February 7, 2007

Created in the image of God, I express pure life and energy.

 

 

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
^*^*^*^*^
(\  ~~~ /)
(   \(AA)/  )
(_   /AA\ _)
  /AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Language of the Heart

From the beginning,
communication in AA has been no ordinary transmission
of helpful ideas and attitudes.
It has been unusual and sometimes unique.
Because of our kinship in suffering,
and because our common means of deliverance
are effective for ourselves only when
constantly carried to others,
our channels of contact have always been charged
with the language of the heart.
Bill W., July 1960
c. 1988 AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 243
^*^*^*^*^

Thought to Consider . . .

Walk softly and carry a Big Book.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
S O B E R  =  Simply Observe Bill's Exemplary Recovery.

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

Blame

From "Crossing the River of Denial":

"Another trick was selecting companions who drank just a little bit more than I did. Then I could always point to their problem.

"One such companion led to my first arrest. If the driver of the car had only pulled over when the police lights flashed, we would have been fine. If, when I had practically talked our way out of it, the driver had kept his mouth shut, we would have been fine. But no, he started babbling about how he was in rehab. I got off with a misdemeanor, and for years, I completely discounted that arrest because it was all his fault. I simply ignored that I had been drinking all day."

© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 329-30

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
A PATH TO FAITH

True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith, and every A.A. meeting is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to Him.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.  33

My last drunk had landed me in the hospital, totally broken.  It was then that I was able to see my past float in front of me.  I realized that, through drinking, I had lived every nightmare I had ever had.  My own self-will and obsession to drink had driven me into a dark pit of hallucinations, blackouts and despair.  Finally beaten, I asked for God's help.  His presence told me to believe.  My obsession for alcohol was taken away and my paranoia has since been lifted.  I am no longer afraid.  I know my life is healthy and sane.

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

"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."

LETTER, 1950
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of
spiritual progress. If you persist, remarkable things will happen."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 100~

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

A night club crowded with men and women all dressed up in evening clothes looks like a very festive place. But you should see the rest rooms of that night club the next morning. What a mess! People have been sick all over the place and does it smell! The glamour of the night before is all gone and only the stink of the morning after is left. In A.A. we learn to take a long view of drinking instead of a short view. We learn to think less about the pleasure of the moment and more about the consequences. Has the night before become less important to me and the morning after more important

Meditation for the Day

Only a few more steps and then God's power shall be seen and known in my life. I am now walking in darkness, surrounded by the limitations of space and time. But even in this darkness, I can have faith and can be a light to guide feet that are afraid. I believe that God's power will break through the darkness and my prayers will pierce even to the ears of God Himself. But only a cry from the heart, a trusting cry, ever pierces that darkness and reaches to the divine ear of God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that the divine power of God will help my human weakness. I pray that my prayer may reach through the darkness to the ear of God.

Wherever I am and wherever I go in the world, the spirit of God is with me. I am always enfolded in the love of God.

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February 6, 2007

Centered in the love of God in this prayerful moment, I am at peace.

 

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
^*^*^*^*^
(\  ~~~ /)
(   \(AA)/  )
(_   /AA\ _)
/AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Money Matters
Money gradually became our servant
and not our master.
It became a means of exchanging love and service
with those about us.
When, with God's help, we calmly accepted our lot,
then we found we could live at peace with ourselves
and show others who still suffered the same fears
that they could get over them, too.
We found that freedom from fear was
more important than freedom from want.
c. 1952 AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 122
^*^*^*^*^

Thought to Consider . . .

It's more important to feel happy about who I am
than who I think I should be.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*

P A C E  =  Positive Attitudes Change Everything.

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

Authority

Step Two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

"'Take it easy. The hoop you have to jump through is a lot wider than you think. At least I've found it so. So did a friend of mine who was a one-time vice president of the American Atheist Society, but he got through with room to spare. …

"...all you really need is a truly open mind."

