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04-26-2008, 07:16 PM
Daily Reflections
JOYFUL DISCOVERIES
We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose
more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what
you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers
will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you
cannot transmit something you haven't got. 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
Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery. Each day brings new
experience, awareness, greater hope, deeper faith, broader
tolerance. I must maintain these attributes or I will have
nothing to pass on.
Great events for this recovering alcoholic are the normal
everyday joys found in being able to live another day in
God's grace.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
By submitting to God, we're released from the power of liquor.
It has no more hold on us. We're also released from the things
that were holding us down: pride, selfishness, and fear. And
we're free to grow into a new life, which is so much better
than the old life that there's no comparison. This release
gives us serenity and peace with the world. Have I been
released from the power of alcohol?
Meditation For The Day
We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us.
We feel His presence. Contact with God is not made by the
senses. Spirit-consciousness replaces sight. Since we cannot
see God, we have to perceive Him by spiritual perception. God
has to span the physical and the spiritual with the gift to us
of spiritual vision. Many persons, though they cannot see God,
have had a clear spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside
a box of space and time, but we know there must be something
outside of that box, limitless space, eternity of time, and
God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I
pray that God will give me spiritual vision.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
"Let's Keep It Simple", p. 162
"We need to distinguish sharply between spiritual simplicity and functional
simplicity."
"When we say that A.A. advocates no theological proposition except God as we
understand Him, we greatly simplify A.A. life by avoiding conflict and exclusiveness.
"But when we get into questions of action by groups, by areas, and by A.A. as a whole,
we find that we must to some extent organize to carry the message--or else face
chaos. And chaos is not simplicity."
<< << << >> >> >>
I learned that the temporary or seeming good can often be the deadly enemy of the
permanent best. When it comes to survival for A.A., nothing short of our best will be
good enough.
1. Letter, 1966
2. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 294
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Happy People are likable.
Personal relations.
Who are the people we really like, and to be with? Most of the time, they are happy people, people who like themselves and others.
Being happy is almost the entire secret of being likable. Though no person can expect to be liked by everybody, likable people have the inside track most of the time.
How do we become happy and thus likable? We're continuously told that happiness cannot be found in property, power, and prestige. It is rooted instead in self-acceptance. In feeling loved and wanted, and in giving genuine service, maybe just in the form of very useful work.
Twelve Step programs are structured to make us happy if we persevere long enough in working the individual steps. While it may seem contradictory, even people with heavy burdens and personal sorrows can find underlying happiness in the program. A great deal of this also hinges on our belief in a Higher Power and a confidence that we have a place in the universal system.
I can be happy today in spite of things that others would consider burdensome and depressing. Happiness really comes from God, and it also serves to attract friends into my life.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
I noticed my hopelessness was because I had lost my freedom of choice.---AA member
By doing a Fourth Step, we start to see ourselves more clearly. We see how we've acted against ourselves. Soon, we hear a little voice inside telling us to stop before we act. "Are you sure you want to say or do that?" the little voice asks. Then we make a choice: we do something the same old way, or we try a new way. One part of us will always want to do things the old, sick way. This is natural. But we're getting stronger every day. Our spirit wants to learn new ways so we can be honest and loving. Sometimes we don't know how. But we still have a choice. We can ask for help.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me listen to the little voice inside that helps me see that I have choices.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a choice between old ways and new ways of acting. I will call my sponsor this evening to talk about my choices.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
A LATE START - "It's been ten years since I retired, seven years since I joined A.A. Now I can truly say that I am a grateful alcoholic.
What happened to me somewhere between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-three? I've no idea! Was life too much? Did some latent gene suddenly take on a fierce life of its own? I don't know. What I do know is that at sixty-five I was a crawling, dirty maggot of a woman, willing to tarnish all I'd worked for and to desecrate every dear relationship I had. I know too that through a wonderful set of God-guided circumstances and people, I was led to the only possible course of behavior that will keep me sane, sober, constructive, and happy.
pp. 535 - 536
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Nine - "Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."
