Thoughts For The Day~*~Pain ^*^*^*^*^ November 15, 2006]

 ~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Pain

"Though I still find it difficult to accept
today's pain and anxiety with any great degree of serenity
-- as those more advanced in the spiritual life
seem able to do --
I can give thanks for present pain nevertheless.
I find the willingness to do this
by contemplating the lessons learned from past suffering
-- lessons which have led to the blessings I now enjoy.
I can remember how the agonies of alcoholism,
the pain of rebellion and thwarted pride,
have often led me to God's grace, and so to a new freedom."
Bill W., Grapevine, March 1962
c. 1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 266
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Thought to Consider . . .

Joy isn't the absence of pain -- it's the presence of God.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A B C =  Acceptance, Belief, Change

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

Victory

From "He Sold Himself Short":

"I’m rated as a moderately successful man. My stock of material goods isn't great. But I have a fortune in friendships, courage, self-assurance, and honest appraisal of my own abilities. Above all, I have gained the greatest thing accorded to any man, the love and understanding of a gracious God, who has lifted me from the alcoholic scrap heap to a position of trust, where I have been able to reap the rich rewards that come from showing a little love for others and from serving them as I can."

© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 267

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
VITAL SUSTENANCE

Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine.  And for the same reason.  When we refuse air, light or food, the  body suffers.  And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS p. 97

Step Eleven doesn't have to overwhelm me.  Conscious contact with God can be as simple, and as profound, as conscious contact with another human being.  I can smile.  I can listen.  I can forgive.  Every encounter with another is an opportunity for prayer, for acknowledging God's presence within me.

Today I can bring myself a little closer to my Higher Power.  The more I choose to seek the beauty of God's work in other people, the more certain of His presence I will become.

©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Two Authorities

Many people wonder how A.A. can function under a seeming anarchy. Other societies have to have law and force and sanction and punishment, administered by authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authority whatever. We have two authorities which are far more effective. One is benign, the other malign.
There is God, our Father, who very simply says, "I am waiting for you to do my will." The other authority is named John Barleycorn, and he says, "You had better do God's will or I will kill you."

<<<>>>

The A.A. Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. We obey them willingly because we ought to and because we want to. Perhaps the secret of their power lies in the fact that these life-giving communications spring out of living experience and are rooted in love.

1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 105 - 2. A.A. TODAY, p. 11
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can
laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness.
Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is
that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust
their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him
demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our
fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once,
we commence to outgrow fear."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 68~
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

I am less sensitive and my feelings are less easily hurt. I no longer take myself so seriously. It didn't used to take much to insult me, to feel that I had been slighted or left on the outside. What happens to me now is not so important. One cause of our drinking was that we couldn't take it, so we escaped the unpleasant situation. We have learned to take it on the chin if necessary and smile. When I am all wrapped up in A.A., I do not notice the personal slights so much. They do not seem to matter so much. I have learned to laugh at self-pity because it's so childish. Am I less sensitive?

Meditation for the Day

God's miracle-working power is as manifest today as it was in the past. It still works miracles of change in lives and miracles of healing in twisted minds. When a person trusts wholly in God and leaves to Him the choosing of the day and hour, there is God's miracle-working power becoming manifest in that persons life. So we can trust in God and have boundless faith in His power to make us whole again, whenever He chooses.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may feel sure that there is nothing that God cannot accomplish in changing my life. I pray that I may have faith in His miracle-working power.

©Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012©

 

 

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Thoughts For The Day~*~Sanity^*^*^*^*^ November 14, 2006

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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  /AA\
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Sanity

"My actions drunk or sober, before AA,
were not those of a sane person.
My desire to be honest with myself made it necessary
for me to realize that my drinking was irrational.
It had to be, or I could not have justified
my erratic behavior as I did.
I've been benefited from a dictionary definition I found
that reads: 'rationalization is giving
a socially acceptable reason for
socially unacceptable behavior,
and socially unacceptable behavior is a form of insanity."
c. 1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 550-1
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Thought to Consider . . .

