~*~Step Eleven Group~*~: 4/12/20

Saturday, April 18, 2020

During the Pandemic

~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~ /)
( \ (AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Obsession

"The alcoholic has obsessions to an exaggerated degree. Over a period of time he has built up self-pity, resentments toward anyone or anything that interferes with his drinking. Dishonest thinking, prejudice, ego, antagonism toward anyone and everyone who dares to cross him, vanity and a critical attitude are character defects that gradually creep in and become a part of his life. Living with fear and tension inevitably results in wanting to ease that tension, which alcohol seems to do temporarily. It took me some time to realize that the Twelve Steps of A.A. were designed to help correct these defects of character and so help remove the obsession to drink."
Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 380-1

Thought to Consider . . .

"Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession."
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 139

*~*AACRONYMS*~*

B S
Before Sobriety

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

Organizing

From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":

"By the spring of 1938 a definite program of action took shape. It was agreed that we needed a tax-free charitable trust or foundation. Wealthy contributors could then deduct gifts from their tax returns. The first move was to choose a name for the new outfit. After long discussion we decided to call it the Alcoholic Foundation. This seemed like a resounding title, one that could create an impression of large importance. Still swayed by big ideas, we thought our trusteeship ought to be chartered to do just about anything within the field of alcohol or alcoholism except lobby for Prohibition. We intended an arrangement by which we could research, educate, and do a lot of other things. Attention to our membership would be only one of many functions.

It was thought that the Board of Trustees should consist of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. The latter were always to be in the majority by a margin of one. This would assure our membership and other contributors that non-alcoholics would be holding the purse strings."
2001 AAWS, Inc.
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pgs. 151-52

*^Daily Reflections^*

BROTHERS IN OUR DEFECTS

We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common strivings to overcome them.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167

The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual - almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I "feel" it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me.

It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief. I never knew how to do this - or how to try. I never even cared. The Fellowship of A.A., and God, are teaching me how to care about others.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.

*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*

Freedom through Acceptance

"We admitted we couldn't lick alcohol with our own remaining resources, and so we accepted the further fact that dependence upon a Higher Power (if only our A.A. group) could do this hitherto impossible job. The moment we were able to accept these facts fully, our release from the alcohol compulsion had begun.

For most of us, this pair of acceptances had required a lot of exertion to achieve. Our whole treasured a lot of exertion to achieve. Our whole treasured philosophy of self-sufficiency had to be cast aside. This had not been done with sheer will power; it came instead as the result of developing the willingness to accept these new facts of living.

We neither ran nor fought. But accept we did. And then we began to be free."
GRAPEVINE, MARCH 1962

*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*

"We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about."
Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition
We Agnostics, pg. 49

*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*

A.A. Thought for the Day

Since I've been putting sobriety into my life, I've been taking out a lot of good things. I can describe it best as a kind of quiet satisfaction. I feel good. I feel right with the world, on the right side of the fence. As long as I put sobriety into my life, almost everything I take out is good. The satisfaction you get out of living a sober life is made up of a lot of little things. You have the ambition to do things you didn't feel like doing when you were drinking. Am I getting satisfaction out of living a sober life?

Meditation for the Day

It is a glorious way - the upward way. There are wonderful discoveries in the realm of the spirit. There are tender intimacies in the quiet times of communion with God. There is an amazing, almost incomprehensible understanding of the other person. On the upward way, you can have all the strength you need from that Higher Power. You cannot make too many demands on Him for strength. He gives you all the power you need, as long as you are moving along the upward way.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may see the beautiful horizons ahead on the upward way. I pray that I may keep going forward to the more abundant life.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

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Friday, April 17, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Right Living ^^*^ April 18

Click Here For

Recovery Resources

During the Pandemic

~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~ /)
( \ (AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Right Living

"Service gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at home or in the world outside we are partners in a common effort, the fact that in God's sight all human beings are important, the proof that love freely given brings a full return, the certainty that we are no longer isolated and alone in self-constructed prisons, the surety that we can fit and belong in God's scheme of things - these are the satisfactions of right living for which no pomp and circumstance, no heap of material possessions, could possibly be substitutes."
Bill W.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 124
As Bill Sees It, p. 254

Thought to Consider . . .

