A Waste of Time

[RufusACanal]

"Do not be discouraged if your prospect does not respond at once. Search out another alcoholic and try again. You are sure to find someone desperate enough to accept with eagerness what you offer. We find it a waste of time to keep chasing a man who cannot or will not work with you. If you leave such a person alone, he may soon become convinced that he cannot recover by himself. To spend too much time on any one situation is to deny some other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be happy. One of our Fellowship failed entirely with his first half dozen prospects. He often says that if he had continued to work on them, he might have deprived many others, who have since recovered, of their chance."

[nandm]

Desperation that perfectly describes what I felt when I was led to the doors of A.A. Desperate enough to go to any lengths to find sobriety even if it meant being willing to believe that a Power greater than myself could resolve my alcohol problem.

What I found was not only a solution to my alcohol problem but my living problem as well.

Thanks Rufus for another great passage.

[helpus]

I read this over 3 times & I don't understand the message. Could someone please splain it to me? Thanks (yeah I'm blonde for those of you who wondered lol)

[sailorjohn]

Originally Posted by helpus

I read this over 3 times & I don't understand the message. Could someone please splain it to me? Thanks (yeah I'm blonde for those of you who wondered lol)

Talking about denial. The only person that can overcome denial is the individual, not something you can help anyone with. The old saying, 'you can lead a horse to water' If you spend all of your time trying to get the horse to drink, you won't have any time to lead other horses to the watering hole.

[nandm]

Very well put, sailorjohn. Thanks

[Pinkcuda]

AA is a program of Humility. It tells us who we are, what we're made of and what we can and can't do. Humility is accepting who I am. Humility is realizing that I have no power over alcohol and can't control my drinking.
Would I be truly "Humble" if I thought I could control someone else's drinking? Fact of the matter is that I can't. To try would be to fail. Time and time again. My incessive failure in trying to get another Alcoholic to quit by any method is futile.
Nothing can get an Alcoholic to stop drinking except the Alcoholics own desire and God. I'm not God. It's something I had to learn in the rooms of AA. I am not God and I have absolutely no control here. Trying to "control" another Alcoholics desire to drink is to fail and will surely lead to a resentment.
You just can't drop these people fast enough.