Thoughts For The Day~*~Sacrifices ^*^*^*^*^ June 12, 2011

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Sacrifices
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"At the beginning we sacrificed alcohol.
We had to, or it would have killed us.
But we couldn't get rid of alcohol
unless we made other sacrifices.
Big-shotism and phony thinking had to go.
We had to toss self-justification, self-pity,
and anger right out the window.
We had to quit the crazy contest for personal prestige
and big bank balances.
We had to take personal responsibility for our sorry state
and quit blaming others for it.
Were these sacrifices?  Yes, they were.
To gain enough humility and self-respect
to stay alive at all we had to give up
what had really been our dearest possessions -
our ambitions and our illegitimate pride."
Bill W., January 1955
1988AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 210
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Thought to Consider . . .

Sobriety is a journey, not a destination

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
S O B E R  =  Son Of a Basket, Everything's Real

*~*~*~*~*^Just FFor Today!^*~*~*~*~*
 

Core

From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":

"On many a day I felt like throwing the book out the window.

"I was in this anything-but-spiritual mood on the night when the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were written. I was sore and tired clear through. I lay in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and with a tablet of scratch paper on my knee. I could not get my mind on the job, much less put my heart in it. But here was one of those things that had to be done. Slowly my mind came into some kind of focus.

"Since Ebby's visit to me in the fall of 1934 we had gradually evolved what we called 'the word-of-mouth program.' Most of the basic ideas had come from the Oxford Groups, William James, and Dr. Silkworth."

2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 160

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
FORMING TRUE PARTNERSHIPS

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


Can these words apply to me, am I still unable to form a true partnership with another human being? What a terrible handicap that would be for me to carry into my sober life!  In my sobriety I will meditate and pray to discover how I may be a trusted friend and companion.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Release and Joy

Who can render an account of all the miseries that once were ours, and who can estimate the release and joy that the later years have brought to us? Who can possibly tell the vast consequences of what God's work through A.A. has already set in motion? And who can penetrate the deeper mystery of our wholesale deliverance from slavery, a bondage to a most hopeless and fatal obsession which for centuries possessed the minds and bodies of men and women like ourselves?
<<<>>>
We think cheerfulness and laughter make for usefulness. Outsiders are
sometimes shocked when we burst into merriment over a seemingly tragic experience out of the past. But why shouldn't we laugh? We have recovered, and have helped others to recover. What greater cause could there be for rejoicing than this?

1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, PP. 44-45
2. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 132
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for
the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his
spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could
not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not
work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely
die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Bill's Story, pg. 14~

*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

When we came into A.A., we made a tremendous discovery. We
found that we were sick persons rather than moral lepers. We
were not such odd ducks as we thought we were. We found other
people who had the same illness that we had, who had been
through the same experiences that we had been through. They
had recovered. if they could do it, we could do it. Was hope
born in me the day I walked into A.A.?

Meditation for the Day

"He that heareth these sayings and doeth them is like unto a
man who built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and
the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon that house and
it fell not for it was founded upon a rock." When your life is
built upon obedience to God and upon doing His will as you
understand it, you will be steadfast and unmovable even in the
midst of storms. The serene, steadfast, unmovable life - the
rock home - is laid stone by stone - foundation, walls, and
roof - by acts of obedience to the heavenly vision. The daily
following of God's guidance and the daily doing of His will
shall build your house upon a rock.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my life may be founded upon the rock of faith.
I pray that I may be obedient to the heavenly vision.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

Thoughts For The Day~*~Gratitude^*^*^*^*^ June 11, 2011

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Gratitude
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"Another exercise that I practice
is to try for a full inventory of my blessings
and then for a right acceptance of the many gifts that are mine -
both temporal and spiritual.
Here I try to achieve a state of joyful gratitude.
When such a brand of gratitude is repeatedly affirmed
and pondered,
it can finally displace the natural tendency
to congratulate myself on whatever progress
I may have been enabled to make in some areas of living.
I try hard to hold fast to the truth
that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits.
When brimming with gratitude,
one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love,
the finest emotion that we can ever know."
Bill W., March 1962
1988AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 271
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Thought to Consider . . .

I have learned what a heart full of gratitude feels like.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
T H I N K  =  The Happiness I Never Knew

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

Illness

From "Building a New Life":

"That year I went to an alcohol treatment program twice. The first time I was in treatment, I was shaving at the mirror in the bathroom and it seemed to me that my beard was growing back in as fast as I could shave it off. Even though I was in a hospital gown, I escaped, running down the streets and jumping up and over fences. I was on the porch of a woman's house banging on the door for her to let me in when the police arrived. I tried to convince them she was my wife and my children were inside, but they saw the hospital bracelet on my wrist, and they took me back to the program. "The doctor told me that if I went into D.T.'s like that again I might not come out."