© 1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 26

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
A RALLYING POINT

Therefore, Step Two is the rallying point for all of us.  "Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand together on this Step.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.  33

I feel that A.A. is a God-inspired program and that God is at every A.A. meeting.  I see, believe, and have come to know that A.A. works, because I have stayed sober today.  I am turning my life over to A.A. and to God by going to an A.A. meeting.  If God is in my heart and everyone else's, then I am a small part of a whole and I am not unique.  If God is in my heart and He speaks to me through other people, then I must be a channel of God to other people.  I should seek to do His will by living spiritual principles and my reward will be sanity and emotional sobriety.

©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
A Full and Thankful Heart

One 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.

GRAPEVINE, MARCH 1962
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much
more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our
respective homes, occupations and affairs."

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, There Is A Solution, pg. 19

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

On a dark night, the bright lights of the comer tavern look mighty inviting. Inside, there seems to be warmth and good cheer. But we don't stop to think that if we go in there we'll probably end up drunk, with our money spent and an awful hangover. A long mahogany bar in the tropical moonlight looks like a very gay place. But you should see the place the next morning. The chairs are piled on the tables and the place stinks of stale beer and cigarette stubs. And often we are there too, trying to cure the shakes by gulping down straight whiskey. Can I look straight through the night before and see the morning after?

Meditation for the Day

God finds, amid the crowd, a few people who follow Him, just to be near Him, just to dwell in His presence. A longing in the Eternal Heart may be satisfied by these few people. I will let God know that I seek just to dwell in His presence, to be near Him, not so much for teaching or a message, as just for Him. It may be that the longing of the human heart to be loved for itself is something caught from the Great Divine Heart.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have a listening ear, so that God may speak to me. I pray that I may have a waiting heart, so that God may come to me.

Wherever I am and wherever I go in the world, the spirit of God is with me. I am always enfolded in the love of God.

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February 5, 2007

My life is enriched by the fullness of God's love.

 

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
^*^*^*^*^
(\  ~~~ /)
(   \(AA)/  )
(_   /AA\ _)
  /AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Faith
People of faith have a logical idea
of what life is all about.
Actually, we used to have no reasonable
conception whatever.
We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting
spiritual beliefs and practices
when we might have observed that many
spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors and creeds
were demonstrating a degree of stability,
happiness and usefulness
which we should have sought ourselves.
c. 2002 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 49
^*^*^*^*^

Thought to Consider . . .

Feed your faith and starve your doubt.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
F A I T H =  Finding Answers In The Heart.

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

Support

From "Working With Others":

"It is not the matter of giving that is in question, but when and how to give. That often makes the difference between failure and success. The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God. He clamors for this or that, claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for. Nonsense. Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job â€" wife or no wife â€" we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God."

© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 98

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
A GLORIOUS RELEASE

"The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel.  Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life.  I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now.  To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting and practice the rest of A.A.'s program as enthusiastically as I could.  "

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.  27

After years of indulging in a "self-will run riot," Step Two became for me a glorious release from being all alone.  Nothing is so painful or insurmountable in my journey now.  Someone is always there to share life's burdens with me.  Step Two became a reinforcement with God, and I now realize that my insanity and ego were curiously linked.  To rid myself of the former, I must give up the latter to one with far broader shoulders than my own.
©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Humility First

"A.A. is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress."

<<<>>>

For Dr. Bob, the insatiable craving for alcohol was evidently a physical phenomenon which bedeviled several of his first years in A.A., a time when only days and nights of carrying the message to other alcoholics could cause him to forget about drinking. Although his craving was hard to withstand, it doubtless did account for some part of the intense incentive that went into forming Akron's Group Number One.
Bob's spiritual release did not come easily; it was to be painfully slow. It always entailed the hardest kind of work and the sharpest vigilance.

1. LETTER, 1959 - 2. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p, 69 - 3. LETTER, 1954
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"...with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a
spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely
grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings
we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity
of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to
die."

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 66
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

One thing we learn in A.A. is to take a long view of drinking instead of a short view. When we were drinking we thought more about the pleasure or release that a drink would give us than we did about the consequences that would result from our taking that drink. Liquor looks good from the short view. When we look in a package store window, we see liquor dressed up in its best wrappings, with fancy labels and decorations. They look swell. But have I learned that what's inside those beautiful bottles is just plain poison to me?

