Tuesday Readings

October 11

Daily Reflections

SELF--RESTRAINT

Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 91

My drive to work provides me with an opportunity for self-examination.
One day while making this trip, I began to review my progress in
sobriety, and was not happy with what I saw. I hoped that, as the
work day progressed, I would forget these troublesome thoughts,
but as one disappointment after another kept coming, my discontent
only increased, and the pressures within me kept mounting. I
retreated to an isolated table in the lounge, and asked myself
how I could make the most of the rest of the day. In the past,
when things went wrong, I instinctively wanted to fight back.
But during the short time I had been trying to live the A.A.
program I had learned to step back and take a look at myself.
I recognized that, although I was not the person I wanted to be,
I had learned to not react in my old ways. Those old patterns of
behavior only brought sorrow and hurt, to me and to others. I
returned to my work station, determined to make the day a
productive one, thanking God for the chance to make progress
that day.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

How good a sponsor am I? When I bring new members to a meeting,
do I feel that my responsibility has ended? Or do I make it my
job to stay with them until they have either become good members
of A.A. or have found another sponsor? If they don't show up for
a meeting, do I say to myself: "Well they've had it put up to
them, so if they don't want it, there's nothing more I can do? "
Or do I look them up and find out whether there is a reason for
their absences or that they don't want A.A.? Do I go out of my
way to find out if there is anything more I can do to help? Am I a good sponsor?

Meditation For The Day

"First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer
your gift to God." First I must get right with other people and
then I can get right with God. If I hold a resentment against
someone, which I find it very difficult to overcome, I should
try to put something else constructive into my mind. I should
pray for the one against whom I hold the resentment. I should
put that person in God's hands and let God show him or her the
way to live. "If a man say: 'I love God' and hateth his brother,
he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may see something good in every person, even one I
dislike, and that I may let God develop the good in that person.

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As Bill Sees It

INSTINCTS RUN WILD, p. 282

Every time a person imposes his instincts unreasonably upon others,
unhappiness follows. If the pursuit of wealth tramples upon people who
happen to be in the way, then anger, jealousy, and revenge are likely
to be aroused. If sex runs riot, there is similar uproar.

Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection,
and love can invite only domination or revulsion in the protectors
themselves-two emotions quite as unhealthy as the demands
which evoked them. When an individual's desire for prestige
becomes uncontrollable, whether in the sewing circle or at the
international conference table, other people suffer and often
revolt. This collision of instincts can produce anything from a cold snub
to a blazing revolution.

TWELVE AND TWELVE, p. 44

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Walk In Dry Places

Keeping anger in safe limits
Dealing with anger
"The most heated bit of letter-writing can be a wonderful safety valve,"
AA co-founder, Bill W. said, "providing the wastebasket is somewhere nearby."
This is a delightful bit of advice about the right way to handle anger.
Writing an angry letter is at least a way of bringing our feelings out so
that we can see them. This is far healthier than the peculiar method of
"Stuffing" one's feelings and pretending that there was no hurt or offense.
But an angry letter, once mailed, can be more destructive than a bullet.
We may live to regret ever having mailed it. It could have unintended
consequences of the worst kind.
That's why the wastebasket becomes the second hand way to deal with
our anger. We throw the letter away and let time and wisdom heal the
matter. What usually happen under the guidance of our Higher Power
is that we find a much more satisfactory way of settling whatever has happened.
If I become angry today, I'll admit it to myself. Perhaps I'll even put my
feelings on paper. But I'll have the good sense not to go further with such outbursts.

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Keep It Simple

May you live all the days of your life. ---Jonathan Swift
The truth is, life hard. Accepting this fact will make it easier. Remember
how well it worked in Step One? Once we admitted and that we were
powerless over alcohol and other drugs, we were given the power to recover.
It works the same with life’s problems.
We can spend a lot of energy trying to avoid life’s hardships. But our program
teaches us to use the same energy to solve our problems. Problems are chances
to better ourselves and become more spiritual. We have a choice: we can either
use our energy to avoid problems, or we can face them. When we stop wasting
energy, we start to feel more sure of ourselves.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, life is to be lived, both the easy and the hard
parts. Help me face and learn from it all.
Action for the Day: I’ll work at not complaining about how hard life is. I’ll take
the same energy and us it to solve problems I may face.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Be still and listen to the stillness within. --Darlene Larson Jenks
No answer eludes us if we turn to the source of all answers--the stillness within.
Prayer accompanied by meditation will always provide the answers we need for
the situations facing us. The answers we want are not guaranteed, however. We
must trust that we will be directed to take the right steps. Our well being is
assured if we let go of the control and turn our wills over to the care of God,
our messenger within.
How comforting to know that all answers are as close as our quiet moments. God
never chooses to keep them from us. We simply fail to quiet our thoughts long
enough to heed them. Our minds race, obsessively, all too often. We jump from
one scenario to another, one fear to another, and one emotion to another. And
each time our thoughts capture a new focus; we push the answer we seek further
into the background.
The process is simple, if I want to follow it. The answers await me if I truly want
them. I need only sit quietly and ask God to offer the guidance I need. And then
I will sit quietly some more.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