2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 482

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
FAMILY OBLIGATIONS

. . . a spiritual life which does not include . . . family obligations may not be so perfect after all.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS  p. 129

I can be doing great in the program -- applying it at meetings, at work, and in service activities -- and find that things have gone to pieces at home.  I expect my loved ones to understand, but they cannot.  I expect them to see and value my progress, but they don't -- unless I show them.  Do I neglect their needs and desires for my attention and concern?  When I'm around them, am I irritable or boring?  Are my "amends" a mumbled "Sorry," or do they take the form of patience and tolerance?  Do I preach to them, trying to reform or "fix" them?  Have I ever really cleaned house with them?  "The spiritual life is not a theory.  We have to live it"

(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83).
Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
"Let's Keep It simple"

"We need to distinguish sharply between spiritual simplicity and functional simplicity. "When we say that A.A. advocates no theological proposition except God as we understand Him, we greatly simplify A.A. life by avoiding conflict and exclusiveness. "But when we get into questions of action by groups, by areas, and by A.A. as a whole, we find that we must to some extent organize to carry the
message--or else face chaos. And chaos is not simplicity."
<<<>>>
I learned that the temporary or seeming good can often be the deadly enemy of the permanent best. When it comes to survival for A.A., nothing short of our very best will be good enough.

1. LETTER, 1966
2. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 294
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"In this book you read again and again that faith did for us what we
could not do for ourselves. We hope you are convinced now that God can remove whatever self-will has blocked you off from Him. If you have
already made a decision, and an inventory of your grosser handicaps,
you have made a good beginning. That being so you have swallowed and
digested some big chunks of truth about yourself."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 70~
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

We alcoholics have to believe in some Power greater than
ourselves. Yes, we have to believe in God. Not to believe in
a Higher Power drives us to atheism. Atheism, it has been
said before, is blind faith in the strange proposition that
this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes
nowhere. That's practically impossible to believe. So we turn
to that Divine Principle in the universe that we call God.
Have I stopped trying to run my own life?

Meditation for the Day

"Lord, we thank Thee for the great gift of peace, that peace
which passeth all understanding, that peace which the world
can neither give nor take away." That is the peace that only
God can give in the midst of a restless world and surrounded
by trouble and difficulty. To know that peace is to have
received the stamp of the kingdom of God. When you have earned that peace, you are fit to judge between true and false values, between the values of the kingdom of God and the values of all that the world has to offer.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that today I may have inner peace. I pray that today I
may be at peace with myself.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

Thoughts For The Day~*~Anger^*^*^*^*^ June 10, 2011

 

Happy Birthday A.A. 
76 Years

 ~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Anger
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"Then the miracle happened - to me!
It isn't always so sudden with everyone,
but I ran into a personal crisis which filled me
with a raging and righteous anger.
And as I fumed helplessly and planned
to get good and drunk and show them,
my eye caught a sentence to
the book lying open on my bed.
'We cannot live with anger.'
The walls crumpled - and the light streamed in.
I wasn't trapped. I wasn't helpless.
I was free, and I didn't have to drink to 'show them.'
This wasn't 'religion' - this was freedom!
Freedom from anger and fear,
freedom to know happiness and love."
1976 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 228
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Thought to Consider ...

Anger is the hot wind that extinguishes
the light of reason.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
NUTS Not Using The Steps?

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Beginning
from: "Two alcoholics meet"

"'I have placed both operation and myself in God's hands.  I'm going to do what it takes to get sober and stay that way.'
"Just before they stopped [at the hospital, where Dr. Bob was to perform surgery], Bill, who also had his practical side, gave him a bottle of beer...The bottle of beer Bill gave him that morning was the last drink he [Dr. Bob] ever had. "Although arguments have been and will be made for other significant occasions in A.A. history, it is generally agreed that Alcoholics Anonymous began there, in Akron, on that date: June 10, 1935."

1980, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, pages 74-75

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
IMPATIENT? TRY LEVITATING

We reacted more strongly to frustrations than normal people.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 111


Impatience with other people is one of my principal failings.
Following a slow car in a no-passing lane, or waiting in a
restaurant for the check, drives me to distraction. Before I
give God a chance to slow me down, I explode, and that's what
I call being quicker than God. That repeated experience gave
me an idea. I thought if I could look down on these events
from God's point of view, I might better control my feelings
and behavior. I tried it and when I encountered the next slow
driver, I levitated and looked down on the other car and upon
myself. I saw an elderly couple driving along, happily chatting
about their grandchildren. They were followed by me--bug eyed
and red of face--who had no time schedule to meet anyway. I
looked so silly that I dropped back into reality and slowed down.
Seeing things from God's angle of vision can be very relaxing.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Whose Inventory?