"I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine."
Bill W., Box 1980:
The AA Grapevine, Jan. 1958. The Language of the Heart, p. 238

*~*AACRONYMS*~*

G I F T
God Is Forever There

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

Help

From "Coincidence?":

"Only a block or so from the pier, I saw a man approaching from the opposite direction, with his head down, walking into the rain. When he came to me, he stopped and smiled, and I recognized him as a priest I knew from home. I told him I was very ill. He then sat on a bench with me in the rain and assured me that in time all my troubles would pass and the day would come when I would understand them. He said I was not to do anything foolish, but ask God's help, and somehow everything would work out."
1973 AAWS, Inc.
Came to Believe, 30^th printing 2004, pg. 71

*^Daily Reflections^*

SELF-HONESTY

The deception of others is nearly always rooted in the deception of ourselves. . . . When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 17

When I was drinking, I deceived myself about reality, rewriting it to what I wanted it to be. Deceiving others is a character defect - even if it is just stretching the truth a bit or cleaning up my motives so others would think well of me. My Higher Power can remove this character defect, but first I have to help myself become willing to receive that help by not practicing deception. I need to remember each day that deceiving myself about myself is setting myself up for failure or disappointment in life and in Alcoholics Anonymous. A close, honest relationship with a Higher Power is the only solid foundation I've found for honesty with self and with others.
Copyright 1990

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.

*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*

Learn in Quiet

"In 1941, a news clipping was called to our attention by a New York member. In an obituary notice from a local paper, there appeared these words: 'God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.' Never had we seen so much A.A. in so few words. With amazing speed the Serenity Prayer came into general use."
<<< >>>
"In meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts or prayers of spiritually centered people who understand, so that we may experience and learn. This is the state of being that so often discovers and deepens a conscious contact with God."
1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 196
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, PP. 100-101

*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*

"God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us."
Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition
A Vision For You, pg. 164

*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*

A.A. Thought for the Day

As I look back over my drinking career, have I learned that you take out of life what you put into it? When I put drinking into my life, did I take out a lot of bad things? Hospitals with the D.T.'s? Jails for drunken driving? Loss of job? Loss of home and family? When I put drinking into my life, was almost everything I took out bad?

Meditation for the Day

I should strive for a friendliness and helpfulness that will affect all who come near to me. I should try to see something to love in them. I should welcome them, bestow little courtesies and understandings on them, and help them if they ask for help. I must send no one away without a word of cheer, a feeling that I really care about them. God may have put the impulse in some despairing one's mind to come to me. I must not fail God by repulsing that person. They may not want to communicate with me unless they are sure of a warm welcome.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may warmly welcome all who come to me for help. I pray that I may make them feel that I really care.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

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Thursday, April 16, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Rationalization ^^*^ April 17

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Recovery Resources

During the Pandemic

~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~ /)
( \ (AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Rationalization

"We 'constructively criticized' someone who needed it, when our real motive was to win a useless argument. We were depressed and complained we felt bad, when in fact we were mainly asking for sympathy and attention. This odd trait of mind and emotion, this perverse wish to hide a bad motive underneath a good one, permeates human affairs from top to bottom. Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building and good living."
Bill W.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 94-95

Thought to Consider . . .

A victim is a spectator in his life.

*~*AACRONYMS*~*

F E A R
Face Everything And Recover!

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

Anonymity

From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":

"The intense drive that most of us alcoholics have for money, prestige, and power then crashed into the open by way of broken anonymity at the public level. This development of the 1945-1950 period was made even more dangerous by the fact that most of the anonymity breakers meant well. Sometimes these folks wanted to use the A.A. name publicly in order to help other good causes. Sometimes they just wanted their names and pictures in the papers always, of course, to help A.A. [W]e saw that the risk to A.A. would be appalling if all our power-drivers finally got loose at the public level. Scores of them were already doing it.

So A.A. Headquarters got to work. We wrote remonstrances, kind ones, of course, to every breaker. We sent letters to nearly all press, radio, and publishing outlets, explaining why A.A.'s should not break their anonymity before the general public. Group feeling, combined with the Headquarters efforts, finally squeezed the anonymity breakers down to a mere handful within a few years. Had this tendency not been checked, the whole character of our society could have changed, and its future could have been fearfully compromised."
2001 AAWS Inc.
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 209

*^Daily Reflections^*

LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES

All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49

"Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there." I don't know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself.

I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn't know that one of the definitions of "courage" is "the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear." Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear.

During the times I didn't have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.

*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*

Face the Music

"Don't be too discouraged about that slip. Practically always, we drunks learn the hard way. Your idea of moving on to somewhere else may be good, or it may not. Perhaps you have got into an emotional or economic jam that can't be well handled where you are. But maybe you are doing just what all of us have done, at one time or another: Maybe you are running away. Why don't you try to think that through again carefully? Are you really placing recovery first, or are you making it contingent upon other people, places, or circumstances? You may find it ever so much better to face the music right where you are now, and, with the help of the A.A. program, win through. Before you make a decision, weigh it in these terms."
LETTER, 1949

*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*

"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. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition."
Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition
Into Action, pg. 85

*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*

A.A. Thought for the Day

Every time we go to an A.A. meeting, every time we say the Lord's Prayer, every time we have a quiet time before breakfast, we're paying a premium on our insurance against taking that first drink. And every time we help another alcoholic, we're making a large payment on our drink insurance. We're making sure that our policy doesn't lapse. Am I building up an endowment in serenity, peace, and happiness that will put me on easy street for the rest of my life?

