Daily Readings 11-25-2022
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Daily Readings 11-25-2022
Daily Reflections
A POWERFUL TRADITION
In the years before the publication of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous," we had no name. . .by a narrow majority the verdict was for naming our book "The Way Out." . . .One of our early lone members. . . found exactly twelve books already titled "The Way Out.". . . So "Alcoholics Anonymous" became first choice. That's how we got a name for our book of experience, a name for our movement and, as we are now beginning to see, a tradition of the greatest spiritual import.
"A.A. TRADITION: HOW IT DEVELOPED." pp. 35-36
Beginning with Bill's momentous decision in Akron to make a telephone call rather than a visit to the hotel bar, how often has a Higher Power made itself felt at crucial moments in our history! The eventual importance that the principle of anonymity would acquire was but dimly perceived, if at all, in those early days. There seems to have been an element of chance even in the choice of a name for our Fellowship. God is no stranger to anonymity and often appears in human affairs in the guises of "luck", "chance," or "coincidence." If anonymity, somewhat fortuitously, became the spiritual basis for all of our Traditions, perhaps God was acting anonymously on our behalf.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I am not so envious of other people, nor am I so jealous of other people's possessions and talents. When I was drinking, I was secretly full of jealousy and envy of those people who could drink normally, who had the love and respect of their families, who lived a normal life and were accepted as equals by their friends. I pretended to myself that I was as good as they were, but I knew it wasn't so. Now I don't have to be envious any more. I try not to want what I don't deserve. I'm content to live with what I have earned by my efforts to live the right way. More power to those who have what I have not. At least, I'm trying. Have I got rid of the poison of envy?
Meditation For The Day
"My soul is restless till it finds its rest in Thee." A river flows on, until it loses itself in the sea. Our spirits long for rest in the Spirit of God. We yearn to realize a peace, a rest, a satisfaction that we have never found in the world or its pursuits. Some are not conscious of their need, and shut down the doors of their spirits against the spirit of God. They are unable to have true peace.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may feel the divine unrest. I pray that my soul may find its rest in God.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Three Choices, p. 327
The immediate object of our quest is sobriety--freedom from alcohol and from all its baleful consequences. Without this freedom, we have nothing at all. Paradoxically, though, we can achieve no liberation from the alcohol obsession until we become willing to deal with those character defects which have landed us in that helpless condition. In this freedom quest, we are always given three choices.
A rebellious refusal to work upon our glaring defects can be an almost certain ticket to destruction. Or, perhaps for a time, we can stay sober with a minimum of self-improvement and settle ourselves into a comfortable but often dangerous mediocrity. Or, finally, we can continuously try hard for those sterling qualities that can add up to fineness of spirit and action--true and lasting freedom under God.
Grapevine, November 1960
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
Chapter 8 - TO WIVES
Frequently, you have felt obliged to tell your husband’s employer and his friends that he was sick, when as a matter of fact he was tight. Avoid answering these inquiries as much as you can. Whenever possible, let your husband explain. Your desire to protect him should not cause you to lie to people when they have a right to know where he is and what he is doing. Discuss this with him when he is sober and in good spirits. Ask him what you should do if he places you in such a position again. But be careful not to be resentful about the last time he did so. - p. 115-116
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
LISTENING TO THE WIND - It took an "angel" to introduce this Native American woman to A.A. and recovery.
I found my empty purse on the floor, but I knew I could never make it to the car. I became terrified. Who could I call? I never saw my friends anymore, and there was no way I could call family. I remembered the number in the pocket of my jeans. I hadn't even gotten dressed for several days. Where were the jeans? I searched the house until I found them on the floor of the bedroom. The number was in the pocket. After three tries I managed to dial the number. A woman's voice answered.
"I . . . uh . . . got this number from you . . . uh . . . Is this A.A.?" I asked.
"Yes. Do you want to stop drinking?"
"Please, yes. I need help. Oh, God." I felt the fiery tears run down my face.
p. 466 - 467
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Four - "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."
But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. Our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. Either we insist upon dominating the people we know, or we depend upon them far too much. If we lean too heavily on people, they will sooner or later fail us, for they are human, too, and cannot possibly meet our incessant demands. In this way our insecurity grows and festers. When we habitually try to manipulate others to our own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. Then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate. As we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. Always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap, or to hide underneath it. This self-centered behavior blocked a partnership relation with any one of those about us. Of true brotherhood we had small comprehension. - p. 53
************************************************** *********
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
We have elsewhere remarked how much better life is when lived on a spiritual plane. If God can solve the age-old riddle of alcoholism, He can solve your problems too. - Pg. 116 - To Wives
************************************************** *********
Warrior’s Anonymous Practice of the Day
BB pg 86-
Ch 6- Into Action:
(Referencing the directions for the 11th Step)
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
Tom: My sponsor took a lot of time making sure I understood these particular instructions for the morning portion of the 11th step.
-first lesson was when I should do the 11th step- “upon awakening” meaning first thing of every morning. Personally I need a cup of coffee in me before my brain wakes up, then I get after it.
-second lesson- go directly to my God and ask Him to divorce (which means, Dis-union) my mind from self-pity, dishonesty and self-seeking motives. The most important thing is that I am asking Him to do that for me, I cannot do it myself. Remember at the beginning we established “the main problem of the alcoholic/addict centers in his mind rather than in his body”. I can’t change me, I don’t have the Power, but my Higher Power does. This is not a “self-help” program, it is a “Higher Power reliance” program.
-third lesson- it is not until the 11th step that AA says “now you can use your brain and start thinking, and this is how we go about thinking”
I would not be able to think clearly and confidently unless I had completed the 10 previous Steps.