Meditation for the Day

I believe that life is a school in which I must learn spiritual things. I must trust in God and He will teach me. I must listen to God and He will speak through my mind. I must commune with Him in spite of all opposition and every obstacle. There will be days when I will hear no voice in my mind and when there will come no intimate heart-to-heart communion. But if I persist, and make a life habit of schooling myself in spiritual things, God will reveal Himself to me in many ways.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may regularly go to school in things of the spirit. I pray that I may grow spiritually by making a practice of these things.

Wherever I am and wherever I go in the world, the spirit of God is with me. I am always enfolded in the love of God.

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February 4, 2007

I trust God to lead me on my life's path. 

 

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
^*^*^*^*^
(\  ~~~ /)
(   \(AA)/  )
(_   /AA\ _)
  /AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Humility
Every newcomer in AA is told, and soon realizes for himself,
that his humble admission of powerlessness
over alcohol is his first step toward liberation
from its paralyzing grip.
So it is that we first see humility as a necessity.
But this is the barest beginning. . .
A whole lifetime geared to self-centeredness
cannot be set in reverse all at once.
Rebellion dogs our every step at first.
c. 1952 AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 72-3
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Thought to Consider . . .
Many people haven't even a nodding acquaintance
with humility as a way of life.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
T R U S T  =  Teaching Recovery Using Steps and Traditions

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

Perspective

From "Serving My Brother:"

 

"Today I may very well have to deal with disagreeable attitudes or utterances -- the typical stock-in-trade attitude of the still-suffering alcoholic.  If this should happen, I will take a moment to center myself in God, so that I will be able to respond from a perspective of composure, strength and sensibility."

 

c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 29

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have tried faith and found it wanting.  They have tried the way of faith and the way of no faith.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.  28

I was so sure God had failed me that I became ultimately defiant, though I knew better, and plunged into a final drinking binge.  My faith turned bitter and that was no coincidence.  Those who once had great faith hit bottom harder.  It took time to rekindle my faith, though I came to A.A. I was grateful intellectually to have survived such a great fall, but my heart felt callous.  Still, I stuck with the A.A.  program; the alternatives were too bleak!  I kept coming back and gradually my faith was resurrected.

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

"While A.A. has restored thousands of poor Christians to their churches, and has made believers out of atheists and agnostics, it has also made good A.A.'s out of those belonging to the Buddhist, Islamic, and Jewish faiths. For example, we question very much whether our Buddhist members in Japan would ever have joined this Society had A.A. officially stamped itself a strictly Christian movement.
"You can easily convince yourself of this by imagining that A.A. started among the Buddhists and that they then told you you couldn't join them unless you became a Buddhist, too. If you were a Christian alcoholic under these circumstances, you might well turn your face to the wall and die."

LETTER, 1954
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"...I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I
would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my
problems. Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness,
honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of
things, were the essential requirements."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Bill's Story, Page 13~
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

Treating others to drinks gave us a kind of satisfaction. We liked to say, "Have a drink on me." But we were not really doing the other people a favor. We were only helping them to get drunk, especially if they happened to be alcoholic. In A.A. we really try to help other alcoholics. We build them up instead of tearing them down. Drinking created a sort of fellowship. But it really was a false fellowship, because it was based on selfishness. We used our drinking companions for our own pleasure. In A.A. we have real fellowship, based on unselfishness and a desire to help each other. And we make real friends, not fair-weather friends. With sobriety, have I got everything that drinking's got, without the headaches?

Meditation for the Day

I know that God cannot teach anyone who is trusting in a crutch. I will throw away the crutch of alcohol and walk in God's power and spirit. God's power will so invigorate me that I shall indeed walk on to victory. There is never any limit to God's power. I will go step by step, one day at a time. God's will shall be revealed to me as I go forward.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have more and more dependence on God. I pray that I may throw away my alcoholic crutch and let God's power take its place.

Wherever I am and wherever I go in the world, the spirit of God is with me. I am always enfolded in the love of God.

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