This atmosphere of approval and praise is apt to be so exhilarating as to put us off balance by creating an insatiable appetite for more of the same. Or we may be tipped over in the other direction when, in rare cases, we get a cool and skeptical reception. This will tempt us to argue, or to press our point insistently. Or maybe it will tempt us to discouragement and pessimism. But if we have prepared ourselves well in advance, such reactions will not deflect us from our steady and even purpose.
p. 85
************************************************** *********
Never give up ten minutes before the miracle.
--Anonymous
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone
who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep
your mind young.
--Henry Ford
God is a never ending source of all we need.
--SweetyZee
Just as we experience joy in caring for others, they experience joy in caring for us.
--Linda Nocks Shah
"Invest the first hour of the day, the 'Golden Hour,' in yourself."
--Brian Tracy
"Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs."
--Theodore Roosevelt
"The easiest way to save face is to keep the lower half shut."
--Anon
"A good laugh is sunshine in a house."
--William Makepeace Thackeray
"If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got."
--Anon
"Action conquers fear."
--Peter N. Zarlenga
"The best way out of a difficulty is through it"
--Anon
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
RELIGION
"All religions must be tolerated .
. . for . . . every man must get to
heaven his own way."
--Frederick the Great
There are many ways to God and I believe that Christianity is one way.
However, I am convinced that there are other ways with or without
religion. My experience of the church has been good, and I have been
encouraged to question and doubt, search for new areas of faith within
my agnosticism, explore other religions. My experience of Christianity
has been supportive of openness and compassion.
God is not a prisoner of any religion and we can all learn from each
other's experiences - but we need to listen. To dismiss arrogantly the
value that a religion can bring is, to my way of thinking, as negative and
sick as to accept what a religion says without question.
Let me find in the religions of the world the ONENESS of Your truth.
************************************************** *********
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn; shining brighter
till the full light of day.
Proverbs 4 :18
We love Him, because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Rely on the strength and understanding that you possess. Each of us has more of it in us that we can imagine possible. Lord, through faith in You I can face any difficulty and conquer it.
Have the courage to forgive. Lord, may I bring myself to a place of peace by never holding a grudge.
JOYFUL DISCOVERIES
We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose
more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what
you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers
will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you
cannot transmit something you haven't got. 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
Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery. Each day brings new
experience, awareness, greater hope, deeper faith, broader
tolerance. I must maintain these attributes or I will have
nothing to pass on.
Great events for this recovering alcoholic are the normal
everyday joys found in being able to live another day in
God's grace.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
By submitting to God, we're released from the power of liquor.
It has no more hold on us. We're also released from the things
that were holding us down: pride, selfishness, and fear. And
we're free to grow into a new life, which is so much better
than the old life that there's no comparison. This release
gives us serenity and peace with the world. Have I been
released from the power of alcohol?
Meditation For The Day
We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us.
We feel His presence. Contact with God is not made by the
senses. Spirit-consciousness replaces sight. Since we cannot
see God, we have to perceive Him by spiritual perception. God
has to span the physical and the spiritual with the gift to us
of spiritual vision. Many persons, though they cannot see God,
have had a clear spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside
a box of space and time, but we know there must be something
outside of that box, limitless space, eternity of time, and
God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I
pray that God will give me spiritual vision.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
"Let's Keep It Simple", p. 162
"We need to distinguish sharply between spiritual simplicity and functional
simplicity."
"When we say that A.A. advocates no theological proposition except God as we
understand Him, we greatly simplify A.A. life by avoiding conflict and exclusiveness.
"But when we get into questions of action by groups, by areas, and by A.A. as a whole,
we find that we must to some extent organize to carry the message--or else face
chaos. And chaos is not simplicity."
<< << << >> >> >>
I learned that the temporary or seeming good can often be the deadly enemy of the
permanent best. When it comes to survival for A.A., nothing short of our best will be
good enough.
1. Letter, 1966
2. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 294
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Happy People are likable.
Personal relations.
Who are the people we really like, and to be with? Most of the time, they are happy people, people who like themselves and others.
Being happy is almost the entire secret of being likable. Though no person can expect to be liked by everybody, likable people have the inside track most of the time.