Let the lunatic out of the attic.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
K I S S =  Keep It Simple, Surrender

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

Maintenance

Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

"Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support. As the body can fail for the lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of God's reality, the nourishment of His strength, and the atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. life confirm this ageless truth."

© 1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 97-98

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
INTUITION AND INSPIRATION

. . . we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 86

I invest my time in what I truly love.  Step Eleven is a discipline that allows me and my Higher Power to be together, reminding me that, with God's help, intuition and inspiration are possible.  Practice of the Step brings on self-love.  In a consistent attempt to improve my conscious contact with a Higher Power, I am subtly reminded of my unhealthy past, with its patterns of grandiose thinking and false feelings of omnipotence.  When I ask for the power to carry out God's will for me, I am made aware of my powerlessness.  Humility and a healthy self-love are compatible, a direct result of working Step Eleven.

©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Forgiveness

Through the vital Fifth Step, we began to get the feeling that we could be forgiven, no matter what we had thought or done.
Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us.
Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew we'd be able to receive forgiveness and give it, too.

TWELVE AND TWELVE, pp. 57-58
*~*~*~*~*^ 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

A better way than judging people is to look for au the good in them. if you look hard enough and long enough, you ought to be able to find some good in every person. In A.A. I learned that my job was to try to bring out the good, not criticize the bad. Every alcoholic is used to being judged and criticized. That has never helped anyone to get sober. In A.A. we tell people they can change. We try to bring out the best in them. We encourage their good points and ignore their bad points. People are not converted by criticism. Do I look for the good in people?

Meditation for the Day

There must be a design for the world in the mind of God. We believe His design for the world is a universal fellowship of men and women under the fatherhood of God. The plan for your life must also be in the mind of God. In times of quiet meditation you can seek for God's guidance, for the revealing of God's plan for your day. Then you can live this day according to that guidance. Many people are not making of their lives what God meant them to be, and so they are unhappy. They have missed the design for their lives.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may try to follow God's design for today. I pray that I may have the sense of Divine Intent in what I do today.

©Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012©

 

 

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Thoughts For The Day~*~Spiritual Life ^*^*^November 13, 2006

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Spiritual Life
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"The spiritual life is not a theory.
We have to live it.
Unless one's family expresses a desire to live upon
spiritual principles
we think we ought not to urge them.
We should not talk incessantly to them about spiritual matters.
They will change in time.
Our behavior will convince them more than our words.
We must remember that ten or twenty years
of drunkenness would make a skeptic out of anyone."

Reprinted from Alcoholics Anonymous, Page 83, with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.

Thought to Consider . . .

Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
P A C E =Positive Attitudes Change Everything

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

Unchangeable

From "More About Alcoholism":

"Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet.

"Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentlemen, our hats are off to him. Heavens knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!"

© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 31

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
LOOKING OUTWARD

We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no requests for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped.  We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 87

As an active alcoholic, I allowed selfishness to run rampant in my life.  I was so attached to my drinking and other selfish habits that people and moral principles came second.  Now, when I pray for the good of others rather than my "own selfish ends," I practice a discipline in letting go of selfish attachments, caring for my fellows and preparing for the day when I will be required to let go of all earthly attachments.

©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Vision Beyond Today

Vision is, I think, the ability to make good estimates, both for the immediate and for the more distant future. Some might feel this sort of striving to be heresy against "One day at a time." But that valuable principle really refers to our mental and emotional lives and means chiefly that we are not foolishly to repine over the past nor wishfully to daydream about the future.
As individuals and as a fellowship, we shall surely suffer if we cast the whole job of planning for tomorrow onto a fatuous idea of providence. God's real providence has endowed us human beings with a considerable capability for foresight, and He evidently expects us to use it. Of course, we shall often miscalculate the future in whole or in part, but that is better than to refuse to think at all.

