How many alcoholics does it take to screw in a light bulb?
One, he just holds the light bulb and waits because the world revolves around him....:-)
September 25
Daily Reflections
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth:
Job or no job -- wife or no wife -- we simply do not stop
drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people
ahead of dependence on God.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 98
Before coming to A.A., I always had excuses for taking a
drink: "She said . . . , " "He said . . . ," "I got fired
yesterday," "I got a great job today." No area of my life
could be good if I drank again. In sobriety my life gets
better each day. I must always remember not to drink, to
trust God, and to stay active in A.A. Am I putting anything
before my sobriety, God, and A.A. today?
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Let us consider the term "spiritual experience" as given
in Appendix II of the Big Book: "A spiritual experience
is something that brings about a personality change. By
surrendering our lives to God as we understand Him, we
are changed. The nature of this change is evident in
recovered alcoholics. This personality change is not
necessarily in the nature of a sudden and spectacular
upheaval. We do no need to acquire an immediate and
overwhelming God-consciousness followed at once by a vast
change in feeling and outlook. In most cases, the change
is gradual." Do I see a gradual and continuing change in
myself?
Meditation For The Day
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I
will give you rest." For rest from the care of life, you
can turn to God each day in prayer and communion. Real
relaxation and serenity comes from a deep sense of the
fundamental goodness of the universe. God's everlasting
arms are underneath all and will support you. Commune with
God, not so much for petitions to be granted as for the
rest that comes from relying on His will and His purposes
for your life. Be sure of God's strength available to you,
be conscious of His support, and wait quietly until that
true rest from God fills your being.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may be conscious of God's support today.
I pray that I may rest safe and sure therein.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Behind Our Excuses, p.267
As excuse-makers and rationalizers, we drunks are champions. It
is the business of the psychiatrist to find the deeper causes for
our conduct. Though uninstructed in psychiatry, we can, after a
little time in A.A., see that our motives have not been what we thought
they were, and that we have been motivated by forces previously
unknown to us. Therefore we ought to look, with the deepest respect,
interest, and profit, upon the example set us by psychiatry.
********************************
"Spiritual growth through the practice of A.A.'s Twelve Steps,
plus the aid of a good sponsor, can usually reveal most of the
deeper reasons for our character defects, at least to a degree that
meets our practical needs. Nevertheless, we should be grateful that
our friends in psychiatry have so strongly emphasized the necessity to
search for false and often unconscious motivations."
1. A.A. Comes Of Age, p.236
2. Letter, 1966
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Willingness to listen
Willingness
Why is it that we'll accept information from some people but not from
others? Many people tried to advise us while we were drinking; why
would we listen only to recovering alcoholics?
We can't answer that question, except to say that most human beings
are willing to listen only to certain people at certain times. That's why
business organizations have to select sales people carefully; customers
will respond to some people, but not to others.
As we grow in sobriety, however, we develop the willingness to listen to
people we would have once avoided. We can find wonderful ideas in all
sorts of places and from all types of people. As we become more
open-minded and willing, we can listen more and learn more.
My prejudices and fears of the past kept me from listening to people
who would have helped me. I'll be more open-minded and willing today.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
Martyrs set bad examples---David Russell
Sometimes we call people “martyrs.” We sometimes think of them
as victims. They suffer, but sometimes not for a cause. They play
“poor me.” They want people to notice how much they suffer. They
are afraid to really live. These are the people who set bad examples.
True martyrs died for causes they believed in. We remember them
because they were so full of energy and spirit. Recovery helps us
live better. Let’s go for it!
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for giving me energy
and for healing my spirit. Help me live fully by putting my life in
Your care.
Action for the Day: What kind of example do I set? Does my life
reflect joy for life and recovery?
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
...we do not always like what is good for us in this world. --Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us can look back and recall how we fought a particular change.
How certain we were that we wouldn't survive the upheaval! Perhaps we
lost a love or were forced to leave a home or a job. Retrospect allows
us to see the good of the change, and we can see the necessary part
each change has played in our development as recovering women.
