition is a charter for individual freedom. The most impressive thing to me was the feeling of acceptance from members who were practicing the Third Tradition by tolerating and accepting me. I feel acceptance is love and love is God's will for us.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

We who have learned to put our drink problem in God's hands can help others to do so. We can be used as a connection between an alcoholic's need and God's supply of strength. We in Alcoholics Anonymous can be uniquely useful, just because we have the misfortune or fortune to be alcoholics ourselves. Do I want to be a uniquely useful person? Will I use my own greatest defeat and failure and sickness as a weapon to help others?

Meditation For The Day

I will try to help others. I will try not to let a day pass without reaching out an arm of love to someone. Each day I will try to do something to lift another human being out of the sea of discouragement into which he or she has fallen. My helping hand is needed to raise the helpless to courage, to strength, to faith, to health. In my own gratitude, I will turn and help other alcoholics with the burden that is pressing too heavily upon them.

Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be used by God to lighten many burdens. I pray that many souls may be helped through my efforts.

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As Bill Sees It

More than Comfort, p. 148

When I am feeling depressed, I repeat to myself statements such as these: "Pain is the touchstone of progress." . . . "Fear no evil." . . . "This, too, will pass." . . . "This experience can be turned to benefit."

These fragments of prayer bring far more than mere comfort. They keep me on the track of right acceptance; they break up my compulsive themes of guilt, depression, rebellion, and pride; and sometimes they endow me with the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

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Walk in Dry Places

Guarding against disguised hostility

Fairness.

One of the pitfalls in continued recovery is the tendency to become self-righteous and judgmental. Sometimes this fuses into a hostility directed toward newcomers or chronic "slippers". Now and then, we've seen grumpy older members demanding that those who slip get honest. While we may be right in concluding that a person is not showing honesty, we have NO RIGHT to denounce or expose anyone in a group setting. Far from helping the person, we may be showing off. If there is hostility in our words or manner, the other person will certainly sense it. The best group setting for good recovery is always one that expresses warmth, acceptance, and understanding. There Are few, if any, times when a verbal assault can be justified. Before we lash out at another person's lack of honesty, we must take an honest look at our own motives and feelings.

I'll face the day with a feeling of goodwill and acceptance in my dealings with every person I meet. If I attend a meeting,I'll show the same warmth and acceptance toward every person there.

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Keep It Simple

The more one judges the less on love.---Balzac

At times we need to make judgments about people's behavior. We stand back and look at how their lives affect our sobriety. We have to do this to choose people whose relationships will be good for us. We have to do this before we trust someone in business. We should take a good look at the others person before we fall in love. But we decide to trust or love someone, we have to stop judging. When we love someone, we don't stand back. We move in close. We give them all our love can offer. We don't just think and judge. We feel. We are on their side. We look for the good in them. We don't pick them apart. We love the whole person.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to judge a little and love a lot. Help me accept the people I love, faults and all. Help me love them better.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll catch myself when I start to judge others. I will accept them as they are.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

It is ten o'clock of a Saturday night. I am working hard on the books of a subsidiary company of a large corporation. I have had experience in selling, collecting, and accounting, and am on my way up the ladder. Then the crack-up. Cotton struck the skids and collections went cold. A twenty three million dollar surplus wiped out. Offices closed up and workers discharged. I, and the books of my division have been transferred to the head office. I have no assistance and am working nights, Saturdays and Sundays. My salary has been cut. My wife and new baby are fortunately staying with relatives, What a life! I feel exhausted. The doctor has told me that if I don't give up inside work, I'll have tuberculosis. But what am I to do? I have a family to support and have no time to be looking for another job. I reach for the bottle which I just got from George, the elevator boy.

p. 211

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."

Such gross misbehavior is not by any means a full catalogue of the harms we do. Let us think of some of the subtler ones which can sometimes be quite as damaging. Suppose that in our family lives we happen to be miserly,irresponsible,callous,or cold. Suppose That we are irritable, critical, impatient, and humorless. Suppose we lavish attention upon one member of the family and neglect the others. What happens when we try to dominate the whole family, either by a rule of iron or by a constant outpouring of minute directions for just how their lives should be lived from hour to hour? What happens when we wallow in depression, self-pity oozing from every pore, and inflict that upon those about us? Such a roster of harms done others--the kind that makes daily living with us as practicing alcoholics difficult and often unbearable could be extended almost indefinitely. When we take such personality traits as these into shop, office, and the society of our fellows, they can do damage almost as extensive as that we have caused at home.

p. 81

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"Good friends are good for your health." --Irwin Sarason

"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you." --Elbert Hubbard

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. . . . Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. --Melody Beattie

Why do birds sing in the morning? It's the triumphant shout: "We got through another night." --Enid Bagnold

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. --Kahlil Gibran

No matter where our journey takes us, God walks with us.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SELF

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings." --William Shakespeare

My addiction to alcohol led me away from "self": today in my sobriety I am beginning to understand me. For years I blamed others for my misfortunes but today I see that I was the enemy in my life. It was a "cop-out" to blame God, family, job or life for my alcoholism - I needed to take responsibility for "self".

Part of my recovery program today involves me not looking "outside" for answers but looking within. The answer is not in the stars, not in fate - but rather in the destiny I create by the decisions I make today. I, and I alone, forge my future.

O Lord, let me create a life that is pleasing in Your sight.

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Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river. Jeremiah 17:8

"The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him." Nahum 1:7

The LORD said, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." Isaiah 43:2

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Daily Inspiration

Sometimes we spend our time demanding that the present moment be different than it is instead of facing the situation and dealing with it. Lord, strengthen my faith because through You I will have enough power to overcome any obstacles.

Take heart in the beauty of your life because God loves, helps, fights and wins. Lord, I will never fear because nothing can triumph over Your Will.

