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10-06-2008, 05:42 PM
Daily Reflections
DAILY MONITORING
Continued to take personal inventory. . . . .
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 88
The spiritual axiom referred to in the Tenth Step--
"every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause,
there is something wrong with us"--also tells me that
there are no exceptions to it. No matter how unreasonable
others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting
negatively. Regardless of what is happening around me I
will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility,
of choosing what happens within me. I am the creator of
my own reality. When I take my daily inventory, I know
that I must stop judging others. If I judge others, I
am probably judging myself. Whoever is upsetting me most
is my best teacher. I have much to learn from him or her,
and in my heart, I should thank that person.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Do I put too much reliance on any one member of the group?
That is, do I make a tin god out of some one person? Do I
set that person on a pedestal? If I do, I am building my
house on sand. A.A. members have "clay feet." They are all
only one drink away from a drunk, no matter how long they
have been in A.A. This has been proved to be true more than
once. It's not fair to any member to be singled out as a
leader in A A. and to always quote that member on the A.A.
program. If that person should fail, where would I be?
Meditation For The Day
You must always remember that you are weak but that God is
strong. God knows all about your weakness. He hears every
cry for mercy, every sign of weakness, every plea for help,
every sorrow over failure, every weakness felt and expressed.
We only fail when we trust too much to our own strength. Do
not feel bad about your weakness. When you are weak, that is
when God is strong to help you. Trust God enough, and your
weakness will not matter. God is always strong to save.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may learn to lean on God's strength.
I pray that I may know that my weakness is God's opportunity.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
The Great Fact, p. 331
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.
To the Newcomer:
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to
Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give
freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the
fellowship of the spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you
trudge the road of happy destiny.
May God bless you and keep you--until then.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Taming the instincts.
Orderly direction
Though alcoholics can appear to have serious shortcomings, these problems are really only misguided attempts to satisfy needs that must be met. In the 12 Step program, we do not deny our human needs. We realize, however, that these needs must be met in moral, constructive ways. Falso methods of meeting needs will bring false, harmful results.
We can meet our needs in an orderly manner by turning to our Higher Power and following the slow and impractical, but over the longer term we will come to see that it is the right way to live. Our instinctive needs are proper and God-given, but they must not run wild in our lives. Living sober also means taming our instincts.
I'll not be surprised by the various needs I may feel today. I am committed, however, to a moral and principled response to these needs.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
We never thought we could get old.---Bob Dylan
Here we are no longer children. Yet we’re not quite grown up either. At least, we don’t always feels grown up. Our program helps us accept the stages of our life. And the child in our heart is getting happier. In some ways, we feel younger everyday.
We’re also starting to feel older and wiser. It feels good. We’re not so afraid of the world, because we’re learning better ways to live in it. We can learn by having friends who teach us to stay young at heart.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be the best I can be, at the age I am today.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll call an older friend and ask him or her this question: “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life since you were my age?”
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
The Doctor's Opinion
If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement. We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.
p. xxviii
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Seven - "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."
In this connection, Bill likes to tell the following pointed story. He explains that when Jack Alexander's Saturday Evening Post piece broke in 1941, thousands of frantic letters from distraught alcoholics and their families hit the Foundation* letterbox in New York. "Our office staff," Bill says, "consisted of two people: one devoted secretary and myself. How could this landslide of appeals be met? We'd have to have some more full-time help, that was sure. So we asked the A.A. groups for voluntary contributions. Would they send us a dollar a member a year? Otherwise this heartbreaking mail would have to go unanswered.
p. 162
************************************************** *********
With God everyday,
I make my way.
I hold on to God’s hand
As I journey through this land.
--Tammy
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within
us.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Do not let a desire for wealth cause you to become so consumed by your
work that you prevent happiness for yourself and your family. Happiness is foremost. A
look filled with understanding, and accepting smile, a loving word, a meal shared in
warmth and awareness are the things which create happiness in the present moment. By
nourishing awareness in the present moment, you can avoid causing suffering to yourself
and those around you.
--Thich Nhat Hanh
"No matter how much you talk to your plant, if you don't water it, it's going to die."
--Mike Perry
Thoughts and beliefs are nothing without action"
--James A. Ray
***********************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
POWER
"The first and great
commandment is 'Don't let them
scare you.'"
-- Elmer Davis
In my sobriety I still need to deal with fear. A fear of people, a fear of not being good
enough, a fear of saying the wrong thing, a fear of not looking "good enough" --- fear still
haunts me in sobriety.
However, my recovery also tells me that I am a child of God. I am a beautiful and
powerful human being because God not only made me, but has shared something of His
precious divinity with me. I am good enough. In Him I can afford to risk. Love must begin
with the recognition of self.
Today I must remember that people are not "out to get me". I need not make myself the
victim. People are much the same inside, and we all need each other to survive.
Thank You for the power to live with my fear.
************************************************** *********
Let them give thanks for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for
men, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Psalm 107:8-9
"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you."
Psalm 55:22
We love Him, because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Be grateful for the simple things that you can do such as being able to see, to walk, to have health and to be able to face life with peace of mind. Lord, on a daily basis I will count my many unnamed blessings.
Smile. If you know that God is with you and will never fail you, then you always have every reason to smile. Lord, my heart seeks You and clings to You and I rejoice.