TWELVE CONCEPTS, p. 41
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity
from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 89~

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

Who am I to judge other people? Have I proved by my great success in life that I know all the answers? Exactly the opposite. Until I came into A.A., my life could be called a failure. I made all the mistakes one could make. I took all the wrong roads there were to take' On the basis of my record, am I a fit person to be a judge of other people? Hardly. In A.A. I have learned not to judge people. I am so often wrong. Let the results of what they do judge them. It's not up to me, Am I less harsh in my judgment of people?

Meditation for the Day

In our time of meditation, we again seem to hear: "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Again and again we seem to hear God saying this to us. "Come unto me" for the solution of every problem, for the overcoming of every temptation, for the calming of every fear, for all our needs, physical, mental, or spiritual, but mostly, "come unto me" for the strength we need to live with peace of mind and the power to be useful and effective.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may go to God today for those things that I need to help me live. I pray that I may find real peace of mind.

©Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012©

 

 

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Thoughts For The Day~*~Practice ^*^*^*^*^ November 12, 2006

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

"God willing, we members of AA may never again
have to deal with drinking,
but we do have to deal with sobriety every day.
How do we do it?
By learning -- through practicing the Twelve Steps
and through sharing at meetings --
how to cope with the problems
that we looked to booze to solve, back in our drinking days."
c. 1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 560
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Thought to Consider . . .

There's no elevator, you have to take the Steps.

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

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Alteration
From "Spiritual Experience:"

"Personality change sufficient to bring about
recovery has manifested itself among us in many
different forms.
"Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware
of the difference long before he is himself.  He
finally realizes that he has undergone a profound
alteration in his reaction to life; that such a change
could hardly have been brought about by himself
alone."

c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 567


*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
MORNING THOUGHTS

Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 164

For many years I pondered over God's will for me, believing that perhaps a great destiny had been ordained for my life.  After all, having been born into a specific faith, hadn't I been told early that I was "chosen"?   It finally occurred to me, as I considered the above passage, that God's will for me was simply that I practice Step Twelve on a daily basis.  Furthermore, I realized I should do this to the best of my ability.  I soon learned that the practice aids me in keeping my life in the context of the day at hand.

©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Our Protective Mantle

Almost every newspaper reporter who covers A.A. complains, at first, of the difficulty of writing his story without names. But he quickly forgets this difficulty when he realizes that here is a group of people who care nothing for acclaim.
Probably this is the first time in his life he has ever reported on an organization that wants no personalized publicity. Cynic though he may be, this obvious sincerity quickly transforms him into a friend of A.A.

<<<>>>

Moved by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as A.A. members, both among fellow alcoholics and before the general public. As we lay aside these very human aspirations, we believe that each of us takes part in the weaving of a protective mantle which covers our whole Society and under which we may grow and work in unity.

1. GRAPEVINE, MARCH 1946 - 2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, p. 187
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"When you discover a prospect for Alcoholics Anonymous, find out all
you can about him. If he does not want to stop drinking, don't
waste time trying to persuade him. You may spoil a later opportunity."

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 90


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

I am less critical of other people, inside and outside of A.A. I used to run people down all the time. I realize now that it was because I wanted unconsciously to build myself up. I was envious of people who lived normal lives. I couldn't understand why I couldn't be like them. And so I ran them down. I called them sissies or hypocrites. I was always looking for faults in the other person. I loved to tear down what I called "a stuffed shirt" or "a snob." I have found that I can never make a person any better by criticism. A.A. has taught me this. Am I less critical of people?

Meditation for the Day

You must admit your helplessness before your prayer for help will be heard by God. Your own need must be recognized before you can ask God for the strength to meet that need. But once that need is recognized, your prayer is heard above all the music of heaven. It is not theological arguments that solve the problems of the questing soul, but the sincere cry of that soul to God for strength and the certainty of that soul that the cry will be heard and answered.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may send my voiceless cry for help out into the void. I pray that I may feel certain that it will be heard somewhere, somehow.

©Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012©

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