AA Thoughts For Today - September

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AA Thought for the Day

September 10

The Keystone

First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn’t work. Next, we decided that
hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the
Principal; we are his agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most
good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and
triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 62

Thought to Ponder . . .
Happiness and peace of mind are always here,
open and free to anyone.

AA-related 'Alconym'
W I L L I N G = When I Live Life, I Need God.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Surrender
"There are two things I've learned from this program.
First, to surrender completely.
I was fighting a losing battle with the bottle.
I gave up, and through defeat, I won.
Second, to change myself, because the world isn't
going to change to suit 'poor little old me.'
It's just this simple -- whatever it is in me
that led me down the alcoholic road to misery,
I no longer want any part of it."
c.1976, AA for the Woman (AA Pamphlet P-5), p. 17

Thought to Consider . . .
Take a walk with God.
He will meet you at the Steps.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A S A P = Always Say A Prayer

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

What I've Learned
From: "Building a New Life"
There have been some hard times too during these years of sobriety. When I was five years sober, the daughter who drove me to the treatment program and helped me get admitted disappeared. My AA friends helped me search for her, but she has never been found. Her mother and I raised her three daughters. I did not have to take a drink. I went to lots of meetings to relieve the pain. When I lost a second daughter to cancer a few years ago, I did the same thing.
What I've learned is that it doesn't matter what hardships and losses I've endured in sobriety, I have not had to go back to drinking. As long as I work the program, keep being of service, go to meetings, and keep my spiritual life together, I can live a decent life.
2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, page 485

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"We who live in the haven of AA cling together with an intensity of purpose which the outside world seldom comprehends. The anarchy of the individual melts away. Self-love subsides and democracy becomes a reality. We begin to know true freedom of the spirit."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1946
"The Individual in Relation to AA as a Group"
The Language of the Heart

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"To sum up about sex: We earnestly pray for the right ideal, for
guidance in each questionable situation, for sanity, and for the
strength to do the right thing. If sex is very troublesome, we throw
ourselves the harder into helping others. We think of their needs
and work for them. This takes us out of ourselves. It quiets the
imperious urge, when to yield would mean heartache."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 70~

Sometimes we hear an alcoholic say that the only thing he needs
to do is to keep sober. Certainly he must keep sober, for there will
be no home if he doesnt. But he is yet a long way from making good
to the wife or parents whom for years he has so shockingly treated.
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, pg. 82~

"You forget that you have just now tapped a source of power much greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labor."
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 163

“But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being.”
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 53

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

'Wise men and women rightly give a top rating to the virtue of prudence. They know that without this all important attribute little wisdom is to be had.
'Mere 'looking before we leap' is not enough. If our looking is charged with fear, suspicion, or anger, we had better not have looked or acted at all.'
'We lose the fear of making decisions, great and small, as we realize that should our choice prove wrong we can, if we will, learn from the experience. Should our decision be the right one, we can thank God for giving us the courage and the grace that caused us so to act.

Prayer for the Day: "God please direct my thinking and keep my thoughts divorced from self – pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Please keep my thought life clear from wrong motives and help me employ my mental faculties, that my thought-life might be placed on a higher plane, the plane of inspiration."