We've had to change to cover the distances we've traveled. And
we'll have to continue changing.
The program and its structure, and our faith in that structure, can
ease the harsh consequences of change. Our higher power wants
only the best for us, of that we can be sure. However, the best may
not always "fit" when first we try it. Patience, trust, and prayer are a
winning combination when the time comes for us to accept a change.
We'll know when it's coming. Our present circumstances will begin to pinch.
Change means growth. It's a time for celebration, not dread. It means
I am ready to move ahead--that I have "passed" the current test.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
ME AN ALCOHOLIC? - Alcohol's wringer squeezed this author--
but he escaped quite whole.
How easy it was, in the beginning, to forget that those binges ever
happened! After a day or two of groveling remorse, I'd come up
with an explanation. "The nervous tension had piled up and just
had to spill over." Or, "My physical plant had got a little rundown
and the stuff rushed right to my head." Or, "I got to talking and
forgot how many I was taking and it hit me." Always we emerged
with a new formula for avoiding future trouble. "You've got to space
your drinks and take plenty of water in between," or "Coat the stomach
with a little olive oil," or "Drink anything but those **** martinis."
Weeks would go by without further trouble, and I'd assume I'd at last hit
on the right formula. The binge had been just "one of those things."
After a month it seemed unlikely that it happened. Intervals between
binges were eight months.
p. 383
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these
steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these
principles in all our affairs."
Still more wonderful is the feeling that we do not have to be specially
distinguished among our fellows in order to be useful and profoundly
happy. Not many of us can be leaders of prominence, nor do we wish
to be. Service, gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles
well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at home
or in the world outside we are partners in a common effort, the
well-understood fact that in God's sight all human beings are important,
the proof that love freely given surely brings a full return, the certainty
that we are no longer isolated and alone in self-constructed prisons, the
surety that we need no longer be square pegs in round holes but can fit
and belong in God's scheme of things--these are the permanent and
legitimate satisfactions of right living for which no amount of pomp
and circumstance, no heap of material possessions, could possibly be
substitutes. True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition
is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.
pp. 124-125
************************************************** *********
One should not give up, neglect, or forget for a moment his inner life,
but he must learn to work in it, with it, and out of it, so that the unity
of his soul may break out in all his activities.
--Meister Eckhart
All people, have goodness in their hearts and greatness in their souls.
--Shelley
The more I let go of my own suffering and self-pity, I can see those
around me with the eyes of love and compassion. I am
becoming more aware of other people's pain and unhappiness today
and I will reach out to them in loving ways that
heal me while helping them to heal.
--Ruth Fishel
Today I am living in the moment, instead of living for a moment.
"Don't go through life, GROW through life."
--Eric Butterworth
If you hang out in a barber shop long enough, you are going to get a haircut.
***********************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
PRAYER
"Prayer is not asking. It is a
language of the soul."
-- Mohandas Gandhi
At school I was told that prayer is "talking to God". Then I discovered
that prayer is more than this -- prayer is a relationship with God. It is
a two-way system -- I talk to God but I must also listen to Him. Like
any relationship that is going to work and grow, it needs time. I must
spend time developing my relationship with God. I must create an
awareness of his presence in my life because I believe He is always
there for me.
But more than this, prayer is a yearning for truth within the center of
my being. In prayer I get in touch with that part of me that will be
forever restless until it finds rest, eternal rest, in Him.
O God, prayer is my journey into You.
************************************************** *********
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.
Psalm 133:1
"Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called ...
bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Ephesians 4:1-3
"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is
good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one
another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the
Spirit, serve the Lord."
Romans 12:9-11
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Every decision we make is not critical nor is every mistake fatal.
Lord, help me keep things in perspective and avoid the panic such thinking creates.
Take time to learn from the mistakes of others. We don't have time
to make all of them ourselves. Lord, guide me onto paths that lead me to You.
No comments:
Post a Comment