Today's readings

May 28

Daily Reflections

EQUAL RIGHTS

At one time or another most A.A. groups go on rule making benders. . . . After a time fear and intolerance subside. [and we realize] We do not wish to deny anyone his chance to recover from alcoholism. We wish to be just as inclusive as we can, never exclusive. "A.A. TRADITION: HOW IT DEVELOPED." pp. 10, 11, 12

A.A. offered me complete freedom and accepted me into the Fellowship for myself. Membership did not depend upon conformity, financial success or education and I am so grateful for that. I often ask myself if I extend the same equality to others or if I deny them the freedom to be different. Today I try to replace my fear and intolerance with faith, patience, love and acceptance. I can bring these strengths to my A.A. group, my home and my office. I make an effort to bring my positive attitude everywhere that I go. I have neither the right, nor the responsibility, to judge others. Depending on my attitude I can view newcomers to A.A., family members and friends as menaces or as teachers. When I think of some of my past judgments, it is clear how my self-righteousness caused me spiritual harm.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In A.A. we learn that since we are alcoholics we can be uniquely useful people. That is, we can help other alcoholics when perhaps somebody who has not had our experience with drinking could not help them. That makes us uniquely useful. The A.A.s are a unique group of people because they have taken their own greatest defeat and failure and sickness and used it as a means of helping others. We who have been through the same thing are the ones who can best help other alcoholics. Do I believe that I can be uniquely useful?

Meditation For The Day

I should try to practice the presence of God. I can feel that He is with me and near me, protecting and strengthening me always. In spite of every difficulty, every trial, every failure, the presence of God suffices. Just to believe that He is near me brings strength and peace. I should try to live as though God were beside me. I cannot see Him because I was not made with the ability to see Him else there were no room for faith. But I can feel His spirit with me.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may try to practice the presence of God. I pray that by doing so I may never feel alone or helpless again.

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As Bill Sees It

A.A.--the Lodestar, p. 147

We can be grateful for every agency or method that tries to solve the problem of alcoholism--whether of medicine, religion, education, or research. We can be open-minded toward all such efforts and we can be sympathetic when the ill-advised ones fail. We can remember that A.A. itself ran for years on "trial and error."

As individuals, we can and should work with those that promise success--even a little success.

<< << << >> >> >>

Every one of the pioneers in the total field of alcoholism will generously say that had it not been for the living proof of recovery in A.A., they could not have gone on. A.A. was the lodestar of hope and help that kept them at it.

Grapevine, March 1958

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Walk in Dry Places

Everyday risks....

Courage We have to take certain risks if we hope to achieve anything. Applying for a job entail a risk of reject. Saving money carries a risk of losing it. Falling in love can result in heartbreak. We have to take such risks because life is ordered that way. We are hear to learn, and learning includes pressing into unknown situations where we could fail. God could have created us in such a way we could either avoid risks or not unduly concerned about the. Animals, for example,live with risks but do no seem to worry about them. We must accept risk as part of God's plan for us. We also are given tools for working with uncertainties. We have our innate intelligence and a capacity for prudent, reasoned action. We have friends who will help us. Above all, we have our Higher Power, who guides and directs us through all sorts of risky conditions. I cannot face life without also facing uncertainties.

Today I'll accept risk as a prt of ordinary living.

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Keep It Simple

Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.---Johann Fredrich von Schiller

As we grow in recovery, we'll need to change our behaviors, values, and beliefs to stay sane. This take courage. Courage is doing what is needed in spite of fear. Courage means facing what we can't change. We can't change the fact that we have hurt people. We can't change the fact we have an illness. And we can't change the fact that we need help from others. Courage also means facing those things we can change. We need courage to be honest, to have faith, and to be humble. And we need courage to let people know how important they are.

Prayer for the Day: Courage is more than being tough. Courage means being human.Higher Power, grant me the courage to stay sober and live a spiritual life.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll have an attitude of courage. I'll talk in my meeting.I'll offer help where it's needed.I'll have the courage to say no when needed.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

I am examined for the draft and pass the physical exam. What a dirty deal! Drafted! The shame of it. I am to go to camp on November 13th. The Armistice is signed on the 11th and the draft is called off. Never in the service! The war leaves me with a pair of blankets, a toilet kit, a sweater knit by my sister, and a still greater inferiority.

p. 210

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."

We might next ask ourselves what we mean when we say that we have "harmed" other people. What kinds of "harm" do people do one another, anyway? To define the word "harm" in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people. If our tempers are consistently bad, we arouse anger-in others. If we lie or cheat, we deprive others not only of their worldly goods, but of their emotional security and peace of mind. We really issue them an invitation to become contemptuous and vengeful. If our sex conduct is selfish, we may excite jealousy,misery, and a strong desire to retaliate in kind.

p. 80

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God, help me realize that to do your will for me today, in however a small way, I must let go of my own will. --Day By Day

No matter what happens, I must get on with my life. --Ruth Humlecker

"Today I'll use the slogan, 'How important is it?' It will help me think things through before I act and it will give me a better picture of just what is important in my life." --Alateen--One Day At A Time

Sometimes laughter is the next lesson we need to be learning. --Melody Beattie

If your sobriety isn't your absolute top priority, the most important thing in your life, you're going to get drunk again. --"Things My Sponsors Taught Me" Paul H.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

CHRISTIANITY

"He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge

My program for recovery from addiction is spiritual and not religious. I believe that spirituality encompasses all that is good and noble in all the great religions of the world. It cannot be confined or limited to one religion or denomination. Spirituality stops the recovering person from looking for the differences; it stops the arrogance and prejudice; it stops the division and separations that feed the disease. Spirituality emphasizes the inherent unity of man. It teaches the most stubborn of men to hold hands.

God the Creator is revealed in the variety of His universe. I can find Him in the sunset, the variety of animals, the love and care of family and friends, the excitement and vision of poetry and art, the inspiration of music. Spirituality is . . .!

Kneeling before the beauty of Your creation I whisper "Amen".

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A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. Proverbs 29:23

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. John 14:6

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." Gal 5:25-26

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Daily Inspiration

Expect more of yourself than you do of others and you will save yourself much stress and disappointment. Lord, help me to see how capable that I am.

God is always at work in your life. Notice His light on the events of your day. Lord, I sometimes look without really seeing. Help me to pause and notice.

