AA Thought For Today - August

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AA Thought for the Day

August 6

Principles Before Personality
We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance.
It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility.
This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us;
that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 565-566

Thought to Ponder . . .
Anonymity is real humility at work.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Adventurers Anonymous.

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

Fact
"The explanation that alcoholism was a disease
of a two fold nature,
an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind,
cleared up a number of puzzling questions for me.
The allergy we could do nothing about.
Somehow our bodies had reached the point
where we could no longer absorb alcohol in our systems.
The why is not important;
the fact is that one drink will set up a reaction in our system
which requires more;
that one drink was too much
and one hundred drinks were not enough."
1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 380

Thought to Consider . . .
I've only given up one drink ... the next one.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
B O G G L E = Bad Or Good, God Loves Everyone

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

Life on Life's Terms
From: "Grounded"
I was found guilty and sentenced to sixteen months in federal prison. My two codefendants received twelve-month
sentences and chose to remain free pending appeals, while I chose to go into prison and get it over. I had learned how
to live life on life's terms and not my own. From somewhere back in my high school days, I remembered a poem that
says something to the effect of, "Cowards die a thousand deaths, a brave man only once," and I wanted to do what
had to be done. I was terrified of walking into prison but told my children that I could not come out the back door until I
walked through the front. I remembered that courage was not the absence of fear; it was the ability to continue in the face of it.
2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, page 526

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

"Each night I pray that when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, I'll have a spiritual awakening."
St. Louis, Missouri, June 1999
"Distilled Spirits,"
AA Grapevine

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

"In dealing with resentments, we set them on paper. We listed
people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry. We asked
ourselves why we were angry. In most cases it was found that our
self-esteem, our pocketbooks, our ambitions, our personal
relationships,(including sex) were hurt or threatened."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 64~

"All these, and many others, have one symptom in common: they cannot
start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This
phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an
allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a
distinct entity. It has never been, by any treatment with which we
are familiar, permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to
suggest is entire abstinence.

This immediately precipitates us into a seething caldron of debate.
Much has been written pro and con, but among physicians, the general
opinion seems to be that most chronic alcoholics are doomed."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Doctor's Opinion, pg. xxx~

"Patience and good temper are most necessary."
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 111 (To Wives)

"Could we then foresee that troublesome people were to become our principal teachers of patience and tolerance?"
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 141 (Tradition Three)

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

For most normal folks, drinking means release from care, boredom, and worry. It means joyous intimacy with friends
and a feeling that life is good.
But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. There was an insistent yearning
to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking delusion that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it.
There was always one more attempt - and one more failure.
We are sure God would like to see us happy, joyous, and free. Hence, we cannot subscribe to the belief that this life
necessarily has to be a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it became clear that most of the
time we had made our own misery.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, let me work in Your will today, on Your time.