Today's readings

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September 21

Daily Reflections

THE LAST PROMISE

We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us
what we could not do for ourselves.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84

The last Promise in the Big Book came true for me
on the very first day of sobriety. God kept me sober
that day, and on every other day I allowed Him to
operate in my life. He gives me the strength, courage
and guidance to meet my responsibilities in life so
that I am then able to reach out and help others stay
sober and grow. He manifests within me, making me a
channel of His word, thought and deed. He works with
my inner self, while I produce in the outer world, for
He will not do for me what I can do for myself. I must
be willing to do His work, so that He can function
through me successfully.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Let us continue with Steps Four, Five, Six, Seven
and Ten. In taking personal inventory of ourselves,
we have to face facts as they really are. We have to
stop running away. We must face reality. We must see
ourselves as we really are. We must admit our faults
openly and try to correct them. We must try to see
where we have been dishonest, impure, selfish, and
unloving. We do not do this once and forget it. We
do it every day of our lives, as long as we live. We
are never done with checking up on ourselves. Am I
taking a daily inventory of myself?

Meditation For The Day

In improving our personal lives, we have Unseen help.
We were not made so that we could see God. That would
be too easy for us and there would be no merit in
obeying Him. It takes an act of faith, a venture of
belief, to realize the Unseen Power. Yet, we have much
evidence of God's existence in the strength that many
people have received from the act of faith, the venture
of belief. We are in a box of space and time and we can
see neither our souls nor God. God and the human spirit
are both outside the limitations of space and time. Yet
our Unseen help is effective here and now. That has
been proved in thousands of changed lives.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may make the great venture of belief.
I pray that my vision may not be blocked by intellectual pride.

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As Bill Sees It

Fear And Faith, p.263

The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking, one
that can never be wholly completed.

When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of
serious insecurity, we shall all react to this emotion--well or badly, as
the case may be. Only the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom
from fear.

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We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our
make-up. Sometimes we had to search persistently, but He was
there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great
Reality deep down within us.

1. Grapevine, January 1962
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p.55

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Keep It Simple

Love doesn’t make the world go around. Love is what makes the
ride worthwhile. ---Franklin Jones
Before recovery, anger, self-pity, and sadness often filled our hearts.
The world went on. We came to hate the ride.
In recovery, love fills our hearts. We begin to love life. Love is really
caring about what happens to other people. Love is what makes the
ride worth it
We find much love in our program. People really mater to us. We really
matter to others. For many of us, we learn how to love in our meetings.
The program teaches love because the program is love.
Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll welcome love into my heart and
others into my life. Love brings me closer to my Higher Power.
Action for the Day: I’ll list all the people I love and why they matter
to me.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Praise and an attitude of gratitude are unbeatable stimulators . . .
we increase whatever we extol. --Sylvia Stitt Edwards
What outlook are we carrying forth into the day ahead? Are we feeling
fearful about the circumstances confronting us? Do we dread a planned
meeting? Are we worried about the welfare of a friend or lover?
Whatever our present outlook, its power over the outcome of our day
is profound. Our attitude in regard to any situation attracting our attention
influences the outcome. Sometimes to our favor, often to our disfavor if
our attitude is negative.
Thankfulness toward life guarantees the rewards we desire, the rewards
we seek too often from an ungrateful stance. The feeling of gratitude is
foreign to many of us. We came to this program feeling worthless,
sometimes rejected, frequently depressed. It seemed life had heaped
problems in our laps, and so it had. The more we lamented what life
"gave us," the more reasons we were given to lament. We got just
what we expected. We still get just what we expect. The difference is
that the program has offered us the key to higher expectations.
Gratitude for the good in our lives increases the good.
I have the personal power to influence my day; I will make it a good one.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

ME AN ALCOHOLIC? - Alcohol's wringer squeezed this author --
but he escaped quite whole.

The other side of the coin is sinister, baffling. I was inwardly unhappy
most of the time. There would be times when the life of respectability
and achievement seemed insufferably dull--I had to break out. This
I would do by going completely "bohemian" for a night, getting drunk,
and rolling home with the dawn. Next day, remorse would be on me
like a tiger. I'd claw my way back to respectability and stay there--
until the inevitable next time.
p. 382

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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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Four steps to achievement:
Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue
persistently.
--William A. Ward

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up
and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
--Anne Lamott

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.
--Martin Luther King Jr.

Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what
you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day.
--Will Durant

Laughter is the sound of recovery.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

ACTION

"I shall pass through this world
but once. If, therefore, there be
any kindness I can show, or any
good thing I can do, let me do it
now; let me not defer it or
neglect it, for I shall not pass
this way again."
-- Etienne de Grellet

Today I know that God requires me to be involved in my recovery and
sobriety. God has always wanted me to be sober but the miracle took
place when I wanted it, too. His hands were always extended towards
me, the miracle happened when I chose to embrace Him. My sobriety
involves me.

Today I understand that sobriety is more than "not picking up the first
drink"; it involves quiet acts of kindness to myself and others. God
works through me -- through my hands, my smile, my voice, my love
and my acceptance. When an opportunity arises for me to be
ordinarily kind, I intend to give it; God knows I have needed such
kindnesses from others in the past.

May I never avoid an opportunity for shared healing.

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I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and in His word I put my hope.
Psalm 130 : 5

"Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and
love."
2 John 1:3

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Daily Inspiration

Spend less time on the dreams of life and more time on the joys of living.
Lord, help me to view my troubles as smaller than they are until together
we make them disappear.

We are judged by our actions, not by our intentions. Lord, may I show my
love for You through charity and goodness toward others.