We do not relate intimate experiences of another member unless we are sure he would approve. We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories. A man may criticize or laugh at himself and it will affect others favorably, but criticism or ridicule aimed at someone else produces the contrary effect.
<<<>>>
A continuous look at our assets and liabilities, and a real desire to learn and grow by this means are necessities for us. We alcoholics have learned this the hard way. More experienced people, of course, in all times and places have practiced unsparing self-survey and criticism.

1. ALCOHOLICS ANOYMOUS, P. 125
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 88

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from
it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will
find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new
attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or
effort on our part. It just comes!"

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, pg. 84~

*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

If we have had some moral, religious, or spiritual training,
we're better prospects for A.A. When we reach the bottom, at
this crucial moment when we're thoroughly licked, we turn
instinctively to whatever decency is left in us. We call upon
whatever reserves of morality and faith are left down deep in
our heart. Have I had this spiritual experience?

Meditation for the Day

The world wonders when it sees a person who can unexpectedly draw large and unsuspected sums from the bank for some emergency. But what the world has not seen are the countless small sums paid into that bank, earned by faithful work over a long time. And so is the bank of the spirit. The world sees the person of faith make a demand on God's stores of power and the demand is met. The world does not see what that person has been putting in, in thanks and praise, in prayer and communion, in small good deeds done faithfully, steadily over the years.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may keep making deposits in God's bank. I pray that
in my hour of need, I may call upon these.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

Thoughts For The Day~*~Wants or Needs?^*^*^*^*^ June 9, 2011

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Wants or Needs?
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"We are taught to differentiate between our wants
(which are never satisfied)
and our needs (which are always provided for).
We cast off the burdens of the past
and the anxieties of the future,
as we begin to live in the present, one day at a time.
We are granted
'the serenity to accept the things we cannot change'
- and thus lose our quickness to anger
and our sensitivity to criticism."
1976 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 560
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Thought to consider ...

Don't give up before the miracle happens.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
S T E P S = Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety


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

 

Doubt

From "We Agnostics":

"Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem. That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as well as moral. And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God. Here difficulty arises with agnostics. Many times we talk to a new man and watch his hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship. But his face falls when we speak of spiritual matters, especially when we mention God, for we have re-opened a subject which our man thought he had neatly evaded or entirely ignored. "We know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice."

2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 44

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*~*
LIVING IN THE NOW

First, we try living in the now just in order to stay sober -- and it works. Once the idea has become a part of our thinking, we find that living life in 24 hour segments is an effective and satisfying way to handle many other matters as well.

LIVING SOBER, p. 7

"One Day At A. Time." To a newcomer this and other one-liners of A.A. may seem ridiculous.   The passwords of the A.A. Fellowship can become lifelines in moments of stress.  Each day can be like a rose unfurling according to the plan of a Power greater than myself.  My program should be planted in the right location, just as it will need to be groomed, nourished, and protected from disease.   My planting will require patience, and my realizing that some flowers will be more perfect than others.   Each stage of the petals' unfolding can bring wonder and delight if I do not interfere or let my
expectations override my acceptance -- and this brings serenity.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
The Rationalizers and the Self-Effacing

We alcoholics are the biggest rationalizers in the world. Fortified with the excuse that we are doing great things for A.A., we can, through broken anonymity, resume our old and disastrous pursuit of personal power and prestige, public honors, and money--the same implacable urges that, when frustrated, once caused us to drink.
<<<>>>
Dr. Bob was essentially a far more humble person than I, and anonymity came rather easily to him. When it was sure that he was mortally afflicted, some of his friends suggested that there should be a monument erected in honor of him and his wife, Anne--befitting a founder and his lady. Telling me about this, Dr. Bob grinned broadly and said, "God bless 'em. They mean well. But let's you and me get buried just like other folks."
In the Akron cemetery where Dr. Bob and Anne lie, the simple stone says not a word about A.A. This final example of self-effacement is of more permanent worth to A.A. than any amount of public attention or any great monument.

A.A. COMES OF AGE
1. PP. 292-293
2. PP. 136-137

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and
express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than
ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible
for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 46~


*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

We finally came to the bottom. We did not have to be financially broke,
although many of us were. But we were spiritually bankrupt. We had a
soul-sickness, a revulsion against ourselves and against our way of living. Life had become impossible for us. We had to end it all or do something about it. Am I glad I did something about it?

Meditation for the Day

Faith is not seeing, but believing. I am in a box of space and time and
cannot see spacelessness or eternity. But God is not within the shell of time and space. He is timeless and spaceless. He cannot be fully comprehended by our finite minds. But we must try to make a union between our purposes and the purposes of God. By trying to merge our minds with the mind of God, a oneness of purpose results. This oneness of purpose puts us in harmony with God and others. Evil comes from being in disharmony with God and good comes from being in harmony with Him.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be in harmony with God. I pray that I may get into the
stream of goodness in the universe.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012