Today's readings

May 27

Daily Reflections

NO MAUDLIN GUILT

Day by day, we try to move a little toward God's perfection. So we need not be consumed by maudlin guilt... AS BILL SEES IT, p. 15

When I first discovered that there is not a single "don't" in the Twelve Steps of A.A., I was disturbed because this discovery swung open a giant portal. Only then was I able to realize what A.A. is for me: A.A. is not a program of "don'ts", but of "do's." A.A. is not martial law; it is freedom. A.A. is not tears over defects, but sweat over fixing them. A.A. is not penitence; it is salvation. A.A. is not "Woe to me" for my sins, past and present. A.A. is "Praise God" for the progress I am making today.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In twelfth-step work, the fifth thing is Continuance. Continuance means our staying with prospects after they have started on the new way of living. We must stick with them and not let them down. We must encourage them to go to meetings regularly for fellowship and help. They will learn that keeping sober is a lot easier in the fellowship of others who are trying to do the same thing. We must continue to help prospects by going to see them regularly or telephoning them or writing them so that they don't get out of touch with A.A. Continuance means good sponsorship. Do I care enough about other alcoholics to continue with them as long as necessary?

Meditation For The Day

Every strong and beautiful flower must have a strong root in the ground. It must send a root down so that it may be rooted and grounded while at the same time it sends a shoot up to be the flower that shall gladden the world. Both growths are necessary. Without a strong root, it would soon wither. The higher the growth upward, the deeper must be the rooting. My life cannot flower into success and helpfulness unless it is rooted in a strong faith, or unless it feels deeply secure in the goodness and purpose of the universe.

Prayer For The Day I pray that my life may be deeply rooted in faith. I pray that I may feel deeply secure.

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As Bill Sees It

A.A.--the Lodestar, p. 147

We can be grateful for every agency or method that tries to solve the problem of alcoholism--whether of medicine, religion, education, or research. We can be open-minded toward all such efforts and we can be sympathetic when the ill-advised ones fail. We can remember that A.A. itself ran for years on "trial and error."

As individuals, we can and should work with those that promise success--even a little success.

>> >> >>

Every one of the pioneers in the total field of alcoholism will generously say that had it not been for the living proof of recovery in A.A., they could not have gone on. A.A. was the lodestar of hope and help that kept them at it.

Grapevine, March 1958

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Walk in Dry Places

Who is important?

Respect for people.

The Twelve step movement grew out of an earlier society, the Oxford group, whose members believed in "key People." They embraced the idea that attracting promising individuals with high standing would, in turn, attract others. We've also had such people in AA and other 12 step groups, and we are grateful for their examples and efforts. We've learned, however, not to view one person as more important than another's. We could even harm a recovering person by focusing on his or her personal prestige in the community. Our purpose is to help people get well, not to run a club empathizing social standing. We'll find our program working much better if we treat all people equally, and view them as equal in the sight of God. We have a standing in God's sight that is eternal and everlasting.

I'll extend kind and generous thoughts toward every person I meet today. We are all children of equal standing in the sight of God.

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Keep It Simple

It's only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God.---Henry David Thoreau The biggest danger we face as recovering people is self-will. Do we try to control others? Do we always put ourselves before others? Are we full of self-pity? These are all ways that bind us to our self-will. In recovery, we put our lives in the hands of a loving God. Here, we find a new home. Our goal is to lose as much of our self-will as we can. We than put love in place of self-will. Recovery is truly about love.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I pray and offer my self-will to You, Self-will is a danger to my sobriety. I pray that I may be closer to You than to myself.

Action for the Day: I'll list the areas that self-will get in my way. I'll read my list every day next week, and I'll try to put love in place of self will.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

Underweight! How I hate that word. Three attempts to enlist in the service, and three failures because of being skinny. True, I have recently recovered from pneumonia and have an alibi, but my friends are in the war, or going, and I am not. To hell with it all! I visit a friend who is awaiting orders. The atmosphere of "eat, drink, and be merry" prevails and I absorb it. I drunk lot-every night.I can hold a lot now, more than the others.

p. 210

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to makeamends to them all."

While the purpose of making restitution to others is paramount, it is equally necessary that we extricate from an examination of our personal relations every bit of information about ourselves and our fundamental difficulties that we can. Since defective relations with other human beings have nearly always been the immediate cause of our woes, including our alcoholism,no field investigation could yield more satisfying and valuable rewards than this one. Calm, thoughtful reflection upon personal relations can deepen our insight. We can go far beyond those things which were superficially wrong with us, to see those flaws which were basic, flaws which sometimes were responsible for the whole pattern of our lives. Thoroughness, we have found, will pay--and pay handsomely.

p. 80

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"What worries you, masters you." --Haddon W. Robinson

God, help me to have the strength to set reasonable limits for myself and to tell others when I cannot help them. Help me learn to say no. --Melody Beattie

God is watching over me, making my path easy. --Alan Cohen

The Way To God "Start the Day with Love; Spend the Day with Love; Fill the Day with Love; End the Day with Love; This is the way to God." --Sathya Sai Baba

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today. --Native American Proverb

Time is like a river - it flows by and doesn't return. --Chinese Proverb

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

MOTIVES

"Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish." --Michelangelo

I must always "think big", not in an egotistical sense but as an adventure in spirituality. When I had a small God, I always remained a small person, with small aspirations and dreams. Today I have an all-embracing inclusive God that fills the universe. Today I have hope in my dreams.

As an alcoholic I missed so much. I observed very little about myself and God's world, people and friends became inconsequential; nothing really mattered except the desire to drink. My spiritual potential was lost in my alcoholism.

Today I am realizing my potential and I can risk in sobriety. My motto has become "go for it". Behind my dreams is my growth. I have a sense of so much joy in the world that I wish to enthusiastically experience my life.

God, I am so grateful to be alive.

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We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:19-21

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

Though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by the hand. Psalm 37:24

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Daily Inspiration

Too much of a good thing can actually diminish the joy and make it a burden. Lord, help me avoid excess and keep my life simpler and freer.

To know someone doesn't mean to know every detail of that person's life. It means to feel affection, confidence and to believe in that person. Lord, may I really know You and have it reflect in how I treat others.