THE PERPETUAL QUEST - This lawyer tried psychiatrists. biofeedback,
relaxation exercises, and a host of other techniques to control her drinking.
She finally found a solution, uniquely tailored, in the Twelve Steps.

My husband and I met and married in law school in a romantic haze of alcohol,
twinkling lights, and much promise. We stood out as the only young married
couple in our class. We worked and played hard, camped and hiked and skied,
threw fabulous parties for our sophisticated friends, and prided ourselves on
staying away from drugs. In fact, it was fear that kept me away from drugs--
fear that I might not get called to the bar (that's the other bar, the legal one)
if I were convicted of possession of illegal street drugs. More importantly,
my best friend was wonderful, powerful alcohol, and I loved it.

p. 389
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority -
a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."

This brings us straight to the question "Does A.A. have a real leadership?"
Most emphatically the answer is "Yes, notwithstanding the apparent lack of it."
Let's turn again to the deposed founder and his friends. What becomes of them?
As their grief and anxiety wear away, a subtle change begins. Ultimately, they
divide into two classes known in A.A. slang as "elder statesmen" and "bleeding
deacons." The elder statesman is the one who sees the wisdom of the group's
decision, who holds no resentment over his reduced status, whose judgment,
fortified by considerable experience, is sound, and who is willing to sit quietly
on the sidelines patiently awaiting developments. The bleeding deacon is one
who is just as surely convinced that the group cannot get along without him, who
constantly connives for reelection to office, and who continues to be consumed with
self-pity. A few hemorrhage so badly that - drained of all A.A. spirit and principal -
they get drunk. At times the A.A. landscape seems to be littered with bleeding forms.
Nearly every oldtimer in our Society has gone through this process in some degree.
Happily, most of them survive and live to become elder statesmen. They become the
real and permanent leadership of A.A. Theirs is the quiet opinion, the sure knowledge
and humble example that resolve a crisis. When sorely perplexed, the group inevitably
turns to them for advice. They become the voice of the group conscience; in fact, these
are the true voice of Alcoholics Anonymous. They do not drive by mandate; they lead
by example. This is the experience which has led us to the conclusion that our group
conscience, well-advised by its elders, will be in the long run wiser than any single leader.

pp. 134-135

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A clear conscience is a good pillow.
--American Proverb

"It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." --Vince Lombardi

There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range
risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
--John F. Kennedy

The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as
love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is
learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but
lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to
listen to him.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together

"Often we seek to grow or change ourselves by adjusting the external aspects of our lives. ...
We all too often forget that permanent or real change only comes when the center of our
being, our inner drives and motivations, undergoes transformation."
--Errol Strider

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

ART

"Art is not a thing; it is a way."
-- Elbert Hubbard

In the spiritual twelve-step program it talks about "...a God as you understand Him."
This is a liberating concept that teaches us to risk and think "big". God is not only found
in churches, temples and rituals --- God can be found in the myriad of art forms. God is
always to be found in the creative. Because art is always concerned with life and truth,
God is always involved.

Today I am able to look for God in His or Her World.

In my recovery from the disease of addiction I need to discover the wonder and splendor
of life that got damaged in my drinking days. Art can help me to feel again. It helps me to
think and be concerned again. Art teaches me to be involved in life.

Thank You for the artist --- another aspect of priesthood.

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I will praise you O lord with all my heart.
Psalm 138 : 1

"Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their
trust in Him."
Proverbs 30:5

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Daily Inspiration

Weeds grow easily, but flowers need care and nurturing to bloom. Lord, may I turn away
from evil and tenderly encourage the goodness that comes my way so that I, too, may blossom.

Never doubt the power, the wisdom and the love that God has for you. Lord, thank You for
Your constant care and the certainty of Your love for me.