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12-31-2007, 03:53 PM
Daily Reflections
"I AM A MIRACLE"
The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our
Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed
miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us
which we could never do by ourselves.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 25
This truly is a fact in my life today, and a real miracle. I always
believed in God, but could never put that belief meaningfully into my
life. Today, because of Alcoholics Anonymous, I now trust and rely on
God, as I understand Him; I am sober today because of that! Learning
to trust and rely on God was something I could never have done alone.
I now believe in miracles because I am one!
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
When I came into A.A., was I a desperate person? Did I have a
soul-sickness? Was I so sick of myself and my way of living that I
couldn't stand looking at myself in a mirror? Was I ready for A.A.?
Was I ready to try anything that would help me to get sober and to get
over my soul-sickness? Should I ever forget the condition I was in?
Meditation For The Day
In the new year, I will live one day at a time. I will make each day one
of preparation for better things ahead. I will not dwell on the past or
the future, only on the present. I will bury every fear of the future, all
thoughts of unkindness and bitterness, all my dislikes, my resentments,
my sense of failure, my disappointments in others and in myself, my
gloom and my despondency. I will leave all these things buried and go
forward, in this new year, into a new life.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that God will guide me one day at a time in the new year. I pray
that for each day, God will supply the wisdom and the strength that I
need.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Spiritually Fit, p.280
Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things
alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go
where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must
shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show
drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their
bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded
about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily
so.
We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet
them still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with
his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place
like the Greenland icecap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up
with a bottle of Scotch and ruin everything!
Alcoholics Anonymous, p.100-101
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
A year to grow.
Growth.
This new year can be a time of growth in sobriety. While we have no crystal ball that tells us what luck and fortune the year will bring, we do have a program that gives us the power to make the best of this year, to grow in sobriety. We can make progress in overcoming resentment and selfishness, we can help others in their search for happy sobriety, and we can make better use of our talents and opportunities.
We can live sober, and we also can find happiness and true self-esteem in sobriety. In our drinking, a desperate search for happiness and self-esteem compelled us to drink, but we could never find our happy destiny in the bottle. No matter what came to us, things had a way of turning sour as we continued to drink and to take other harmful substances.
In our new life, we have good reason to feel confident and optimistic. We have friends who understand us; we have sponsors who will share with us their own experience and hope. We have a Higher Power who is, as the poet Tennyson said, "closer to us than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." We face nothing alone, and in the new year all experiences can help us grow.
I face this day with confidence, courage, and optimism. I will know that my Higher Power is present in every person and situation.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol...--First part of Step One.
In Step One, we accept our powerlessness over alcohol and other drugs. But we are powerless over many parts of life. We are powerless over other people. We are powerless over what our HP has planned for us. Before recovery, we only believed in control. We tried to control everything. We fought against a basic truth, the truth that we are powerless over much of life. When we accept this truth, we begin to see what power we do have. We have the power to make choices. When we're lonely, we have the power to reach out to others. We have power over how we live our own lives.
PRAYER: HP, help me to know that it's You who is running my life. Help me to know that power comes from accepting I am powerless.
ACTION: I am powerless over much of life. Today, I'll look to see how this is true. I'll look to see what I really have control over and what I don't.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
ON THE MOVE - Working the A.A. program showed this alcoholic how to get from geographics to gratitude.
In the past several years I have gone back to school and begun a new career. As I roll around in my wheelchair, I am amazed when I realized that I honestly cannot imagine life to be anything different than what it has been--and that is just fine with me. The tools of sobriety and recovery in A.A. are there for me to use in all aspects of my life, and all I ever need is the willingness to do what is in front of me. I am grateful that a drunk like me was fortunate enough to live until I arrived in Alcoholics Anonymous.
p. 493
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Three - "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
We realize that the word "dependence" is as distasteful to many psychiatrists and psychologists as it is to alcoholics. Like our professional friends, we, too, are aware that there are wrong forms of dependence. We have experienced many of them. No adult man or woman, for example, should be in too much emotional dependence upon a parent. They should have been weaned long before, and if they have not been, they should wake up to the fact. This very form of faulty dependence has caused many a rebellious alcoholic to conclude that dependence of any sort must be intolerably damaging. But dependence upon an A.A. group or upon a Higher Power hasn't produced any baleful results.
p. 38
************************************************** *********
A WORD
A CARELESS WORD MAY KINDLE STRIFE....