Today's readimgs

May 26

Daily Reflections

TURNING NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE

Our spiritual and emotional growth in A.A. does not depend so deeply upon success as it does upon our failures and setbacks. If you will bear this in mind. I think that your slip will have the effect of kicking you upstairs, instead of down. AS BILL SEES IT , p. 184

In keeping with the pain and adversity which our founders encountered and overcame in establishing A.A., Bill W. sent us a clear message: a relapse can provide a positive experience toward abstinence and a lifetime of recovery. A relapse brings truth to what we hear repeatedly in meetings - "Don't take that first drink!" It reinforces the belief in the progressive nature of the disease, and it drives home the need for, and beauty of, humility in our spiritual program. Simple truths come in complicated ways to me when I become ego driven.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In twelfth-step work, the fourth thing is conversion. Conversion means change. Prospects must learn to change their way of thinking. Until now, everything they've done has been connected with drinking. Now they must face a new kind of life, without liquor. They must see and admit that they cannot overcome drinking by their own willpower, so they must turn to a Higher Power for help. They must start each day by asking this Higher Power for the strength to stay sober. This conversion to belief in a Higher Power comes gradually, as they try it and find that it works. Do I care enough about other alcoholics to help them to make this conversion?

Meditation For The Day

Discipline of yourself is absolutely necessary before the power of God is given to you. When you see others manifesting the power of God, you probably have not seen the discipline that went before. They made themselves ready. All your life is a preparation for more good to be accomplished when God knows that you are ready for it. So keep disciplining yourself in the spiritual life every day. Learn so much of the spiritual laws that your life cannot again be a failure. Others will see the outward manifestation of the inward discipline in your daily living.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may manifest God's power in my daily living. I pray that I may discipline myself so as to be ready to meet every opportunity.

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As Bill Sees It

"Do as I Do . . .", p. 146

Perhaps more often than we think, we make no contact at depth with alcoholics who are suffering the dilemma of no faith.

Certainly none are more sensitive to spiritual cock sureness, pride, and aggression than they are. I'm sure this is something we too often forget.

In A.A.'s first years, I all but ruined the whole undertaking with this sort of unconscious arrogance, God as I understood Him had to be for everybody. Sometimes my aggression was subtle and sometimes it was crude. But either way it was damaging--perhaps fatally so--to numbers of nonbelievers.

Of course this sort of thing isn't confined to Twelfth Step work. It is very apt to leak out into our relations with everybody. Even now, I catch myself chanting that same old barrier-building refrain: "Do as I do, believe as I do--or else!

Grapevine, April 1961

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Walk in Dry Places

Today's problem_____ Orderly living

Facing a vexing or even threatening problem, we sometimes feel a sense of hopefulness or futility. "How will I ever get through this situation?" we think. The truth is we have probably worked our way through many situations much like-today's problem. It-is a wonder,for example,that-most of us survived the crises brought on by our compulsion. We will certainly be able to work through or around today's problem. The Twelve step program is a plan for mastering the problems of life. As we apply its principles in all of our affairs,we find improvements beginning to appear. We also can find the confidence and fortitude that we've always needed. Knowing that my Higher power is in the midst of the situation, I'll face today's problem with the assurance of an out come that will be highest good.

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Keep It Simple

When I look at the future, it's so bright, it burns my eyes.---Oprah Winfrey

During our illness, it was as if our spirit lived in a deep, dark cave. Our spirit became gloomy, cold, and lonely. Our spirit didn't know how to get out of the cave. We were dying. Recovery brings us into the sunlight. At first, we can't see a thing---it's too bright! The world stretches around us---it's so big! There Are so many way to go! We don't know what to do. But our eyes get used to the light, and we feel the warm rays of the sun. We see we aren't alone anymore. We Relax.We Know our spirit is in a better place---a place where we can live!

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me feel at home in the sunlight of my new life.

Action for the Day: Addiction made my world so small. It made my future so dark. Today, I'll list three new choices I want to make to better my life.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

Final exams of my senior year and I may somehow graduate.I would never have tried, but Mother counts on it so. A case of measles saved me from being kicked out during my Sophomore year. But the end is in sight. My last exam and an easy one. I gaze at the board with its questions. Can't remember the answer to the first. I'll try the second. No soap there. Say this is getting serious! I don't seem to remember anything. I concentrate on one of the questions. I don't seem to be able to keep my mind on what I am doing. I get uneasy. If I don't get started soon, I won't have time to finish. No use. I can't think. I leave the room, which the honor system allows. I go to my room. I pour out half a tumbler of grain alcohol and fill it with ginger ale. Now back to the exam. My pen moves rapidly. I know enough of the answers to get by.Good oldJohn Barleycorn!Hecancertainlybe depended on. What a wonderful power he has over the mind! He has given me my diploma!

p. 210

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and becamewilling to makeamends to them all."

Though in some cases we cannot make restitution at all, and in some cases action ought to be deferred, we should nevertheless makean accurate and really exhaustive survey of our past life as it has affected other people. In many instances weshallfind thatthough theharm done others has not been great, the emotional harm we have done ourselves has. Very deep, sometimes quite forgotten, damaging emotional conflicts persist below the level of consciousness. At the time of these occurrences, they may actually have given our emotions violent twists which have since discolored our personalities and altered our lives for the worse.

pp. 79-80

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Choose to make a life, rather than a living... There is no need to recriminate yourself. Simply notice what you've been choosing and choose again! --unknown

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knowledge of 'the answers' never made anyone relapse. It was failing to practice 'the answers' known." --Anonymous

Today is the most important day I have lived. --SweetyZee

God, help me be clear with you and myself about what I really want. Then, help me let go of my intentions and surrender to your plan. --Melody Beattie

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SPACE

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." --Neil A. Armstrong

Man is able to do such wonderful things in this world. There is no end to what man can achieve when he behaves responsibly and honestly, working together with others to discover more about himself and the universe. God has truly made man in His own image with all the power and creativity that that implies.

The danger that forever surrounds man is greed, pride and the misuse of "power".

As a recovering alcoholic I understand this only too well. I wanted to be out in front, and ego made me arrogant and selfish. If this is true for me and other human beings, it is also true for governments, countries and alliances. Countries don't make wars, people do; countries don't have achievements, people do - and this universe must be seen as belonging to everyone or it will belong to no one!

Let us learn to enjoy and share Your garden and not destroy it.

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Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4:8a

Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world. Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us. We love each other as a result of his loving us first. 1 John 4: 16-19

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him." Psalm 62:5

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Daily Inspiration

Avoid becoming defensive and possibly causing conflict by taking a moment to think before you respond. Lord, help me to believe in myself strongly so that I am able to turn down invitations that makeme feel bad.