Meditation for the Day

I gain faith by my own experience of God's power in my life. The constant, persistent recognition of God's spirit in all my personal relationships, the ever accumulating weight of evidence in support of God's guidance, the numberless instances in which seeming chance or wonderful coincidence can be traced to God's purpose in my life. All these things gradually engender a feeling of wonder, humility, and gratitude to God. These in turn are followed by a more sure and abiding faith in God and His purposes.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my faith may be strengthened every day. I pray that I may find confirmation of my life in the good things that have come into my life.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Responsibility ^^*^ April 16

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During the Pandemic

To Drop a Dollar
in the Virtual Basket
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~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~ /)
( \ (AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Responsibility

"I Am Responsible . . . When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there. And for that: I am responsible."

Declaration of 30th Anniversary
International Convention, 1965

Thought to Consider . . .

Service is spirituality in action.

*~*AACRONYMS*~*

H A L T

Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired

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

Healing
From "Tightrope":
"When I first came to this Fellowship, I had lost my health and sanity, my friends, much of my family, my self-respect, and my God. In the years since, all of these have been restored to me. I no longer have the sense of impending doom. I no longer wish for death or stare at myself in the mirror with loathing. I have come to terms with my Higher Power"
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition
Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 368
*^Daily Reflections^*

ANGER: A "DUBIOUS LUXURY"

If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 66

"Dubious luxury." How often have I remembered those words. It's not just anger that's best left to non-alcoholics; I built a list including justifiable resentment, self-pity, judgmentalism, self-righteousness, false pride and false humility. I'm always surprised to read the actual quote. So well have the principles of the program been drummed into me that I keep thinking all of these defects are listed too. Thank God I can't afford them - or I surely would indulge in them.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.

*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*

"Perfect" Humility

"For myself, I try to seek out the truest definition of humility that I can. This will not be the perfect definition, because I shall always be imperfect. At this writing, I would choose one like this: 'Absolute humility would consist of a state of complete freedom from myself, freedom from all the claims that my defects of character now lay so heavily upon me. Perfect humility would be a full willingness, in all times and places, to find and to do the will of God.' When I meditate upon such a vision, I need not be dismayed because I shall never attain it, nor need I swell with presumption that one of these days its virtues shall all be mine. I only need to dwell on the vision itself, letting it grow and ever more fill my heart. This done, I can compare it with my last-taken personal inventory. Then I get a sane and healthy idea of where I stand on the highway to humility. I see that my journey toward God has scarce begun. As I thus get down to my right size and stature, my self-concern and importance become amusing."
GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961

*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*

"We families of Alcoholics Anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet. Everyone knows about the others' alcoholic troubles. This is a condition which, in ordinary life, would produce untold grief; there might be scandalous gossip, laughter at the expense of other people, and a tendency to take advantage of intimate information. Among us, these are rare occurrences. We do talk about each other a great deal, but we almost invariably temper such talk by a spirit of love and tolerance."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition
The Family Afterward, pg. 125

*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*

A.A. Thought for the Day

In A.A. we have insurance. Our faith in God is a kind of insurance against the terrible things that might happen to us if we ever drink again. By putting our drink problem in the hands of God, we've taken out a sort of insurance policy, which insures us against the ravages of drink, as our homes are insured against destruction by fire. Am I paying my A.A. insurance premiums regularly?

Meditation for the Day

I must try to love all humanity. Love comes from thinking of every man or woman as your brother or sister, because they are children of God. This way of thinking makes me care enough about them to really want to help them. I must put this kind of love into action by serving others. Love means no severe judging, no resentments, no malicious gossip, and no destructive criticism. It means patience, understanding, compassion, and helpfulness.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may realize that God loves me, since He is the Father of us all. I pray that I in turn may have love for all of His children.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

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Regardless of what service you use, search for "Transitions Daily" and subscribe. We also list a number of recovery podcasts at the bottom of www.DailyAAEmails.com.

Topics are posted Daily via Podcast, Email, and Facebook!

~~Step Eleven Group~~

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Obsession ^^*^ April 19

Friday, April 17, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Right Living ^^*^ April 18

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Rationalization ^^*^ April 17

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~~Responsibility ^^*^ April 16

Followers

Blog Archive

Contributors

~*~Step Eleven Group~*~

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~*~Obsession ^*^*^ April 19

Friday, April 17, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~*~Right Living ^*^*^ April 18

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~*~Rationalization ^*^*^ April 17

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Thoughts For The Day~*~Responsibility ^*^*^ April 16

Followers

Blog Archive

Contributors

~~Step Eleven Group~~

Thoughts For The Day~~Obsession ^^*^ April 19

Thoughts For The Day~~Right Living ^^*^ April 18

Thoughts For The Day~~Rationalization ^^*^ April 17

Thoughts For The Day~~Responsibility ^^*^ April 16