Daily Readings 02-24-2023
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Daily Readings 02-24-2023
Daily Reflections
A THANKFUL HEART
I try 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.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37
My sponsor told me that I should be a grateful alcoholic
and always have "an attitude of gratitude"--that
gratitude was the basic ingredient of humility, that
humility was the basic ingredient of anonymity, and that
"anonymity was the spiritual foundation of all our
Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before
personalities." As a result of his guidance, I start
every morning on my knees, thanking God for three things:
I'm alive, I'm sober, and I'm a member of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Then I try to live an "attitude of gratitude"
and thoroughly enjoy another twenty-four hours of the
A.A. way of life. A.A. is not something I joined; it's
something I live.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
When we came to our first A.A. meeting, we looked up at
the wall at the end of the room and saw the sign: " But
for the Grace of God." We knew right then and there that
we would have to call on the grace of God in order to get
sober and get over our soul-sickness. We heard speakers
tell how they had come to depend on a Power greater than
themselves. That made sense to us and we made up our minds
to try it. Am I depending on the grace of God to help keep me
sober?
Meditation For The Day
Share your love, your joy, your happiness, your time, your
food, your money gladly with all. Give out all the love you
can with a glad, free heart and hand. Do all you can for
others and back will come countless stores of blessings.
Sharing draws others to you. Take all who come as sent by
God and give them a royal welcome. You may never see the
results of your sharing. Today they may not need you, but
tomorrow may bring results from the sharing you did today.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may make each visitor desire to return. I pray
that I may never make anyone feel repulsed or unwanted.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Seeking Guidance, p. 55
"Man is supposed to think, and act. He wasn't made in God's image
to be an automation.
"My own formula along this line runs as follows: First, think through
every situation pro and con, praying meanwhile that I be not
influenced by ego considerations. Affirm that I would like to do
God's will.
"Then, having turned the problem over in this fashion and getting no
conclusive or compelling answer, I wait for further guidance, which
may come into mind directly or through other people or through
circumstances.
"If I feel I can't wait, and still get no definite indication, I repeat the
first measure several times, try to pick out the best course, and then
proceed to act. I know if I am wrong, the heavens won't fall. A
lesson will be learned, in any case."
Letter, 1950
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Selfishness____Self-improvement
We're told again and again that we have to be selfish about our own recovery, but this seems to be in conflict with the fact that selfishness is the root of our problem. How can selfishness be both good and bad?
The selfishness we need for recovery is a devotion to self-improvement, rather than the selfish indulgence that made us sick. One is a giving of ourselves, the other is frantic taking that leads to destruction. The person who seeks self-improvement is competing only against his or her former self. The sick brand of selfishness, on the other hand, is usually involved in unhealthy competition with others.
There is no easy way to test whether our selfishness is the right kind. If our conduct leads to long-term happiness and higher self-esteem, it is probably right. If it harms us or others, something is wrong. We can correct this by getting back to the basics of the program and pursing self-improvement rather than self-indulgence.
Just for today, I will take part in that which will obviously benefit everyone.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
Failure is impossible. ---Susan B. Anthony
Failure is an attitude. Having an attitude of failure can't help us. It can only hurt us. If we're not careful, it can grow into a way of life. So, when we feel like failures, we better look at our attitudes.
An attitude of failure often comes from making mistakes. But we can learn to see our mistakes as lessons. This turns mistakes into gains, not failures. Sometimes, we try to do things that just can't be done.
When we act like we know everything, we're going to fail. if we try to act like God, we're going to fail.
We can't control others. We can't know everything. We're not God. We're human. If we act human, we've already won.
Prayer for the Day: Higher power, help me to learn from my attitudes. Whatever the outcome, help me learn.
Action for the Day: Facing our past "failures" is the first step to learning from them. I'll talk to my sponsor about a past "failure" and the good that came from it.
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. --Virginia Woolf
Anguish is undoubtedly more familiar to us than is the beauty of laughter. We feel anguish over our failings; we feel anguish over our losses; we feel anguish over the attempts to succeed that beckon to us.
Anguish comes of fear. And we so hope to avoid it. However, it seasons us as women; it enriches us even while it momentarily diminishes us. It is a major contributor to the sum and substance of our lives. The anguish we experience prepares us to help others experience their own particular anguish.
Our laughter, too, must be savored and shared. And laughter builds more laughter. Laughter lends a perspective on our anguish. Life is made richer, fuller, by the ebb and flow, the laughter and the anguish in concert.
If only we could remember, when the anguish is present, that it is making our Spirits whole. That it, along with laughter, is a healer of the soul. That it lifts our load at the same time that it burdens us. That it prepares us to better receive life's other gifts.