God's plans for you are beyond your imagination. Lord, may I notlimit myself to my past experiences, but be willing to accept new opportunities and challenges into my life.

May 25

Daily Reflections

PROGRESSIVE GRATITUDE Gratitude should go forward, rather than backward. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 29

I am very grateful that my Higher Power has given me a second chance to live a worthwhile life. Through Alcoholics Anonymous, I have been restored to sanity. The promises are being fulfilled in my life. I am grateful to be free from the slavery of alcohol. I am grateful for peace of mind and the opportunity to grow, but my gratitude should go forward rather than backward. I cannot stay sober on yesterday's meetings or past Twelfth-Step calls; I need to put my gratitude into action today. Our co-founder said our gratitude can best be shown by carrying the message to others. Without action, my gratitude is just a pleasant emotion. I need to put it into action by working Step Twelve, by carrying the message and practicing the principles in all my affairs. I am grateful for the chance to carry the message today!

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In twelfth-step work, the third thing is conviction. Prospects must be convinced that they honestly want to stop drinking. They must see and admit that their life is unmanageable. They must face the fact that they must do something about their drinking. They must be absolutely honest with themselves and face themselves as they really are. They must be convinced that they must give up drinking and they must see that their whole life depends on this conviction. Do I care enough about other alcoholics to help them reach this conviction?

Meditation For The Day

There is no limit to what you can accomplish in helping others. Keep that thought always. Never relinquish any work or give up the thought of any accomplishment because it seems beyond your power. God will help you in all good work. Only give it up if you feel that it's not God's will for you. In helping others, think of the tiny seed under the dark, hard ground. There is no certainty that, when it has forced its way up to the surface, sunlight and warmth will greet it. Often a task seems beyond your power, but there is no limit to what you can accomplish with God's help.

Prayer For The Day I pray that I may never become discouraged in helping others. I pray that I may always rely on the power of God to help me.

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As Bill Sees It

To Take Responsibility, p. 145

Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership, and brotherhood with all men and women, of whatever description, is a moving and fascinating adventure.

But every A.A. has found that he can make little headway in this new adventure of living until he first backtracks and really makes an accurate and unsparing survey of the human wreckage he has left in his wake.

<< << << >> >> >>

The readiness to take the full consequences of our past acts, and to take responsibility for the well-being of others at the same time, is the very spirit of Step Nine.

12 & 12 1. p. 77 2. p. 87

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Walk in Dry Places

Forgetting past failures Living today.
"You never do anything right!"

Some of us carry this accusation deep in our minds, perhaps from childhood. We remember past mistakes and failures, sometimes dregging them up again when new failures occur. When we do this, we unduly burden ourselves with a past that should be released and forgotten. The result of past mistakes was a feeling of inadequacy and helplessness that prolonged our sickness. IN those troubled days, we were trying to solve our problems inways that actually made the problems worse. On that path, there was no hope of a real solution. Today our failure and mistakes are but signs that we are will human and still fall short of perfection. But now we can use failure to good advantage and even learn from it. Our best progress will come when we separate ourselves from the mistakes and failures of the past.

Today I will not believe that "I never did anything right!" I will go through the day knowing that I am capable and effective, and have the help of my higher power in everything I do.

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Keep It Simple

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me.---Virginia Satir

Let's keep this in mind: each of us is special in our own way. Often, we're hard on ourselves because we're different. Our Twelve Step groups pull our differences together. We listen and learn from our differences. We learn to see that each one of us is different---and this is important. Our program and the Steps stay alive for us, because each new person brings a different way of seeing things. Let's celebrate our differences instead of trying to be alike.

Prayer for the Day: Today, is a day to celebrate that, in all of the world, there is only one me. Thank-you, Higher Power, and help me see clearly how special I am.

Action for the Day: I'll make a list of what makes me special. I'll share this with a friend or my sponsor and my Higher Power.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

A haze filled the room. The electric light began to move. Then two bulbs appeared. The faces of the other boys grew dim. How sick I felt. I staggered to the bathroom. Shouldn't have drunk so much or so fast. But I knew how to handle it now. I'd drink like a gentleman after this. And so I met John Barleycorn. The grand fellow who at my call made me "a hale fellow, well met," who gave me such a fine voice, as we sang "Hail, hail, the gang's all here," and "Sweet Adeline," who gave me freedom from fear and feelings of inferiority. Good old John! He was my pal, all right.

p. 209

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to makeamends to them all."

This attitude, of course, is the end result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can only be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions.

p. 79

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"I'd never trade my worst day sober for my best day drunk." --unknown

"If you do what you have always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." --Anon

He who learns, teaches. --African Proverb

"You must get good at one of two things: sowing in the spring or begging in the fall." --Jim Rohn

"Don't ever slam a door; you might want to go back." --Don Herold

"We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and adventure to discover our own special light. --Mary Dunbar

God bids me to do the right and loving thing. --SweetyZee

" For every minute you are angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness" --Ralph Waldo Emerson

God knows our hearts and wants better for us than we can dream.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

VARIETY

"The growth of the human mind is still high adventure, in many ways the highest adventure on earth." --Norman Cousins

Today my life is an adventure. I am prepared for the unusual; I expect the confusion of life; I revel in God's reflected difference within creation: variety and the acceptance of variety is part of my joy in living.

God is to be found in the "odd" things in life: The dance, relationships, Charlie Chaplin, jogging, the pet dog and the sincere hug. The adventure we find in life reflects our adventure in God.

Spirituality is seeing beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary: "The Kingdom of God is within".

May I always seek to find You in the smallest and strangest places.

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Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light. Matthew 11:28-30

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christmay dwellin your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may befilled to themeasureofallthe fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his powerthat is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

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Daily Inspiration

The best way to guide your own behavior is to make a commitment to always be a good example. Lord,may I bea reflection ofYourlove.

Should you find your energy lapsing, a sure remedy is to give someone a helping hand or a word of support and maketheirday. Lord, You are patient with me and loving. May I be the same with the people in my life. Appreciate every moment of life because even in your darkest moment God is with you. Lord, I know that when things become too difficult for me, You will take my burden and carry me. I am not afraid.

