Twenty-Four Hours A Day for 6/7/13
 

Thought for the Day

Alcoholism is a progressive illness. We go through the three stages of social drinking, trouble drinking, and merry-go-round drinking. We land in hospitals and jails. We eventually lose our homes, our families, and our self-respect. Yes, alcoholism is a progressive illness and there are only three ends to it - the insane asylum, the morgue, or total abstinence. Will I choose not to take the first drink?

Meditation for the Day

You not only can live a new life but you also can grow in grace and power and beauty. Reach ever forward and upward after the things of the spirit. In the animal world, the very form of an animal changes to enable it to reach that upon which it delights to feed. Your whole character changes as you reach upward for the things of the spirit -- for beauty, for love, for honesty, for purity, and for unselfishness. Reaching after these things of the spirit, your whole nature becomes changed so that you can best receive and delight in the wonders of the abundant life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may reach forward and upward. I pray that my character may be changed by this reaching upward for the things of the spirit.


From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.

This is one of the very few times I find something in the 24hrs book that I disagree with. It asks me, in a both real and rhetorical way, if I will choose not to take the first drink. Clearly, if I had choice in the matter, I wouldn't need AA or any other program of recovery. I am powerless over alcohol - I have lost power of choice in the matter completely. Choice is off the menu.

I think it is a reminder that abstinence is the only real choice, the other two are really consequences.

The first drink gets me drunk. If I do not have the first there will be no consequences to follow.

Yes, Paul, when I read this as I posted today's reading, I saw that last line and thought...choice? and thought the same thing...and quickly thought...don't say anything V...!

I guess another way of putting it would be...

With God's help, I won't take the first drink, rather than will I choose not to take the first drink...

or maybe it is that after we take the 3rd step and honestly ask God to direct us, that we are capable of making better choices? That our thought life is on a higher plane, including making good choices that are in line with God's will for us?