Today's Thought - August

[bluidkiti]

August 18

Meetings are one way of carrying the message.

Step Twelve reminds us that part of our responsibility as recovering people is to carry the message to others who still suffer. That doesn’t mean we have to reveal our stories to strangers. Nor do we have to break our anonymity if we think it might jeopardize us or members of our family. But when we are at meetings with others who are seeking answers, we are safe to share our personal message of what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now.

Carrying our message of change and hope strengthens our own reliance on this program. We hear the old-timers in the program say we have to “give it away to keep it,” but we can’t know what that means until we experience the relief and hope that happens each time we honestly share a part of our lives with someone else. The “honeymoon high” that newcomers often experience when they first get involved in the program is repeated again and again, as long as we actively carry our message.

I will help myself by carrying my message of hope today. What I give away will come back to me, many times over.

Today's reading is from the book A Life of My Own, Meditations on Hope and Acceptance