today's readings

September 13

Daily Reflections

REPAIRING THE DAMAGE

Good judgment, careful sense of timing, courage and prudence -these are the qualities we shall need when we take Step Nine. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 83

To make amends can be viewed two ways: first, that of repairing damage, for if I have damaged my neighbor's fence, I "make a mend," and that is a direct amend; the second way is by modifying my behavior, for if my actions have harmed someone. I make a daily effort to cause no further harm. I "mend my ways," and that is an indirect amend. Which is the best approach? The only right approach, provided that I am causing no further harm in so doing, is to do both. If harm is done, then I simply "mend my ways." To take action in this manner assures me of making honest amends.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"No one is too discredited, nor has sunk too low, to be welcomed cordially into A.A., if he or she means business. Social distinctions, petty rivalries and jealousies are laughed out of countenance. Being wrecked in the same vessel, being restored and united under one God, with hearts and minds attuned to the welfare of others, the things which matter so much to some people no longer signify much to us. In A.A., we have true democracy and true brotherhood."

Meditation For The Day

When you call on God in prayer to help you overcome weakness, sorrow, pain, discord, and conflict, God never fails in some way to answer the appeal. When you are in need of strength for yourself or for the help of some other person, call on God in prayer. The power you need will come simply, naturally, and forcefully. Pray to God not only when you need help, but also just to commune with Him. The spirit of prayer can alter an atmosphere from one of discord to one of reconciliation. It will raise the quality of thought and word and bring order out of chaos.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may bring peace where these is discord. I pray that I may bring conciliation where these is conflict.

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As Bill Sees It

Wider Understanding, p.255

To reach more alcoholics, understanding of A.A. and public good will towards A.A. must go on growing everywhere. We need to be on still better terms with medicine, courts, prisons, mental hospitals, and all enterprises in the alcoholism field. We need the increasing good will of editors, writers, television and radio channels. These publicity outlets need to be opened ever wider.

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Nothing matters more to A.A.'s future welfare than the manner in which we use the colossus of modern communication. Used unselfishly and well, it can produce results surpassing our present imagination. Should we handle this great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego manifestations of our own people. Against this peril, A.A. members' anonymity before the general public is our shield and our buckler.

1. Twelve Concepts, p.51 2. Grapevine, November 1960

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Walk In Dry Places

Learning to Cut my Losses Honesty Business people speak of “cutting their losses” when it becomes clear that a venture is going sour. As recovering alcoholics, we need to practice the same principle when we’re obviously on the wrong track. If a resentment is developing, for example, the sooner we spot it and clear it out, the less damage we suffer. In the same way, we may be engaging in selfish but destructive behavior, or perhaps something that borders on being illicit or dishonest. We minimize our losses by admitting the wrong and getting back to our basic principles of living. In cutting our losses, the usual barriers are pride and self-deception. While these shortcomings will probably always dog us, we at least have experience in dealing with them, or we wouldn't have made any progress in sobriety. If a course of thought or action isn't working out well, perhaps it’s time today to cut my loses in order to get back on the right track.

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Keep It Simple

People seldom improve when they have no model but themselves to copy.---Oliver Goldsmith If we had to get well by ourselves, we’d be in trouble. We’ve already tried this route. We need to learn a new way to live, not the old way we already know. That’s why we have sponsors in Twelve Step programs. Sponsors are one of the best things about our recovery. We pick people who are happy and doing well in recovery. Then we copy them. We copy them because sponsors are special people who have what we want. They have sobriety. They have happiness. They have common sense. They have peace and serenity. And they will help us get those things too. We learn a new way to live from them. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me pick good models. Help me copy what works for them. Action for the Day: If I don’t have a sponsor now, I’ll work today on getting one.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Nobody told me how hard and lonely change is. --Joan Gilbertson Pain, repeatedly experienced, indicates a need for self-assessment, an inventory of our behavior. Honest self-appraisal may well call for change, a change in attitude perhaps, a change in specific behavior in some instances, or maybe a change in direction. We get off the right path occasionally, but go merrily on our way until barriers surface, doors close, and experiences become painful. Most of us willingly wallow in our pain a while, not because we like it, but because its familiarity offers security. We find some comfort in our pain because at least it holds no surprises. When our trust in God is high, we are more willing to change. And we open ourselves to the indications for movement in a new direction. Each of us must find our own willingness. Each of us must develop attentiveness to the signs that repeatedly invite changes in our behavior. But most of all, each of us has to travel the road to change, singly. Changes we must find the courage to make will never be exactly like someone else's changes. Courage to change accompanies faith. My fears are telling me to look within to the spiritual source of strength, ever present but often forgotten.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

WINNER TAKES ALL - Legally blind but no longer alone, she found a way to stay sober, raise a family, and turn her life over to the care of God.

God only knows how we got on the subject, but she was a member of A.A. and later would become my new sponsor. She picked me up and took me to meetings. At one of the meetings, I met a guy who for the next year picked me up and drove me to work. I paid him a dollar each morning. I am sure that did not cover his gas, but it helped me to feel I was paying my way. For the first time in my life, I was now supporting myself.

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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."

And what can be said of many A.A. members who, for a variety of reasons, cannot have a family life? At first many of these feel lonely, hurt, and left out as they witness so much domestic happiness about them. If they cannot have this kind of happiness, can A.A. offer them satisfactions of similar worth and durability? Yes--whenever they try hard to seek them out. Surrounded by so many A.A. friends, these so-called loners tell us they no longer feel alone. In partnership with others--women and men--they can devote themselves to any number of ideas, people, and constructive projects. Free of marital responsibilities, they can participate in enterprises which would be denied to family men and women. We daily see such members render prodigies of service, and receive great joys in return.

p. 120

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None of us has gotten where we are solely by pulling ourselves up from our own bootstraps. We got here because somebody bent down and helped us. --Thurgood Marshall

Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. --Henry James

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Listen or Thy tongue will keep Thee deaf." --American Indian Proverb

Rather than regretting that I wasted half of my life drinking, I am just grateful that God has given me the rare opportunity to live two lives in one lifetime.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

MINORITY

"The greatest good of a minority of our generation may be the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the long run." -- Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr.

I belong to a minority. I am a recovering alcoholic. I use a spiritual program that keeps me sober a day at a time. I have a God that I can understand today. I do a daily inventory and make amends when appropriate, and I feel good about myself.

This spiritual program is reaching out to the world: gamblers, overeaters, cocaine addicts, the families of addicts, the children of compulsive people; obsessive people can all be helped by this daily program of acceptance.

Perhaps the recovering drunk has stumbled upon a miracle that can bring the world back to God!

Lord, the more I talk about my "difference" with people, the more they and I feel the same.

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"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path." Psalm 143:10

"You have let me sink down deep in desperate problems. But you will bring me back to life again, up from the depths of the earth!" Psalms 71:20

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Daily Inspiration

Talent is the ability to do easily that which others find difficult. Lord, help me to recognize and value the abilities that I have been given and use them gratefully.

Simple trust in God is all that is required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Lord, I love You. I trust in You. I am Your child.