I pray that today I put all my efforts in the Solution and pay no attention to the problem.
A POWERFUL TRADITION
In the years before the publication of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous," we had no name. . .by a narrow majority the verdict was for naming our book "The Way Out." . . .One of our early lone members. . . found exactly twelve books already titled "The Way Out.". . . So "Alcoholics Anonymous" became first choice. That's how we got a name for our book of experience, a name for our movement and, as we are now beginning to see, a tradition of the greatest spiritual import.
"A.A. TRADITION: HOW IT DEVELOPED." pp. 35-36
Beginning with Bill's momentous decision in Akron to make a telephone call rather than a visit to the hotel bar, how often has a Higher Power made itself felt at crucial moments in our history! The eventual importance that the principle of anonymity would acquire was but dimly perceived, if at all, in those early days. There seems to have been an element of chance even in the choice of a name for our Fellowship. God is no stranger to anonymity and often appears in human affairs in the guises of "luck", "chance," or "coincidence." If anonymity, somewhat fortuitously, became the spiritual basis for all of our Traditions, perhaps God was acting anonymously on our behalf.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I am not so envious of other people, nor am I so jealous of other people's possessions and talents. When I was drinking, I was secretly full of jealousy and envy of those people who could drink normally, who had the love and respect of their families, who lived a normal life and were accepted as equals by their friends. I pretended to myself that I was as good as they were, but I knew it wasn't so. Now I don't have to be envious any more. I try not to want what I don't deserve. I'm content to live with what I have earned by my efforts to live the right way. More power to those who have what I have not. At least, I'm trying. Have I got rid of the poison of envy?
Meditation For The Day
"My soul is restless till it finds its rest in Thee." A river flows on, until it loses itself in the sea. Our spirits long for rest in the Spirit of God. We yearn to realize a peace, a rest, a satisfaction that we have never found in the world or its pursuits. Some are not conscious of their need, and shut down the doors of their spirits against the spirit of God. They are unable to have true peace.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may feel the divine unrest. I pray that my soul may find its rest in God.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Three Choices, p. 327
The immediate object of our quest is sobriety--freedom from alcohol and from all its baleful consequences. Without this freedom, we have nothing at all. Paradoxically, though, we can achieve no liberation from the alcohol obsession until we become willing to deal with those character defects which have landed us in that helpless condition. In this freedom quest, we are always given three choices.
A rebellious refusal to work upon our glaring defects can be an almost certain ticket to destruction. Or, perhaps for a time, we can stay sober with a minimum of self-improvement and settle ourselves into a comfortable but often dangerous mediocrity. Or, finally, we can continuously try hard for those sterling qualities that can add up to fineness of spirit and action--true and lasting freedom under God.
Grapevine, November 1960
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
Chapter 8 - TO WIVES
Frequently, you have felt obliged to tell your husband’s employer and his friends that he was sick, when as a matter of fact he was tight. Avoid answering these inquiries as much as you can. Whenever possible, let your husband explain. Your desire to protect him should not cause you to lie to people when they have a right to know where he is and what he is doing. Discuss this with him when he is sober and in good spirits. Ask him what you should do if he places you in such a position again. But be careful not to be resentful about the last time he did so. - p. 115-116
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
LISTENING TO THE WIND - It took an "angel" to introduce this Native American woman to A.A. and recovery.
I found my empty purse on the floor, but I knew I could never make it to the car. I became terrified. Who could I call? I never saw my friends anymore, and there was no way I could call family. I remembered the number in the pocket of my jeans. I hadn't even gotten dressed for several days. Where were the jeans? I searched the house until I found them on the floor of the bedroom. The number was in the pocket. After three tries I managed to dial the number. A woman's voice answered.
"I . . . uh . . . got this number from you . . . uh . . . Is this A.A.?" I asked.
"Yes. Do you want to stop drinking?"
"Please, yes. I need help. Oh, God." I felt the fiery tears run down my face.
p. 466 - 467
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Four - "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."
But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. Our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. Either we insist upon dominating the people we know, or we depend upon them far too much. If we lean too heavily on people, they will sooner or later fail us, for they are human, too, and cannot possibly meet our incessant demands. In this way our insecurity grows and festers. When we habitually try to manipulate others to our own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. Then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate. As we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. Always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap, or to hide underneath it. This self-centered behavior blocked a partnership relation with any one of those about us. Of true brotherhood we had small comprehension. - p. 53
************************************************** *********
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
We have elsewhere remarked how much better life is when lived on a spiritual plane. If God can solve the age-old riddle of alcoholism, He can solve your problems too. - Pg. 116 - To Wives
************************************************** *********
Warrior’s Anonymous Practice of the Day
BB pg 86-
Ch 6- Into Action:
(Referencing the directions for the 11th Step)
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
Tom: My sponsor took a lot of time making sure I understood these particular instructions for the morning portion of the 11th step.
-first lesson was when I should do the 11th step- “upon awakening” meaning first thing of every morning. Personally I need a cup of coffee in me before my brain wakes up, then I get after it.
-second lesson- go directly to my God and ask Him to divorce (which means, Dis-union) my mind from self-pity, dishonesty and self-seeking motives. The most important thing is that I am asking Him to do that for me, I cannot do it myself. Remember at the beginning we established “the main problem of the alcoholic/addict centers in his mind rather than in his body”. I can’t change me, I don’t have the Power, but my Higher Power does. This is not a “self-help” program, it is a “Higher Power reliance” program.
-third lesson- it is not until the 11th step that AA says “now you can use your brain and start thinking, and this is how we go about thinking”
I would not be able to think clearly and confidently unless I had completed the 10 previous Steps.
I pray that today I put all my efforts in the Solution and pay no attention to the problem.
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