0

Today's readings

May 24

Daily Reflections

"HAPPY, JOYOUS AND FREE"

We are sure God wants us to be happy, joyous, and free. We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it is clear that we made our own misery. God didn't do it. Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 133

For years I believed in a punishing God and blamed Him for my misery. I have learned that I must lay down the "weapons" of self in order to pick up the "tools" of the A.A. program. I do not struggle with the program because it is a gift and I have never struggled when receiving a gift. If I sometimes keep on struggling, it is because I'm still hanging onto my old ideas and ". . . the results are nil."

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In twelfth step work, the second thing is confession. By frankly sharing with prospects, we get them talking about their own experiences. They will open up and confess things to us that they haven't been able to tell other people. And they feel better when this confession has been made. It's a great load off their minds to get these things out into the open. It's the things that are kept hidden that weigh on the mind. They feel a sense of release and freedom when they have opened up their hearts to us. Do I care enough about other alcoholics to help them to make a confession?

Meditation For The Day

I should help others all I can. Every troubled soul that God puts in my path is the one for me to help. As I sincerely try to help, a supply of strength will flow into me from God. My circle of helpfulness will widen more and more. God hands out the spiritual food to me and I pass it on to others. I must never say that I have only enough strength for my own need. The more I give away, the more I will keep. That which I keep to myself, I will lose in the end.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may have a sincere willingness to give. I pray that I may not hold back the strength I have received for myself alone.

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As Bill Sees It

Blind Trust?, p. 144

"Most surely, there can be no trust where there is no love, nor can there be real love where distrust holds its malign sway.

"But does trust require that we be blind to each other people's motives or indeed, to our own? Not at all; this would be folly. Most certainly, we should assess the capacity for harm as well as the capability for good in every person that we would trust. Such a private inventory can reveal the degree of confidence we should extend in any given situation.

"However, this inventory needs to be taken in a spirit of understanding and love. Nothing can so much bias our judgment as the negative emotions of suspicion, jealously, or anger.

"Having vested our confidence in another person, we ought to let him know of our full support. Because of this, more often than not he will respond magnificently, and far beyond our first expectations."

Letter, 1966

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Walk in Dry Places

Guidance and Power in making Decisions.
Higher power
The Twelve Step movement grows out of an earlier society that emphasized taking "quiet times" and seeking continuous guidance in a group setting. While this isn't usually practiced by 12 step groups anymore, such exercises are still recommended for individuals. Our needs in seeking guidance are twofold;
FIRST, we must reach a belief that our higher power is always available to supply the guidance and power we need.
SECOND, we must take care to set aside personal opinions and prejudices while letting real guidance come through. We can easily fall into serious error by assuming that our own impulses and prejudices are "the will of God" for ourselves and others.
How can we identify real guidance when it comes?
Usually, we have a sense of peace and rightness about a God-inspired decision. This will be accompanied by a confidence that the correct way will bed shown to us, perhaps a step at a time. The right decision will also be morally correct, involving no harm to others. I'll seek the guidance of my Higher power in all things today, knowing that I have within myself the capacity to heed such guidance and follow it.

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Keep It Simple

The way to love anything is to realize it might be lost. ---G.K. Chesterton

Every day we take so much for granted. But we can count certain blessings: a roof over our head, food, clothing, family, and friends, freedom, a Higher Power we trust. These things are special. Thinking about them wakes up our happiness. Our recovery program shows us how happy. we just have to remember to do what it tells us! Step Ten helps us wake up our happiness. Each evening, as we think about our day, we can give thanks for the things we love: our recovery, our health, and the special people in our lives. If we spend part of our day thinking about these important areas, we wont lose them.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me make the most of my blessings today.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll tell five people I love that I'm glad to have them in my life. And I'll tell each of them one reason why.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

He poured out two drinks. "Here's looking at you," said he. I gulped it down and choked. I didn't like it, but I would not say so. No, never! A mellow glow stole over me. Say! This wasn't so bad after all. In fact, it was darn good. Sure I'd have another. The glow increased. Other boys came in. My tongue loosened. Everyone laughed loudly. I was witty. I had no inferiority's. Why, I wasn't even ashamed of my skinny legs! This was the real thing!

p. 209

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."

Some of us, though, tripped over a very different snag. We clung to the claim that when drinking we never hurt anybody but ourselves. Our families didn't suffer, because we always paid the bills and seldom drank at home. Our business associates didn't suffer, because we were usually on the job. Our reputations hadn't suffered, because we were certain few knew of our drinking. Those who did would sometimes assure us that, after all, a lively bender was only a good man's fault. What real harm, therefore, had we done? No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies.

p. 79

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"Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them." --John (Jay) McCloy

I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself. --Walter Anderson

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action." --Benjamin Disraeli

Appreciate the time that you have been given. Don't procrastinate, because you just may not get the chance to do something you have been meaning to do. --unknown

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity. --Henry Van Dyke

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

IMMATURITY

"My mother loved children - she would have given anything if I had been one." --Groucho Marx

For too many years I allowed myself to be treated as a child. I played the child role in order to avoid responsibility. Part of my people-pleasing was living as a thirty-year-old child! I was afraid to say "no". Afraid to disappoint or hurt another's feelings. Afraid to tell my parents how they were hurting me by their need to control my life. God, when I think about it, I spent years feeling guilty and afraid.

Today I am willing to deal with this pain in my life; today I am willing to talk about it. My biggest relief comes in knowing that I am not alone. There are millions of us out there. The difference is I have a program today that enables me to talk about it.

God, help me to be child-like without being childish. Help me to grow into maturity with a smile.

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Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. Psalm 37:1-9

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Daily Inspiration

Do not be upset by events of the past, rather be upset by the time and energy you are devoting to them. Lord, help me to enjoy each moment by completely letting go of the past.

Appreciate every moment of life because even in your darkest moment God is with you. Lord, I know that when things become too difficult for me, You will take my burden and carry me. I am not afraid.