How do we become happy and thus likable? We're continuously told that happiness cannot be found in property, power, and prestige. It is rooted instead in self-acceptance. In feeling loved and wanted, and in giving genuine service, maybe just in the form of very useful work.
Twelve Step programs are structured to make us happy if we persevere long enough in working the individual steps. While it may seem contradictory, even people with heavy burdens and personal sorrows can find underlying happiness in the program. A great deal of this also hinges on our belief in a Higher Power and a confidence that we have a place in the universal system.
I can be happy today in spite of things that others would consider burdensome and depressing. Happiness really comes from God, and it also serves to attract friends into my life.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
I noticed my hopelessness was because I had lost my freedom of choice.---AA member
By doing a Fourth Step, we start to see ourselves more clearly. We see how we've acted against ourselves. Soon, we hear a little voice inside telling us to stop before we act. "Are you sure you want to say or do that?" the little voice asks. Then we make a choice: we do something the same old way, or we try a new way. One part of us will always want to do things the old, sick way. This is natural. But we're getting stronger every day. Our spirit wants to learn new ways so we can be honest and loving. Sometimes we don't know how. But we still have a choice. We can ask for help.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me listen to the little voice inside that helps me see that I have choices.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a choice between old ways and new ways of acting. I will call my sponsor this evening to talk about my choices.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
A LATE START - "It's been ten years since I retired, seven years since I joined A.A. Now I can truly say that I am a grateful alcoholic.
What happened to me somewhere between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-three? I've no idea! Was life too much? Did some latent gene suddenly take on a fierce life of its own? I don't know. What I do know is that at sixty-five I was a crawling, dirty maggot of a woman, willing to tarnish all I'd worked for and to desecrate every dear relationship I had. I know too that through a wonderful set of God-guided circumstances and people, I was led to the only possible course of behavior that will keep me sane, sober, constructive, and happy.
pp. 535 - 536
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Nine - "Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."
This atmosphere of approval and praise is apt to be so exhilarating as to put us off balance by creating an insatiable appetite for more of the same. Or we may be tipped over in the other direction when, in rare cases, we get a cool and skeptical reception. This will tempt us to argue, or to press our point insistently. Or maybe it will tempt us to discouragement and pessimism. But if we have prepared ourselves well in advance, such reactions will not deflect us from our steady and even purpose.
p. 85
************************************************** *********
Never give up ten minutes before the miracle.
--Anonymous
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone
who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep
your mind young.
--Henry Ford
God is a never ending source of all we need.
--SweetyZee
Just as we experience joy in caring for others, they experience joy in caring for us.
--Linda Nocks Shah
"Invest the first hour of the day, the 'Golden Hour,' in yourself."
--Brian Tracy
"Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs."
--Theodore Roosevelt
"The easiest way to save face is to keep the lower half shut."
--Anon
"A good laugh is sunshine in a house."
--William Makepeace Thackeray
"If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got."
--Anon
"Action conquers fear."
--Peter N. Zarlenga
"The best way out of a difficulty is through it"
--Anon
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
RELIGION
"All religions must be tolerated .
. . for . . . every man must get to
heaven his own way."
--Frederick the Great
There are many ways to God and I believe that Christianity is one way.
However, I am convinced that there are other ways with or without
religion. My experience of the church has been good, and I have been
encouraged to question and doubt, search for new areas of faith within
my agnosticism, explore other religions. My experience of Christianity
has been supportive of openness and compassion.
God is not a prisoner of any religion and we can all learn from each
other's experiences - but we need to listen. To dismiss arrogantly the
value that a religion can bring is, to my way of thinking, as negative and
sick as to accept what a religion says without question.
Let me find in the religions of the world the ONENESS of Your truth.
************************************************** *********
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn; shining brighter
till the full light of day.
Proverbs 4 :18
We love Him, because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Rely on the strength and understanding that you possess. Each of us has more of it in us that we can imagine possible. Lord, through faith in You I can face any difficulty and conquer it.
Have the courage to forgive. Lord, may I bring myself to a place of peace by never holding a grudge.