A CRUEL WORD MAY WRECK A LIFE........
A TIMELY WORD MAY LEVEL STRESS.......
BUT A LOVING WORD MAY HEAL AND BLESS.
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
--Helen Keller
In the process of growing to spiritual maturity, we all go through many adolescent
stages.
--Miki L. Bowen
"Don't water your weeds."
--Harvey Mackay
"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary."
--Thomas Carruthers
Ah the dawn of a New Year! May we find inner peace, gentle spirit, God's grace,
forgiveness, dreams and prayers, Recovery.
--Shelley
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
SPIRITUALITY
"It is not that I think or believe
[in spirituality] but that I
know."
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Some things I seem to know intuitively: and I know that spirituality is involved in and
affects everything. In a human being it combines the physical, mental and emotional
but it also reaches beyond the human being and connects the peoples of the world.
Spirituality is the force for good and wholeness in this universe.
This is not just an opinion or a thought. It is a feeling that runs so deep in my being
that I know it must be true. When I read, hear music or see movies, this feeling is often
evoked, and I know God is alive in His world and wanting it to be ONE.
In the silence of Your world I know You.
************************************************** *********
The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
Psalm 145 : 9
"I will sing praises to my God my life long."
Psalm 146:2
"Protect me. O God, for in you I take refuge.... You show me the path of life."
Psalm 16:1,11
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Begin every day as if it were your very first because you really are always at the beginning. Lord, thank you for the constant ability to stop any offensive behaviors that I have and the gift of being forgiven and being able to forgive myself.
To be wise, you must first find peace, for peace opens the door to a freer and fuller life. Lord, continue to draw me close to You so that I can know more and more of Your peace within me.
"I AM A MIRACLE"
The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our
Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed
miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us
which we could never do by ourselves.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 25
This truly is a fact in my life today, and a real miracle. I always
believed in God, but could never put that belief meaningfully into my
life. Today, because of Alcoholics Anonymous, I now trust and rely on
God, as I understand Him; I am sober today because of that! Learning
to trust and rely on God was something I could never have done alone.
I now believe in miracles because I am one!
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
When I came into A.A., was I a desperate person? Did I have a
soul-sickness? Was I so sick of myself and my way of living that I
couldn't stand looking at myself in a mirror? Was I ready for A.A.?
Was I ready to try anything that would help me to get sober and to get
over my soul-sickness? Should I ever forget the condition I was in?
Meditation For The Day
In the new year, I will live one day at a time. I will make each day one
of preparation for better things ahead. I will not dwell on the past or
the future, only on the present. I will bury every fear of the future, all
thoughts of unkindness and bitterness, all my dislikes, my resentments,
my sense of failure, my disappointments in others and in myself, my
gloom and my despondency. I will leave all these things buried and go
forward, in this new year, into a new life.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that God will guide me one day at a time in the new year. I pray
that for each day, God will supply the wisdom and the strength that I
need.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Spiritually Fit, p.280
Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things
alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go
where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must
shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show
drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their
bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded
about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily
so.
We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet
them still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with
his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place
like the Greenland icecap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up
with a bottle of Scotch and ruin everything!
Alcoholics Anonymous, p.100-101
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
A year to grow.
Growth.
This new year can be a time of growth in sobriety. While we have no crystal ball that tells us what luck and fortune the year will bring, we do have a program that gives us the power to make the best of this year, to grow in sobriety. We can make progress in overcoming resentment and selfishness, we can help others in their search for happy sobriety, and we can make better use of our talents and opportunities.
We can live sober, and we also can find happiness and true self-esteem in sobriety. In our drinking, a desperate search for happiness and self-esteem compelled us to drink, but we could never find our happy destiny in the bottle. No matter what came to us, things had a way of turning sour as we continued to drink and to take other harmful substances.