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today's readings

May 23

Daily Reflections

SPIRITUAL HEALTH

When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p 64

It is very difficult for me to come to terms with my spiritual illness because of my great pride, disguised by my material successes and my intellectual power. Intelligence is not incompatible with humility, provided I place humility first. To seek prestige and wealth is the ultimate goal for many in the modern world. To be fashionable and to seem better than I really am is a spiritual illness. To recognize and to admit my weakness is the beginning of good spiritual health. It is a sign of spiritual health to be able to ask God every day to enlighten me, to recognize His will, and to have the strength to execute it. My spiritual health is excellent when I realize that the better I get, the more I discover how much help I need from others.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The Twelfth Step of A.A., working with others, can be subdivided into five parts, five words beginning with the letter C; confidence, confession, conviction, conversion, and continuance. The first thing in trying to help other alcoholics is to get their confidence. We do this by telling them our own experiences with drinking, so that they see that we know what we're talking about. If we share our experiences frankly, they will know that we are sincerely trying to help them. They will realize that they're not alone and that others have had experiences as bad or worse than theirs. This gives them confidence that they can be helped. Do I care enough about other alcoholics to get their confidence?

Meditation For The Day

I fail not so much when tragedy happens as I did before the happening, by all the little things I might have done, but did not do. I must prepare for the future by doing the right thing at the right time now. If a thing should be done, I should deal with that thing today and get it righted with God before I allow myself to undertake any new duty. I should look upon myself as performing God's errands and then coming back to Him to tell Him in quiet communion that the message has been delivered or the task done.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may seek no credit for the results of what I do. I pray that I may leave the outcome of my actions to God.

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As Bill Sees It

A.A.'s School of Life, p. 143

Within A.A., I suppose, we shall always quarrel a good bit. Mostly, I think, about how to do the greatest good for the greatest number of drunks. We shall have our childish spats and snits over small questions of money management and who is going to run our groups for the next six months. Any bunch of growing children (and that is what we are) would hardly be in character if they did less.

These are the growing pains of infancy, and we actually thrive on them. Surmounting such problems, in A.A.'s rather rugged school of life, is a healthy exercise.

A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 233

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Walk in Dry Places

Avoid the paralysis of analysis Practical Spirituality The good news of the Twelve step program is that we have a Higher Power whose presence serves as a source of guidance and understanding as we go through each day. Letting this power work through us is only a matter of will..... God draws as near to us as we wish to draw near to God. As we let our Higher Power work, we remember that no scientific explanation for this process is necessary. We could paralyse your spiritual activity by trying to analyze it, thus bringing about an undesirable "paralysis or analysis."It's also not necessary to win another's endorsement of what we're trying to do.

We must not be influenced by any scorn or ridicule of our efforts. All that's necessary is that we know God in our own lives and stay faithful to our program. We let the presence of God work freely and smoothly as we go about our business.

I'll work today with the comfortable knowledge that God is really doing work through me.

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Keep It Simple

The present will not long endure.---Pindar At certain moments, our best friend is time. Time is a gift given us. Time helps us heal. We need to know that when things are tough, these times will pass, and peace will return. Our Higher Power can be like a parent who comforts a child when there's a storm outside. The parent gently reminds the child the sun will shine again. Tough times come and go. There will be times when life is ugly and very painful. We can't be happy all the time. Remember, our Higher Power is always there. We must have faith in this. A saying often heard in the program is, "This too shall pass."

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, remind me that things will get better. Even if they get worst for a while, they will get better. Let this be my prayer in hard times.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll list times in my life when I thought I couldn't go on. I'll remember the pain, but I'll also remember how time was my friend.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

I am in another fellow's room at college. "Freshman," said he to me, "do you ever take a drink?" I hesitated. Father had never directly spoken to me about drinking and he never drank any, so far as I knew. Mother hated liquor and feared a drunken man. Her brother had been a drinker and had died in a state hospital for the insane. But his life was unmentionable, so far as I was concerned. I had never had a drink but I had seen enough merriment in the boys who were drinking to be interested. I would never be like the village drunkard at home. How a lot of people despised him! Just a weakling! "Well," said the older boy, "Do you?" "Once in a while," I lied. I could not let him think I was a sissy.

pp. 208-209

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to makeamends to them all."

When listing the people we have harmed, most of us hit another solid obstacle. We got a pretty severe shock when we realized that we were preparing to make a face-to-face admission of our wretched conduct to those we had hurt. It had been embarrassing enough when in confidence we had admitted these things to God, to ourselves, and to another human being. But the prospect of actually visiting or even writing the people concerned now overwhelmed us, especially when we remembered in what poor favor we stood with most of them. There were cases, too, where we had damaged others who were still happily unaware of being hurt. Why, we cried, shouldn't bygones be bygones? Why do we have to think of these people at all? These were some of the ways in which fear conspired with pride to hinder our making a list of all the people we had harmed.

pp. 78-79

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Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa said: "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." --Cited in BITS & PIECES

Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from. --Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"There's no elevator, you have to take the steps." --unknown

"Yard by yard it's very hard. But inch by inch, it's a cinch." --Anon.

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step." --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"If we take care of the inches, we will not have to worry about the miles." --Hartley Coleridge

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess. --Rainer Maria Rilke

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

EFFORT

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." --Theodore Roosevelt

Because we are not perfect, we need only do our best. Because our recovery from addiction is an on-going process, we will discover that our best is improving on a daily basis. It is so easy to beat ourselves up emotionally by thinking that our best is not good enough. Even after years of recovery we still hear the old tapes: "People do not want to listen to you." "Is that all that you can do?"

We need to remember that the disease of addiction still lives in our recovery. However, our honest attempts at dealing with a problem or helping another with a problem - provided they are honest attempts -will usually be more than sufficient.

Today I accept my best attempts with gratitude and I am not too proud to seek the advice of another.

God, accept the best that I can offer as an instrument of Your peace.

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He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23

All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted. Mark 11:24

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Daily Inspiration

Instead of overreacting, try under reacting because this response shows wisdom, patience and peace. Lord, help me respond to situations in a manner that allows me to solve problems rather than create more.