I can help another face anguish. It brings us together. It softens me. And it makes way for the laughter soon to come.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
Chapter 10 - To Employers
Your man may be trusted. Long experience with alcoholic excuses naturally arouses suspicion. When his wife next calls saying he is sick, you may jump to the conclusion he is drunk. If he is, and is still trying to recover, he will tell you about it even if it means the loss of his job. For he knows he must be honest if he would live at all. He will appreciated knowing you are not bothering your head about him, that you are not suspicious nor are you trying to run his life so he will be shielded from temptation to drink. If he is conscientiously following the program of recovery he can go anywhere your business may call him.
pp. 146-147
************************************************** ********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
A VISION OF RECOVERY - A feeble prayer forged a lasting connection with a Higher Power for this Mic-Mac Indian.
The next few years saw me living back in the old home with my father, as my girl had left me, taking my son. My drinking escalated even more, as did the guilt, remorse, and fear. I was hospitalized for dehydration, had a mild stroke, spent a week in a psychiatric ward, and suffered a number of alcoholic seizures. I lost the trust of my family and friends. They simply could not rely on me for anything. I would stop for a while, but I always drank again.
p. 49
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Ten - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."
Aren't these practices joy-killers as well as time-consumers? Must A.A.'s spend most of their waking hours drearily rehashing their sins of omission or commission? Well, hardly. The emphasis on inventory is heavy only because a great many of us have never really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal. Once this healthy practice has become grooved, it will be so interesting and profitable that the time it takes won't be missed. For these minutes and sometimes hours spent in self-examination are bound to make all the other hours of our day better and happier. And at length our inventories become a regular part of everyday living, rather than something unusual or set apart.
pp. 89-90
************************************************** *********
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
We do not want to be the arbiter of anyone's sex conduct. We all have sex problems. We'd hardly be human if we didn't. - Pg. 69 - How It Works
************************************************** *********
Warriors Anonymous Daily Practice
Big Book pg 84-85-
Ch 6- Into Action:
(Some of the 10th Step Promises)
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone-even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality-safe and protected. 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 our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
-Tom- After Doing Steps 1 through 8 and all the amends I could in my 9th Step, my Sponsor and I read this paragraph together. As we read, he kept stopping and asking me, “is this true in your Life, Yes or no?” To my surprise, my answer was and is , yes.
In the 2nd Step I owned my insanity: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”
After fully doing Steps 1-10, to the best of my ability, I received The Miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous in the 10th Step Promise: “For by this time sanity will have returned.”
This was a Gift given to me by focusing on doing the work of each step. However there is a hook at the end: “That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.”
My job is to do the Work and leave the outcome of the Work to my Higher Power.
Today I pray that I remember that I can’t stay sober today, off of yesterday’s work.
A THANKFUL HEART
I try 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.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37
My sponsor told me that I should be a grateful alcoholic
and always have "an attitude of gratitude"--that
gratitude was the basic ingredient of humility, that
humility was the basic ingredient of anonymity, and that
"anonymity was the spiritual foundation of all our
Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before
personalities." As a result of his guidance, I start
every morning on my knees, thanking God for three things:
I'm alive, I'm sober, and I'm a member of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Then I try to live an "attitude of gratitude"
and thoroughly enjoy another twenty-four hours of the
A.A. way of life. A.A. is not something I joined; it's
something I live.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
When we came to our first A.A. meeting, we looked up at
the wall at the end of the room and saw the sign: " But
for the Grace of God." We knew right then and there that
we would have to call on the grace of God in order to get
sober and get over our soul-sickness. We heard speakers
tell how they had come to depend on a Power greater than
themselves. That made sense to us and we made up our minds
to try it. Am I depending on the grace of God to help keep me
sober?
Meditation For The Day
Share your love, your joy, your happiness, your time, your
food, your money gladly with all. Give out all the love you
can with a glad, free heart and hand. Do all you can for
others and back will come countless stores of blessings.
Sharing draws others to you. Take all who come as sent by
God and give them a royal welcome. You may never see the
results of your sharing. Today they may not need you, but
tomorrow may bring results from the sharing you did today.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may make each visitor desire to return. I pray
that I may never make anyone feel repulsed or unwanted.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Seeking Guidance, p. 55
"Man is supposed to think, and act. He wasn't made in God's image
to be an automation.
"My own formula along this line runs as follows: First, think through
every situation pro and con, praying meanwhile that I be not
influenced by ego considerations. Affirm that I would like to do
God's will.
"Then, having turned the problem over in this fashion and getting no
conclusive or compelling answer, I wait for further guidance, which
may come into mind directly or through other people or through
circumstances.
"If I feel I can't wait, and still get no definite indication, I repeat the
first measure several times, try to pick out the best course, and then
proceed to act. I know if I am wrong, the heavens won't fall. A
lesson will be learned, in any case."
Letter, 1950
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Selfishness____Self-improvement
We're told again and again that we have to be selfish about our own recovery, but this seems to be in conflict with the fact that selfishness is the root of our problem. How can selfishness be both good and bad?
