today's readings

August 28

Daily Reflections

LIGHTENING THE BURDEN

Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. . . . the dark past is . . . the key to life and happiness for others. Alcoholics Anonymous, p.124

Since I have been sober, I have been healed of many pains: deceiving my partner, deserting my best friend, and spoiling my mother's hopes for my life. In each case someone in the program told me of a similar problem, and I was able to share what happened to me. When my story was told, both of us got up with lighter hearts.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"We must continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We should grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter; it should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We must not rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve, contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition." Am I checking my spiritual condition daily?

Meditation For The Day

Happiness cannot be sought directly; it is a byproduct of love and service. Service is a law of our being. With love in your heart, there is always some service to other people. A life of power and joy and satisfaction is built on love and service. Persons who hate or are selfish are going against the law of their own being. They are cutting themselves off from God and other people. Little acts of love and encouragement, of service and help, erase the rough places of life and help to make a path smooth. If we do these things, we cannot help having our share of happiness.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may give my share of love and service. I pray that I may not grow weary in my attempts to do the right thing.

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As Bill Sees It

When And How To Give, p.239

Men who cry for money and shelter as a condition of their sobriety are on the wrong track. Yet we sometimes do provide a new prospect with these very things--when it becomes clear that he is willing to place his recovery first.

It is not whether we shall give that is the question, but when and how to give. Whenever we put our work on a material plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon alms rather than upon a Higher Power and the A.A. group. He continues to insist that he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for.

Nonsense! Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: that, job or no job, wife or no wife, we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place material dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.

Alcoholics Anonymous, p.98

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Walk In Dry Places

No Prayer Goes Unanswered Guidance. It would be nearly impossible to do an accounting of the results of prayer. Sometimes there seems to be no answer , and at other times, an answer seems to be the result of coincidence. It's too easy to dismiss these results as things that would have happened even if we hadn't prayed. Yet those of us who believe in prayer feel that it is indeed a way of communicating with our Higher Power. It takes many forms. Even thinking about God is a type of prayer. The best answers to prayer come in the new ways we begin to feel about ourselves and others. If prayer brings us to a realization of being in tune with our Higher Power, we are working in the right way. The proper changes will come into our lives as needed. We should not try to measure results, because this tends to bring doubt into the process. Our only responsibility is to pray then let God's work take place in our lives. I will pray regularly to day, thinking often about God and asserting to myself and others that this Higher Power is in charge.

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Keep It Simple

The saints are the sinners who kept going.---Robert Louis Stevenson The saints are what our program calls the “winner.” We’re told to “stick” with the winners. Saints are just proven winners. They keep on believing in their Higher Power even when things get hard. There will be times when we’ll want to give up. We may want to stop going to meetings. We may want to get high. We may want to stop working the Steps. To be winners in this program, we need to follow the example of the saints. This means we live a spiritual life. We need to keep on going. One day at a time. Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll be a winner in this program. Higher Power, be with me in the easy times and the hard times. Help me keep going. Action for the Day: I’ll list people who are winners in this program. I’ll ask one of the how he or she keeps going in tough times.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Man Who Mastered Fear

He spent eighteen years in running away, and then found he didn't have to run. So he started A.A. in Detroit.

During the first three months, I carried on all these activities without a car, depending entirely on buses and streetcars---I, who always had to have a car at my immediate command. I, who had never made a speech in my life and who would have been frightened sick at the prospect, stood up in front of Rotary groups in different parts of the city and talked about Alcoholics Anonymous. I, carried away with the desire to serve A.A., gave what was probably one of the first radio broadcasts about A.A., living through a case of mike fright and feeling like a million dollars when it was all over. I lived through a week of the fidgets because I had agreed to address a group of alcoholic inmates in one of our state mental hospitals. There it was the same---exhilaration at a mission accomplished. Do I have to tell you who gained the most out of all this?

p. 254

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Seven - "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."

How we alcoholics did resent that verdict! We would not believe that our adult dreams were often truly childish. And considering the rough deal life had given us, we felt it perfectly natural that we were sensitive. As to our grandiose behavior, we insisted that we had been possessed of nothing but a high and legitimate ambition to win the battle of life.

p. 123

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Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. . . Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted." --Paul Tillich

"Life didn't promise to be wonderful." --Teddy Pendergrass

Today I do not need to say the first thing that comes into my head, or react to what others say about me. Today I can practice restraint of tongue and pen...think before I speak...and say kind things or nothing at all. --Ruth Fishel

One of the first things to do, is to love everybody ... with love, all things are possible ... and the one who has learned to love all people will find plenty of people who will return that love. --Ernest Holmes

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. --Charles Dickens

Sit down with a pen and paper and write your thoughts down. It frees your mind. --unknown

God's answers are always wiser than your prayers...

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

CHARACTER

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's." -- Johann Paul Richter

I was always so perceptive when it came to assessing the character faults of others. I could offer the best therapy and treatment to others; the best advice in the world. I was excellent at "pulling the covers" on a con-man --- but always I missed me! I never really heard my insights. I never followed my advice. I always minimized my character faults.

Usually what I saw in others was reflected in my own personality. The things I loathed in others existed in me. The anger and resentments came from a denial of self.

In sobriety I hear the advice of others. I don't always like it but I hear it. I give criticism and today I am growing in my acceptance of criticism.

In relationships may I see clearly my own reflection.

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"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Colossians 3:16

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

"The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me." Psalms 116:6

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Daily Inspiration

If you are too easily offended and become upset too quickly, you are taking life far too seriously. Lord, help me avoid looking for things to complain about.

Never underestimate the power of your presence nor your ability to comfort and encourage. Lord, thank You for my opportunities to do Your work.