Be sensitive to the feelings of others and show the same forgiveness and compassion that the Lord gives to you. Lord, give me the wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen.f

today's readings

May 22

Daily Reflections

STEP ONE

WE . . . (The first word of the First Step) TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 21

When I was drinking all I could ever think about was "I, I, I," or "Me, Me, Me." Such painful obsessions of self, such soul sickness, such spiritual selfishness bound me to the bottle for more than half my life. The journey to find God and to do His will one day at a time began with the first word of the First Step . . . "We." There was power in numbers, there was strength in numbers, there was safety in numbers, and for an alcoholic like me, there was life in numbers, If I had tried to recover alone I probably would have died. With God and another alcoholic I have a divine purpose in my life . . . I have become a channel for God's healing love.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

What impresses us most at an A.A. meeting is the willingness to share, without holding anything back. And pretty soon we find ourselves sharing also. We start telling our own experiences and by so doing we help the other person. And when we've got these things off our chest, we feel a lot better. It does us a lot of good to share with some other poor unfortunate person who's in the same box that we were in. And the more we share, the more we have left for ourselves. Do I know that the more I share, the better chance I'll have to stay sober?

Meditation For The Day

Constantly claim God's strength. Once convinced of the right of a course of action, once reasonably sure of God's guidance, claim that strength now. You can claim all the strength you need to meet any situation. You can claim a new supply when your own supply is exhausted. You have a right to claim it and you should use your right. A beggar supplicates, a child appropriates. When you supplicate, you are often kept waiting, but when you appropriate God's strength in a good cause, you have it at once.

Prayer For The Day I pray that I may claim God's strength whenever I need it. I pray that I may try to live as a child of God.

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As Bill Sees It

God-Given Instincts, p. 142

Creation gave us instincts for a purpose. Without them we wouldn't be complete human beings. If men and women didn't exert themselves to be secure in their persons, made no effort to harvest food or construct shelter, there would be no survival. If they didn't reproduce, the earth wouldn't be populated. If there were no social instinct, there would be no society.

Yet these instincts, so necessary for our existence, often far exceed their proper functions. Powerfully, blindly, many times subtly, they drive us, dominate us, and insist upon ruling our lives.

<< << << >> >> >>

We tried to shape a sane ideal for our future sex life. We subjected each relation to this test: Was it selfish or not? We asked God to mold our ideals and help us to live up to them. We remembered always that our sex powers were God-given and therefore good, neither to be used lightly or selfishly nor to be despised and loathed.

1. 12 & 12, p. 42 2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 69

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Walk in Dry Places

Emotional sobriety may be elusive Serenity It is easy to know when one is maintaining sobriety as far as alcohol is concerned. Emotional sobriety is more difficult to measure, because is it usually gauged by our behavior and feelings in response to people and situations. If we lack emotional sobriety, we are likely to end up in "dry drunks". This means we lose emotional control under pressure or when threatened. We may think we have this control, yet find ourselves falling apart when seemingly small problems come up. Maybe we have to accept that we will never have all the emotional control that we admire-in others.This emotional sensitivity-may even be part of our alcoholism. Most important, we must ensure that emotional binges do not become binges involving real booze. Nor should wed judge ourselves too harshly when we undergo another emotional binge, or "dry drunk." Such judgmental attitudes, even toward ourselves, may be a form of false pride. Today I'll seek all the serenity I can find. If I lose my cool temporarily, I'll accept it as part of my general problem and get back to orderly thinking as quickly as possible.

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Keep It Simple

Showing up is 80 percent of life.---Woody Allen
 Life is full of things we don't want to do. Yet when all parts of us( mind, body, spirit) show up, things go okay. By being there, we can learn about ourselves and help others. Showing up means we care about our program. It means we speak up at meetings.It Means we care about our family, our friends, the world. It means we listen when a friend has a bad day. It means seeing ourselves in others. It means we talk to someone who bothers us. Showing up means we laugh when something seems funny. It means we cry when we feel sad. We're important, and we need to bring our mind, body, and spirit with us---wherever we go. Have I learned to show up, all of me?
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me show up for my life. Help me show up to do my part in Your plan today.
Today's Action: As I go through my day, I'll think about how I'm showing up for my life. I'll be proud of myself for doing my part.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Our Southern Friend

Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to say there is no God?"

Bed-time comes. I climb to my room in the attic. It is cold so there is no delay. I crawl under a pile of blankets and blow out the candle. The wind is rising and howls around the house. But I am safe and warm. I fall into a dreamless sleep. I am in church. Father is delivering his sermon. A wasp is crawling up the back of the lady in front of me. I wonder if it will reach her neck. Shucks! It has flown away. Ho, hum, maybe the watermelons are ripe in Mr. Jones patch. That's an idea! Benny will know, but Mr. Jones will not know what happened to some of them, if they are. At last! The message has been delivered. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works-." I hunt for my nickel to drop in the plate so that mine will be seen. Father comes forward in the chancel of the church. "The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds." Hurray! Just a hymn and then church will be over until next week!

p. 208

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eight - "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make-amends to them all."

Right here we need to fetch ourselves up sharply. It doesn't make much sense when a real toss-pot calls a kettle black. Let's remember that alcoholics are not the only ones bedeviled by sick emotions. Moreover, it is usually a fact that our behavior when drinking has aggravated the defects of others. We've repeatedly strained the patience of our best friends to a snapping point, and have brought out the very worst in those who didn't think much of us to begin with. In many instances we are really dealing with fellow sufferers, people whose woes we have increased. If we are now about to ask forgiveness for ourselves, why shouldn't we start out by forgiving them, one and all?

p. 78

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You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stopped laughing. --unknown

God cannot help those who do not seize opportunities. --Chinese Proverb

Help yourself and God will help you. --Dutch Proverb

"No one grows old by living, only by losing interest in living." --Marie Beynon Ray

"There is just one life for each of us: our own." --Euripides

Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. --Leo Buscaglia

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

EARTH

"This could be such a beautiful world." Rosalind Welcher

The beauty that I see in the world also reveals a sadness - a sadness in knowing that it could be a much more loving and accepting place for everybody. If only we would get together in our difference instead of demanding sameness.

We destroy so much God--given beauty by our desire to control, understand and arrogantly pursue a philosophy of selfishness - and we all lose.

But my spiritual hope for tomorrow comes in the creative choices I make today.

Let me be a good steward in Your world because it is Your gift to me.

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"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me." John 12:24-26

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Daily Inspiration

To be happy, we must live in the present. Living in the past often brings painful memories-and living in the future canbringworry and fear. Lord, when my thoughts slip away, help me quickly return my attention to where I am at this moment.

God is always at work in your life. Notice His light on the events of your day. Lord, I sometimes look without really seeing. Help me to pause and notice.