Thoughts For The Day~*~Choices^*^*^*^*^ May 1, 2011

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

"During the day, we can pause
where situations must be met and decisions made,
and renew the simple request:
'Thy will, not mine, be done.'
If at these points our emotional disturbance
happens to be great,
we will more surely keep our balance,
provided we remember,
and repeat to ourselves,
a particular prayer or phrase that has appealed to us
in our reading or meditation.
Just saying it over and over will often enable us
to return to the surest help of all--
our search for God's will, not our own,
in the moment of stress."

Bill W., Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 102-3
As Bill Sees It, p. 78

Thought to Consider . . .

"As we go through the day we pause,
when agitated or doubtful,
and ask for the right thought or action."
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 87


*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
FEAR
False Evidence Appearing Real

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

Conference

From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":

In the late 1940s "most of the nonalcoholics on the Board at the time had been institutional [non-profit organization] men. Bernard Smith on the other hand was a businessman and lawyer. From the time he had joined the Board, three years earlier, he had always favored corporate management for the A.A. office and an elected conference to sit with the Trustees as the final plan of service structure for Alcoholics Anonymous. "

Chairman Leonard Harrison appointed "Bernard Smith Chairman of the Trustees' Committee on the proposed Conference [despite] their differences of opinion.

"Bernard Smith has a remarkable faculty for persuasion and negotiation. Moreover, his ideas about a conference had already taken a deeper hold than any of us realized.  [H]e took up the task of convincing the Trustees committee on the Conference.  He put this question to the committee: Shall we set up this Conference of delegates, or shall we forget about it? To my astonishment the committee unanimously said, 'Let's give the Conference a try.' It seemed like a miracle."

2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 212

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
HEALING HEART AND MIND

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.  55

Since it is true that God comes to me through people, I can see that by keeping people at a distance I also keep God at a distance.  God is nearer to me than I think and I can experience Him by loving people and allowing people to love me.  But I can neither love nor be loved if I allow my secrets to get in the way.

It's the side of myself that I refuse to look at that rules me.  I must be willing to look at the dark side in order to heal my mind and heart because that is the road to freedom.  I must walk into darkness to find the light and walk into fear to find peace.

By revealing my secrets -- and thereby ridding myself of guilt -- I can actually change my thinking; by altering my thinking, I can change myself. My thoughts create my future.  What I will be tomorrow is determined by what I think today.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
We Are Not Fighting

We have ceased fighting anything or anyone--even alcohol. For by this time sanity has returned. We can now react sanely and normally, and we find that this has happened almost automatically. We see that this new attitude toward liquor is really a gift of God.
That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid.
That is how we react--so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, PP. 84-85

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

"If there be divorce or separation, there should be no undue haste
for the couple to get together. The man should be sure of his
recovery. The wife should fully understand his new way of life. If
their old relationship is to be resumed it must be on a better basis,
since the former did not work. This means a new attitude and spirit
all around. Sometimes it is to the best interests of all concerned
that a couple remain apart. Obviously, no rule can be laid down.
Let the alcoholic continue his program day by day. When the time for
living together has come, it will be apparent to both parties."

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, Page 99

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

The A.A. program is one of charity because the real meaning of the word charity is to care enough about other people to really want to help them. To get the full benefit of the program, we must try to help other alcoholics. We may try to help somebody and think we have failed, but the seed we have planted may bear fruit some time. We never know the results even a word of ours might have. But the main thing is to have charity for others, a real desire to help them, whether we succeed or not. Do I have real charity?

Meditation for the Day

All material things, the universe, the world, even our bodies, may be Eternal Thought expressed in time and space. The more the physicists and astronomers reduce matter, the more it becomes a mathematical formula, which is thought. In the final analysis, matter is thought. When Eternal Thought expresses itself within the framework of space and time, it becomes matter. Our thoughts, within the box of space and time, cannot know anything firsthand, except material things. But we can deduce that outside the box of space and time is Eternal Thought, which we can call God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be a true expression of Eternal Thought. I pray that God's thoughts may work through my thoughts.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

Thoughts For The Day~*~Compromise^*^*^*^*^ April 30, 2011

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

"One qualification for a useful life is
'give-and-take,'
the ability to compromise cheerfully.
Compromise comes hard to us 'all-or-nothing' drunks.
Nevertheless we must never lose sight of the fact
that progress is nearly always characterized by
a series of improving compromises.
There are circumstances in which it is necessary
to stick flat-footed to one's convictions.
Deciding when to compromise
and when not to compromise always calls for
the most careful discrimination."

