Give all your problems to God - He'll be up all night anyway!

[MajestyJo]

Step Three asks us to listen for the quiet and in the stillness hear the direction our Higher Power has for us today. When we pray, we need to find that quiet to hear the answers. When my mind is busy, all I can hear is my own chatter and endless obsessiveness about what I want and what I think I need. I need to get out of my own way so the voice of reason can shine through.

Many things happen during a day which makes you aware that God is there for you, often when you aren't aware of it. Today I received a call from someone I met yesterday and was asked to be a temporary Al-Anon sponsor. This person was new to Al-Anon but knows me from another fellowship and I was honored to be asked.

Conscious contact can be as simple as doing the do things you need to do in today. Today started out to be a rainy day and has ended up to be a bright sun shiny one. I made the decision to stay home and rest the knee and am trying to patiently wait for my roast of pork to finish cook so I can have it with some apple sauce. Good food, good blessings, good friends and good experience all bring me closer to my God.

Tonight I went to a meeting, the first meeting in my city and surrounding area, that I have gone to in fourteen years that I have not known anyone at the meeting, until the last person arrived late. I knew her face but am not sure of her name. It is good to know that God is everywhere and no matter where I go, He is there.

Even in early recovery I saw people I knew from meeting to meeting because I went to two meetings a day for two years. At ten years sober, I was still dooing 7-10 meetings a week because of being involved in service. This showed me how isolated I had become and how you can get caught up in your own little corner and not reach out and move out of your comfort zone.

True I only get to this group as a rule once or twice a year, but have gone to it for 14 years, so tonight it shows me the program works. New people keep coming, more important they keep coming back so they don't have to come back.

December 2005

Addiction is more than a bad habit. It isn't just an action that is repeated physically, but a mental obsession, which makes you think about the action even if you aren't acting out in it.