Recovery Thoughts & Quotes 12/20

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~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~




Choices

Looking back we see that our freedom to choose badly
was not, after all, a very real freedom.
When we chose because we "must,"
this was not a free choice either.
But it got us started in the right direction.
When we chose because we "ought to"
we were really doing better.
This time we were earning some freedom,
making ourselves ready for more.
But when, now and then, we could gladly make
right choices without rebellion, holdout, or conflict,
then we had our first glimpse of what perfect freedom
under God's will could be like.
Bill W., May 1960
c. 1988AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 302
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Thought to Consider . . .
Sobriety is a choice and a treasure.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
C H A N G E = Choosing Honesty Allows New Growth Every day

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*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*



Compensation
From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":
"Shortly after the financial investigation episode, Father Ed Dowling, our Jesuit friend from St. Louis, turned up in New York. Still puzzled, I put the case up to him. He asked, 'Do you think A.A. requires your full-time efforts?' I replied, 'Yes, I think it does, perhaps indefinitely.' Then he inquired, 'Could you become a paid therapist, taking money for Twelfth Step work?' I told him that this issue had been settled long since. Most emphatically I could not, regardless of the consequences, nor could any other A.A. member.

"This meant that Dr. Bob and I must certainly never accept money for Twelfth Step work but that we could be recompensed for special services. We both accepted Father Ed's down-the-middle advice and have stuck by it ever since, and I am glad to say this status for Dr. Bob and me was later accepted as correct in principle by our entire fellowship."

2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 195

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*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do
for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally
positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system,
something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes
it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any
alcoholic will abundantly confirm this."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, There Is A Solution, pg. 22~

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Misc. AA Literature - Quote




Men who cry for money and shelter as a condition of their sobriety are on the wrong track. Yet we sometimes do provide a new prospect with these very things - when it becomes clear that he is willing to place his recovery first.
It is not whether we shall give that is the question, but when and how to give. Whenever we put our work on a material plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon alms rather than upon a Higher Power and the A.A. group. He continues to insist that he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for.
Nonsense! Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: that, job or no job, wife or no wife, we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place material dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.

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Member Submitted Quote



Comparison of religion and spirituality..

Religion is man talking to man about God. Spirituality is God and Man talking. ( Paul F. )

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12 x 12 Quote

"If, however, our natural disposition is inclined to self-
righteousness or grandiosity, our reaction will be just the opposite.
We will be offended at AA's suggested inventory. No doubt we shall
point with pride to the good lives we thought we led before the
bottle cut us down. We shall claim that our serious character
defects, if we think we have any at all, have been caused chiefly by
excessive drinking. This being so, we think it logically follows that
sobriety...first, last, and all the time...is the only thing we need
to work for. We believe that our one-time good characters will be
revived the moment we quit alcohol. If we were pretty nice people
all along, except for our drinking, what need is there for a moral
inventory now that we are sober?" (Twelve and Twelve, Step Four, pg.
45)