Bill W., Twelve Concepts for World Service, pp. 39-40
As Bill Sees It, p. 59

Thought to Consider . . .

Wisdom in its purest form is sometimes
knowing what to overlook.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
BATH
Behavior, Attitude, Thinking, and Habits

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

Inspiration

From "Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three":

"I thought, I think I have the answer. Bill was very, very grateful that he had been released from this terrible thing and he had given God the credit for having done it, and he's so grateful about it he wants to tell other people about it. That sentence, 'The Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep telling people about it,' has been a sort of a golden text for the A.A. program and for me."

2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 191
*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
A GREAT PARADOX

These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, one to the other.  This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today animates A.A.'s all around the globe. 

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, P.  151

The great paradox of A.A. is that I know I cannot keep the precious gift of sobriety unless I give it away.

My primary purpose is to stay sober.  In A.A. I have no other goal, and the importance of this is a matter of life or death for me.  If I veer from this purpose I lose.  But A.A. is not only for me; it is for the alcoholic who still suffers.  The legions of recovering alcoholics stay sober by sharing with fellow alcoholics.  The way to my recovery is to show others in A.A. that when I share with them, we both grow in the grace of the Higher Power, and both of us are on the road to a happy destiny.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Word of Mouth

"In my view, there isn't the slightest objection to groups who wish to remain strictly anonymous, or to people who think they would not like their membership in A.A. known at all. That is their business, and this is a very natural reaction.
"However, most people find that anonymity to this degree is not necessary, or even desirable. Once one is fairly sober, and sure of this, there seems no reason for failing to talk about A.A. membership in the right places. This has a tendency to bring in other people. Word of mouth is one of our most important communications.
"So we should criticize neither the people who wish to remain silent, nor even the people who wish to talk too much about belonging to A.A., provided they do not do so at the public level and thus compromise our whole Society."

LETTER, 1962
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"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~

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

The A.A. program is one of faith because we find that we must have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe which we call God is the essential part of the A.A. program. Is faith still strong in me?

Meditation for the Day

Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet, but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God's spirit that can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys, such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God's love.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant life.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

Thoughts For The Day~*~Powerless^*^*^*^*^ April 29, 2011

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

"Who cares to admit complete defeat?
Practically no one, of course.
Every natural instinct cries out
against the idea of personal powerlessness.
No other kind of bankruptcy is like this one.
Alcohol, the rapacious creditor,
bleeds us of all self-sufficiency
and all will to resist its demands.
But upon entering AA we soon take quite
another view of this absolute humiliation.
Our admissions of personal powerlessness
finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which
happy and purposeful lives may be built."
Bill W., Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 21

Thought to Consider . . .

"Admission of powerlessness is the first step in liberation."
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 5

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
NEW
Nothing Else Worked

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

Defects

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

"To avoid falling into confusion over the names these defects should be called, let's take a universally recognized list of major human failings the Seven Deadly Sins of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. It is not by accident that pride heads the procession. For pride, leading to self-justification, and always spurred by conscious or unconscious fears, is the basic breeder of most human difficulties, the chief block to true progress. Pride lures us into making demands upon ourselves or upon others which cannot be met without perverting or misusing our God-given instincts. When the satisfaction of our instincts for sex, security, and society becomes the sole object of our lives, then pride steps in to justify our excesses."

1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pgs. 48-49
*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
GROUP AUTONOMY

Some may think that we have carried the principle of group autonomy to extremes.  For example, in its original "long form, " Tradition Four declares: "Any two or three gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A.  group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.  "* .  .  .  But this ultra liberty is not so risky as it looks.

A.A. COMES OF AGE, pp.  104-05

As an active alcoholic, I abused every liberty that life afforded.  How could A.A. expect me to respect the "ultra-liberty" bestowed by Tradition Four?  Learning respect has become a lifetime job.