The selfishness we need for recovery is a devotion to self-improvement, rather than the selfish indulgence that made us sick. One is a giving of ourselves, the other is frantic taking that leads to destruction. The person who seeks self-improvement is competing only against his or her former self. The sick brand of selfishness, on the other hand, is usually involved in unhealthy competition with others.
There is no easy way to test whether our selfishness is the right kind. If our conduct leads to long-term happiness and higher self-esteem, it is probably right. If it harms us or others, something is wrong. We can correct this by getting back to the basics of the program and pursing self-improvement rather than self-indulgence.
Just for today, I will take part in that which will obviously benefit everyone.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
Failure is impossible. ---Susan B. Anthony
Failure is an attitude. Having an attitude of failure can't help us. It can only hurt us. If we're not careful, it can grow into a way of life. So, when we feel like failures, we better look at our attitudes.
An attitude of failure often comes from making mistakes. But we can learn to see our mistakes as lessons. This turns mistakes into gains, not failures. Sometimes, we try to do things that just can't be done.
When we act like we know everything, we're going to fail. if we try to act like God, we're going to fail.
We can't control others. We can't know everything. We're not God. We're human. If we act human, we've already won.
Prayer for the Day: Higher power, help me to learn from my attitudes. Whatever the outcome, help me learn.
Action for the Day: Facing our past "failures" is the first step to learning from them. I'll talk to my sponsor about a past "failure" and the good that came from it.
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. --Virginia Woolf
Anguish is undoubtedly more familiar to us than is the beauty of laughter. We feel anguish over our failings; we feel anguish over our losses; we feel anguish over the attempts to succeed that beckon to us.
Anguish comes of fear. And we so hope to avoid it. However, it seasons us as women; it enriches us even while it momentarily diminishes us. It is a major contributor to the sum and substance of our lives. The anguish we experience prepares us to help others experience their own particular anguish.
Our laughter, too, must be savored and shared. And laughter builds more laughter. Laughter lends a perspective on our anguish. Life is made richer, fuller, by the ebb and flow, the laughter and the anguish in concert.
If only we could remember, when the anguish is present, that it is making our Spirits whole. That it, along with laughter, is a healer of the soul. That it lifts our load at the same time that it burdens us. That it prepares us to better receive life's other gifts.
I can help another face anguish. It brings us together. It softens me. And it makes way for the laughter soon to come.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
Chapter 10 - To Employers
Your man may be trusted. Long experience with alcoholic excuses naturally arouses suspicion. When his wife next calls saying he is sick, you may jump to the conclusion he is drunk. If he is, and is still trying to recover, he will tell you about it even if it means the loss of his job. For he knows he must be honest if he would live at all. He will appreciated knowing you are not bothering your head about him, that you are not suspicious nor are you trying to run his life so he will be shielded from temptation to drink. If he is conscientiously following the program of recovery he can go anywhere your business may call him.
pp. 146-147
************************************************** ********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
A VISION OF RECOVERY - A feeble prayer forged a lasting connection with a Higher Power for this Mic-Mac Indian.
The next few years saw me living back in the old home with my father, as my girl had left me, taking my son. My drinking escalated even more, as did the guilt, remorse, and fear. I was hospitalized for dehydration, had a mild stroke, spent a week in a psychiatric ward, and suffered a number of alcoholic seizures. I lost the trust of my family and friends. They simply could not rely on me for anything. I would stop for a while, but I always drank again.
p. 49
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Ten - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."
Aren't these practices joy-killers as well as time-consumers? Must A.A.'s spend most of their waking hours drearily rehashing their sins of omission or commission? Well, hardly. The emphasis on inventory is heavy only because a great many of us have never really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal. Once this healthy practice has become grooved, it will be so interesting and profitable that the time it takes won't be missed. For these minutes and sometimes hours spent in self-examination are bound to make all the other hours of our day better and happier. And at length our inventories become a regular part of everyday living, rather than something unusual or set apart.
pp. 89-90
************************************************** *********
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
We do not want to be the arbiter of anyone's sex conduct. We all have sex problems. We'd hardly be human if we didn't. - Pg. 69 - How It Works
************************************************** *********
Warriors Anonymous Daily Practice
Big Book pg 84-85-
Ch 6- Into Action:
(Some of the 10th Step Promises)
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone-even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality-safe and protected. 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 our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
-Tom- After Doing Steps 1 through 8 and all the amends I could in my 9th Step, my Sponsor and I read this paragraph together. As we read, he kept stopping and asking me, “is this true in your Life, Yes or no?” To my surprise, my answer was and is , yes.
In the 2nd Step I owned my insanity: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”
After fully doing Steps 1-10, to the best of my ability, I received The Miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous in the 10th Step Promise: “For by this time sanity will have returned.”
This was a Gift given to me by focusing on doing the work of each step. However there is a hook at the end: “That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.”
My job is to do the Work and leave the outcome of the Work to my Higher Power.
Today I pray that I remember that I can’t stay sober today, off of yesterday’s work.
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