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09-30-2014, 09:50 AM | #1 |
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Daily Recovery Readings - October
October 1
Daily Reflections LEST WE BECOME COMPLACENT It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85 When I am in pain it is easy to stay close to the friends I have found in the programs. Relief from that pain is provided in the solutions contained in A.A.'s Twelve Steps. But when I am feeling good and things are going well, I can become complacent. To put it simply, I become lazy and turn into the problem instead of the solution. I need to get into action, to take stock: where am I and where am I going? A daily inventory will tell me what I must change to regain spiritual balance. Admitting what I find within myself, to God and to another human being, keeps me honest and humble. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day A.A. will lose some of its effectiveness if I do not do my share. Where am I failing? Are there some things I do not feel like doing? Am I held back by self-consciousness or fear? Self-consciousness is a form of pride. It is a fear that something may happen to you. What happens to you is not very important. The impression you make on others does not depend so much on the kind of job you do as on your sincerity and honesty of purpose. Am I holding back because I am afraid of not making a good impression? Meditation For The Day Look to God for the true power that will make you effective. See no other wholly dependable supply of strength. That is the secret of a truly effective life. And you, in your turn, will be used to help many others find effectiveness. Whatever spiritual help you need, whatever spiritual help you desire for others, look to God. Seek that God's will be done in your life and seek that your will conforms to His. Failures come from depending too much on your own strength. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may feel that nothing good is too much for me if I look to God for help. I pray that I may be effective through His guidance. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Troubles of Our Own Making, p.272 Selfishness--self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! Alcoholics Anonymous, p.62 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Thinking about Blame. Inventory. Which is worse: blaming ourselves or others for things that go wrong? A better question might be, Is anyone to blame? We're really better off, in 12 Step living, to begin dropping the idea of placing blame for our thinking altogether. Even is someone's responsibility for a mistake or wrong is fully evident, we get nowhere by pointing the finger at him or her. What often happens, in fact, is that the person becomes defensive... just as we do... And retreats into denial or anger. Another problem is that placing blame quickly becomes the sticky business of taking another person's inventory. Let's leave such matters to courts and prosecutions and focus instead on solving our own problems. I'll not waste time today thinking about who's to blame. My focus will be on what can be done for general improvement. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Continued to take personal inventory. . .First half of Step Ten Step Ten tells us to keep looking at who we are. We ask ourselves, “Is what I’m doing okay?” If it is, then we take pride in the way we acting. If not, we change our behavior. Step Ten keeps us in the right direction. Throughout time, wise persons have told us to get to know ourselves. Step Ten helps us do this. We become our own best friend. A true friend tells us when we’re doing right and when we’re messing up. Step Ten is our teacher. Even when we want to pretend we don’t know right from wrong, Step Ten reminds us that we do know. Step Ten is our daily reminder that we now have values---good values. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, Step Ten is a lot of work. Keep me working. Help me form a habit. Let this habit be called “Step Ten.” Action for the Day: Today, I’ll continue to take a personal inventory. I will list what is good about me today and what I don’t like. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Women are often caught between conforming to existing standards or role definitions and exploring the promise of new alternatives. --Stanlee Phelps and Nancy Austin This is a time of exploring for many of us. Recovery means change in habits, change in behavior, change in attitudes. And change is seldom easy. But change we must, if we want to recover successfully. We do have support for trying our new alternatives. We have support from our groups and our higher power. Perhaps we want a career or more education. Perhaps we want to develop a hobby or try a sport. Sharing that desire and then looking for support guarantees some guidance. This program has given us a chance to start fresh-- to become our inner desire. We are only caught in an old pattern if we assent to it. The going won't always be easy, but support and guidance are available and free if we but look for them. Today I will consider my alternatives. Do I want to make a change? ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics. Groups are to be found in each of the United States and all of the provinces of Canada. A.A. has flourishing communities in the British Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U.S. possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia. Many of our friends encourage us by saying that this is but a beginning, only the augury of a much larger future ahead. p. xv ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three Pioneer member of Akron's Group No. 1, the first A.A. group in the world. He kept the faith; therefore, he and countless others found a new life. It would be hard to estimate how much A.A. has done for me. I really wanted the program and I wanted to go along with it. I noticed that the others seemed to have such a release, a happiness, a something that I thought a person ought to have. I was trying to find the answer. I knew there was even more, something that I hadn't got, and I remember one day, a week or two after I had come out of the hospital, Bill was over to my house talking to my wife and me. We were eating lunch, and I was listening and trying to find out why they had this release that they seemed to have. Bill looked across at my wife, and said to her, "Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people." p. 191 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Ten - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it." Having so considered our day, not omitting to take due note of things well done, and having searched our hearts with neither fear nor favor, we can truly thank God for the blessings we have received and sleep in good conscience. p. 95 ************************************************** ********* "How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on the inside of us." --Parks Cousins I shall continue to believe. In hope there is faith, miracles do happen, in God I trust. --Shelley Time is my most precious resource, I choose to use it wisely and to cherish each moment, sober. --Bob I have a choice, I do not have to accept unacceptable behavior. --Shelley Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. --Ralph Waldo Emerson Some people make the future; most wait for the future to make them. --Cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES There is a choice you have to make, In everything you do. And you must always keep in mind, The choice you make, makes you. --Unknown You can preach a better sermon with your life than you can with your lips. --Unknown *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation LAUGHTER "We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can." -- Will Rogers When I first heard recovering alcoholics laughing, I thought I was in the wrong place. I was angry that they treated the disease so lightly. Then slowly I began to see that laughter is part of joy --- a deep joy that comes from personal healing. Laughter is spiritual because it is a positive response to life. It is the noise of optimism. And there is so much in life to laugh about --- not only the funny things we did, but also the "humor" that abounds in living. How funny is our self-righteousness! How amusing we are in courtship. How ridiculous we appear when we pretend to be serious and "in charge". Laughter is the conversation of angels. Let me see the miracle of humor in the gift of life --- and let me be prepared to share it. ************************************************** ********* Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." Proverbs 10:12 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. James 2:17 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Don't give up because your best has not yet been achieved. Lord, take away my doubts and give me courage to accept my opportunities. Often times that which we find difficult is that which teaches. Lord, may I always be able to see the good that comes from even my trials.
__________________
"No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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