In our new life, we have good reason to feel confident and optimistic. We have friends who understand us; we have sponsors who will share with us their own experience and hope. We have a Higher Power who is, as the poet Tennyson said, "closer to us than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." We face nothing alone, and in the new year all experiences can help us grow.
I face this day with confidence, courage, and optimism. I will know that my Higher Power is present in every person and situation.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol...--First part of Step One.
In Step One, we accept our powerlessness over alcohol and other drugs. But we are powerless over many parts of life. We are powerless over other people. We are powerless over what our HP has planned for us. Before recovery, we only believed in control. We tried to control everything. We fought against a basic truth, the truth that we are powerless over much of life. When we accept this truth, we begin to see what power we do have. We have the power to make choices. When we're lonely, we have the power to reach out to others. We have power over how we live our own lives.
PRAYER: HP, help me to know that it's You who is running my life. Help me to know that power comes from accepting I am powerless.
ACTION: I am powerless over much of life. Today, I'll look to see how this is true. I'll look to see what I really have control over and what I don't.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
ON THE MOVE - Working the A.A. program showed this alcoholic how to get from geographics to gratitude.
In the past several years I have gone back to school and begun a new career. As I roll around in my wheelchair, I am amazed when I realized that I honestly cannot imagine life to be anything different than what it has been--and that is just fine with me. The tools of sobriety and recovery in A.A. are there for me to use in all aspects of my life, and all I ever need is the willingness to do what is in front of me. I am grateful that a drunk like me was fortunate enough to live until I arrived in Alcoholics Anonymous.
p. 493
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Three - "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
We realize that the word "dependence" is as distasteful to many psychiatrists and psychologists as it is to alcoholics. Like our professional friends, we, too, are aware that there are wrong forms of dependence. We have experienced many of them. No adult man or woman, for example, should be in too much emotional dependence upon a parent. They should have been weaned long before, and if they have not been, they should wake up to the fact. This very form of faulty dependence has caused many a rebellious alcoholic to conclude that dependence of any sort must be intolerably damaging. But dependence upon an A.A. group or upon a Higher Power hasn't produced any baleful results.
p. 38
************************************************** *********
A WORD
A CARELESS WORD MAY KINDLE STRIFE....
A CRUEL WORD MAY WRECK A LIFE........
A TIMELY WORD MAY LEVEL STRESS.......
BUT A LOVING WORD MAY HEAL AND BLESS.
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
--Helen Keller
In the process of growing to spiritual maturity, we all go through many adolescent
stages.
--Miki L. Bowen
"Don't water your weeds."
--Harvey Mackay
"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary."
--Thomas Carruthers
Ah the dawn of a New Year! May we find inner peace, gentle spirit, God's grace,
forgiveness, dreams and prayers, Recovery.
--Shelley
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
SPIRITUALITY
"It is not that I think or believe
[in spirituality] but that I
know."
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Some things I seem to know intuitively: and I know that spirituality is involved in and
affects everything. In a human being it combines the physical, mental and emotional
but it also reaches beyond the human being and connects the peoples of the world.
Spirituality is the force for good and wholeness in this universe.
This is not just an opinion or a thought. It is a feeling that runs so deep in my being
that I know it must be true. When I read, hear music or see movies, this feeling is often
evoked, and I know God is alive in His world and wanting it to be ONE.
In the silence of Your world I know You.
************************************************** *********
The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
Psalm 145 : 9
"I will sing praises to my God my life long."
Psalm 146:2
"Protect me. O God, for in you I take refuge.... You show me the path of life."
Psalm 16:1,11
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Begin every day as if it were your very first because you really are always at the beginning. Lord, thank you for the constant ability to stop any offensive behaviors that I have and the gift of being forgiven and being able to forgive myself.
To be wise, you must first find peace, for peace opens the door to a freer and fuller life. Lord, continue to draw me close to You so that I can know more and more of Your peace within me.