DAILY MONITORING
Continued to take personal inventory. . . . .
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 88
The spiritual axiom referred to in the Tenth Step--
"every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause,
there is something wrong with us"--also tells me that
there are no exceptions to it. No matter how unreasonable
others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting
negatively. Regardless of what is happening around me I
will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility,
of choosing what happens within me. I am the creator of
my own reality. When I take my daily inventory, I know
that I must stop judging others. If I judge others, I
am probably judging myself. Whoever is upsetting me most
is my best teacher. I have much to learn from him or her,
and in my heart, I should thank that person.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Do I put too much reliance on any one member of the group?
That is, do I make a tin god out of some one person? Do I
set that person on a pedestal? If I do, I am building my
house on sand. A.A. members have "clay feet." They are all
only one drink away from a drunk, no matter how long they
have been in A.A. This has been proved to be true more than
once. It's not fair to any member to be singled out as a
leader in A A. and to always quote that member on the A.A.
program. If that person should fail, where would I be?
Meditation For The Day
You must always remember that you are weak but that God is
strong. God knows all about your weakness. He hears every
cry for mercy, every sign of weakness, every plea for help,
every sorrow over failure, every weakness felt and expressed.
We only fail when we trust too much to our own strength. Do
not feel bad about your weakness. When you are weak, that is
when God is strong to help you. Trust God enough, and your
weakness will not matter. God is always strong to save.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may learn to lean on God's strength.
I pray that I may know that my weakness is God's opportunity.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
The Great Fact, p. 331
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.
To the Newcomer:
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to
Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give
freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the
fellowship of the spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you
trudge the road of happy destiny.
May God bless you and keep you--until then.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Taming the instincts.
Orderly direction
Though alcoholics can appear to have serious shortcomings, these problems are really only misguided attempts to satisfy needs that must be met. In the 12 Step program, we do not deny our human needs. We realize, however, that these needs must be met in moral, constructive ways. Falso methods of meeting needs will bring false, harmful results.
We can meet our needs in an orderly manner by turning to our Higher Power and following the slow and impractical, but over the longer term we will come to see that it is the right way to live. Our instinctive needs are proper and God-given, but they must not run wild in our lives. Living sober also means taming our instincts.
I'll not be surprised by the various needs I may feel today. I am committed, however, to a moral and principled response to these needs.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
We never thought we could get old.---Bob Dylan
Here we are no longer children. Yet we’re not quite grown up either. At least, we don’t always feels grown up. Our program helps us accept the stages of our life. And the child in our heart is getting happier. In some ways, we feel younger everyday.
We’re also starting to feel older and wiser. It feels good. We’re not so afraid of the world, because we’re learning better ways to live in it. We can learn by having friends who teach us to stay young at heart.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be the best I can be, at the age I am today.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll call an older friend and ask him or her this question: “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life since you were my age?”
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
The Doctor's Opinion
If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement. We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.
p. xxviii
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Seven - "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."
In this connection, Bill likes to tell the following pointed story. He explains that when Jack Alexander's Saturday Evening Post piece broke in 1941, thousands of frantic letters from distraught alcoholics and their families hit the Foundation* letterbox in New York. "Our office staff," Bill says, "consisted of two people: one devoted secretary and myself. How could this landslide of appeals be met? We'd have to have some more full-time help, that was sure. So we asked the A.A. groups for voluntary contributions. Would they send us a dollar a member a year? Otherwise this heartbreaking mail would have to go unanswered.
p. 162
************************************************** *********
With God everyday,
I make my way.
I hold on to God’s hand
As I journey through this land.
--Tammy
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within
us.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Do not let a desire for wealth cause you to become so consumed by your
work that you prevent happiness for yourself and your family. Happiness is foremost. A
look filled with understanding, and accepting smile, a loving word, a meal shared in
warmth and awareness are the things which create happiness in the present moment. By
nourishing awareness in the present moment, you can avoid causing suffering to yourself
and those around you.
--Thich Nhat Hanh
"No matter how much you talk to your plant, if you don't water it, it's going to die."
--Mike Perry
Thoughts and beliefs are nothing without action"
--James A. Ray
***********************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
POWER
"The first and great
commandment is 'Don't let them
scare you.'"
-- Elmer Davis
In my sobriety I still need to deal with fear. A fear of people, a fear of not being good
enough, a fear of saying the wrong thing, a fear of not looking "good enough" --- fear still
haunts me in sobriety.
However, my recovery also tells me that I am a child of God. I am a beautiful and
powerful human being because God not only made me, but has shared something of His
precious divinity with me. I am good enough. In Him I can afford to risk. Love must begin
with the recognition of self.
Today I must remember that people are not "out to get me". I need not make myself the
victim. People are much the same inside, and we all need each other to survive.
Thank You for the power to live with my fear.
************************************************** *********
Let them give thanks for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for
men, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Psalm 107:8-9
"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you."
Psalm 55:22
We love Him, because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Be grateful for the simple things that you can do such as being able to see, to walk, to have health and to be able to face life with peace of mind. Lord, on a daily basis I will count my many unnamed blessings.
Smile. If you know that God is with you and will never fail you, then you always have every reason to smile. Lord, my heart seeks You and clings to You and I rejoice.