A.A. has made me fully accept the necessity of discipline and that, if I do not assert it from within, then I will pay for it.  This applies to groups too.  Tradition Four points me in a spiritual direction, in spite of my alcoholic inclinations.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
On the Broad Highway

"I now realize that my former prejudice against clergymen was blind and wrong. They have kept alive through the centuries a faith which might have been extinguished entirely. They pointed out the road to me, but I did not even look up, I was so full of prejudice and self-concern.
"When I did open my eyes, it was because I had to. And the man who showed me the truth was a fellow sufferer and a layman. Through him, I saw at last, and I stepped from the abyss to solid ground, knowing at once that my feet were on the broad highway if I chose to walk."

LETTER, 1940
*~*~*~*~*^ 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

The A.A. program is one of faith, hope, and charity. It's a program of hope because when new members come into A.A., the first thing they get is hope. They hear older members tell how they had been through the same kind of hell that they have and how they found the way out through A.A. And this gives them hope that if others can do it, they can do it. is hope still strong in me?

Meditation for the Day

The rule of God's kingdom is perfect order, perfect harmony, perfect supply, perfect love, perfect honesty, perfect obedience. There is no discord in God's kingdom, only some things still unconquered in God's children. The difficulties of life are caused by disharmony in the individual man or woman. People lack power because they lack harmony with God and with each other. They think that God fails because power is not manifested in their lives. God does not fail. People fail because they are out of harmony with Him.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be in harmony with God and with other people. I pray that this harmony will result in strength and success.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

Thoughts For The Day~*~Arrogance^*^*^*^*^ April 28, 2011

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

"I am a firm believer in both
guidance and prayer.
But I am fully aware, and humble enough, I hope,
to see there may be nothing infallible
about my guidance.
The minute I figure I have got
a perfectly clear pipeline to God,
I have become egotistical enough
to get into real trouble.
Nobody can cause more needless grief
than a power-driver who thinks
he has got it straight from God."

Bill W., Letter, 1950
As Bill Sees It, p. 38

Thought to Consider . . .
The smallest package in the world
is an alcoholic all wrapped up in himself.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*

ISM
I Sponsor Myself

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

Discovery

From "Bill's Story":

"At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens.

"There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as He would. I place myself unreservedly under His care and direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch. I have not had a drink since."

2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 13

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
TWO "MAGNIFICENT STANDARDS"

All A.A. progress can be reckoned in terms of just two words: humility and responsibility.  Our whole spiritual development can be accurately measured by our degree of adherence to these magnificent standards.

AS BILL SEES IT, p.  271

To acknowledge and respect the views, accomplishments and prerogatives of others and to accept being wrong shows me the way of humility.  To practice the principles of A.A. in all my affairs guides me to be responsible.  Honoring these precepts gives credence to Tradition Four-and to all other Traditions of the Fellowship.  Alcoholics Anonymous has evolved a philosophy of life full of valid motivations, rich in highly relevant principles and ethical values, a view of life which can be extended beyond the confines of the alcoholic population.  To honor these precepts I need only to pray, and care for my fellow man as if each one were my brother.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Prelude to the Program

Few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have "hit bottom," for practicing A.A.'s Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. The average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect--unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself.
<<<>>>
We know that the newcomer has to "hit bottom"; otherwise, not much can happen. Because we are drunks who understand him, we can use at depth the nutcracker of the-obsession-plus-the-allergy as a tool of such power that it can shatter his ego. Only thus can he be convinced that on his own unaided resources he has little or no chance.

1. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 24
2. A.A. TODAY, P. 8
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"These men had found something brand new in life. Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that
motive became secondary. It was transcended by the happiness they
found in giving themselves for others."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 159~

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

We're so glad to be free from liquor that we do something about it. We get into action. We come to meetings regularly. We go out and try to help other alcoholics. We pass on the good news whenever we get a chance. In a spirit of thankfulness to God, we get into action. The A.A. program is simple. Submit yourself to God, find release from liquor, and get into action. Do these things and keep doing them and you're all set for the rest of your life. Have I got into action?

Meditation for the Day

God's eternal quest must be the tracking down of souls. You should join Him in His quest. Through briars, through waste places, through glades, up mountain heights, down into valleys. God leads you. But ever with His leadership goes your helping hand. Glorious to follow where the Leader goes. You are seeking lost sheep. You are bringing the good news into places where it has not been known before. You may not know which soul you will help, but you can leave all results to God. just go with Him in His eternal quest for souls.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may follow God in His eternal quest for souls. I pray that I may offer God my helping hand.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012