Daily Recovery Readings - September

[bluidkiti]

September 20

Daily Reflections

H.P. AS GUIDE

See to it that your relationship with Him is right,
and great events will come to pass for you and
countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 164

Having a right relationship with God seemed to be
an impossible order. My chaotic past had left me
filled with guilt and remorse and I wondered how
this "God business" could work. A.A. told me that
I must turn my will and my life life over to the
care of God, as I understand Him. With nowhere else
to turn, I went down on my knees and cried, "God, I
can't do this. Please help me!" It was when I
admitted my powerlessness that a glimmer of light
began to touch my soul, and then a willingness
emerged to let God control my life. With Him as my
guide, great events began to happen, and I found the
beginning of sobriety.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Step Four is, "Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves." Step Five is, " Admitted to
God to ourselves and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs." Step Six is, "Were entirely
ready to have God remove all these defects of
character." Step Seven is, "Humbly asked Him to remove
our shortcomings." Step Ten is, "Continued to take
personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly
admitted it." In taking a personal inventory, we have
to be absolutely honest with ourselves and with
other people. Have I taken an honest inventory of myself?

Meditation For The Day

God is good. You can often tell whether or not a thing
is of God. If it is of God, it must be good. Honesty,
purity, unselfishness, and love are all good, unselfish
helpfulness is good, and these things all lead to the
abundant life. Leave in God's hands the present
and the future, knowing only that He is good. The hand
that veils the future is the hand of God. He can bring
order out of chaos, good out of evil, and peace out of
turmoil. We can believe that everything really good comes
from God and that He shares His goodness with us.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may reach out for the good.
I pray that I may try to choose the best in life.

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As Bill Sees It

Individual Responsibilities, p.262

Let us emphasize that our reluctance to fight one another, or
anybody else, is not counted as some special virtue which entitles us
A.A.'s to feel superior to other people. Nor does this reluctance
mean that the members of A.A. are going to back away from their
individual responsibilities as citizens. Here they should feel free to
act as they see the right upon the public issues of our times.

But when it comes to A.A. as a whole, that's quite a different matter.
As a group we do not enter into public controversy, because we are
sure that our Society will perish if we do.

12 & 12, p.177

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Walk In Dry Places

All we need to know.
Maintaining
Seen from today's perspective, the early AA members had rather
narrow attitudes toward the study of alcoholism. They became restless
and fidgety if member started discussing psychological aspects of the
problem or gave other indications that they were trying to learn more
about the disease.
While we don't need to hold such narrow attitudes today, we should at
least concede that we don't need complex information to stay sober.
All we have to know is that we have a very compulsive problem that
can be arrested by eliminating the first drink.
Even today, nobody fully knows why the first drink is so deadly for
people like us. Our experience and the experience of others tells us
that it is. That knowledge alone can be an important building block in
finding and maintaining sobriety.
While being open-minded to new information, I'll remember today
that a fairly simple idea.... that I'm an alcoholic and can't live with alcohol....
Is the main thing I need to know.

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Keep It Simple

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
---Mark Twain
Sometimes it does no good to try to “deal” with your feelings. For the
moment, we’re stuck. We can only see things one way. No matter
what anyone says, we’re closed up. For the moment. But this puts our
sobriety at risk.
How do we stop self-pity? Focus on someone else. When we really want
to help someone else be happy, we'll ask our Higher Power’s help.
Then things start to change, because our good deeds come back to us.
Remember, service will always keep us sober.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, sometimes I get stuck in my old ways.
Help me change my focus at those times. Help me stay sober.
Action for the Day: I will think of a time when I was stuck in bad feelings.
How did I get out of that spot.

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Each Day a New Beginning

What difference does it make how I am treated by life? My real life is
within. --Angela L. Wozniak
It is said that we teach people how to treat us. How we treat others invites
similar treatment. Our response to the external conditions of our lives can
be greatly altered by our perceptions of those conditions. And we have
control of that perception. No experience has to demoralize us. Each
situation can be appreciated for its long-term contribution to our growth
as happy, secure women.
No outside circumstances will offer us full time and forever the security
we all long for. And in like manner, none will adversely interfere with our
well being, except briefly and on occasion.
The program offers us the awareness that our security, happiness, and
well being reside within. The uplifting moments of our lives may enhance
our security, but they can't guarantee that it will last. Only the relationship
we have with ourselves and God within can promise the gift of security.
The ripples in my day are reminders to me to go within.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

PREFACE

Because this book has become the basic text for our Society and had helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left untouched in the course of revisions made for the second, third, and fourth editions. The section called "The Doctor's Opinion" has been kept intact, just as it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our Society's great medical benefactor.

p. xi

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories

Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three

Pioneer member of Akron's Group No. 1, the first A.A. group in the world. He kept the faith; therefore, he and countless others found a new life.

They came in and began to give me instruction in the program which later became known as Alcoholics Anonymous. There was not much of it at the time.
I looked up and there were two great big fellows over six foot tall, very likable looking. (I knew afterwards that the two who came in were Bill W. and Doctor Bob.) Before very long we began to relate some incidents of our drinking, and, naturally, pretty soon, I realized both of them knew what they were talking about because you can see things and smell things when you're drunk, that you can't other times, and, if I had thought they didn't know what they were talking about, I wouldn't have been willing to talk to them at all.

p. 185

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Ten - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."

In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved, a willingness to admit when the fault is ours, and an equal willingness to forgive when the fault is elsewhere. We need not be discouraged when we fall into the error of our old ways, for these disciplines are not easy. We shall look for progress, not for perfection.

p. 91

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Those who created yesterday's pain do not control tomorrow's
potential.
--unknown

The devil brings devastation; God offers restoration.
--unknown

"I do service in Alcoholics Anonymous because it reminds me of where
I came from . . . it keeps me green. And green things grow!"
--unknown

Most people's confusion comes in the area of their desires, not their
needs. Giving can be one of the greatest ways to receiving. If you
want more love, give love. If you want more joy, be joyful. Look for
the good in all things and situations, and you may be surprised at what
you see.
--John-Roger

All we need to do is allow more joy and love into our experience. We
need to really choose it, to allow ourselves to feel it, paying attention,
choosing to be alive and to be kind; allowing ourselves to feel and to
be nurtured by the natural order of the Spirit of God. When we choose
and allow it, the dramas fall away and dissolve.
--Patricia Sun

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it
takes to sit down and listen.
--Winston Churchill

"Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours."
--Swedish Proverb

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SHARING

"The mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation."
-- Henry David Thoreau

I thought that I was the only one who felt like I did. Nobody could
possibly understand. I was different from everybody and needed
to keep my life -- my true life -- a secret. I was living a life of
quiet desperation! Then I went to a meeting for recovering
alcoholics and heard somebody share my pain, my loneliness, my
confusion, my addiction -- my life.

I was lonely because I kept myself separate from people. I saw
them as being different from myself, and so I remained the lonely
and isolated victim. Strange how similar we are when we begin to
share. When we get beneath culture, class and creed, we discover
sensitive human beings trying to make sense of their lives. We need
each other.

May I risk rejection in my spiritual need to share and be known.

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The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor
and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will
pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken. Better the little
that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power
of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their
inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster they will not
wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. But the wicked will
perish: The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they
will vanish--vanish like smoke.
Psalm 37:14-20

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as
the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be
afraid."
John 14:27

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Daily Inspiration

You make a difference every time you smile, speak kindly or give of yourself.
Lord, You ask for nothing but goodness of me. What peace it brings to my soul.

Listen carefully to the things you say. The advice we give to others is often the
best advice for us to follow. Lord, help me to follow that which I know is right
even when it is difficult.