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01-02-2009, 04:06 PM
Wisdom for Today
There is a song that goes, "You can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want; but if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need." This has certainly been the case for me in the program. In fact, I have come to accept that I have little or no control over the outcome. I am only responsible for the effort. When I look back at my drinking and my drug use, I rarely if ever got what I wanted. Sure, maybe in the beginning, I got high like I wanted; but it didn't take long for me to start chasing that ever-elusive high.
In recovery, however, I find that I get out of the program what I put into it. And if I put faith in a Higher Power into my program, I am amazed at how often I get what I need. Yes, I don't always get what I want; but I do get what I need. When I am faced with my own weakness, I am given strength and patience. When I am faced with fear, I am given courage. When I am faced with truth, I am given choices for positive change. Am I putting what I need to into the program?
Meditations for the Heart
One of the things I needed most in early recovery were friends, friends who would be willing to be honest with me and who genuinely cared for me. I knew how to make using buddies, but had no real idea how to make friends. If I was going to get what I needed, I had to become willing to put some effort into it. I had to become friendly, if I was going to make friends. This meant that I would have to talk to others in the program and begin to show a genuine interest in their life. I would need to strive to be helpful to those who were near me. I needed to search for something in every person I met that I could like. I had to stop looking at how others were different than I was and start looking for similarities. I had to stop making judgments about others. I needed to work on accepting them for who they were. I found that when I started to treat others with respect, I began to respect myself more. I found that when I cared enough to be honest with others, I could be more honest with myself. Am I putting effort into getting what I need?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
You have given me this day all I need and continue to provide for my needs. Grant me strength to reach out to others and to put effort into getting what I need. Help me this day to see things in a new light and to take advantage of the opportunities for growth that You give to me. Help me to seek out Your will for me this day.
Amen.
-----
NA Just For Today
Our Greatest Need
"We eventually redefine our beliefs and understanding to the point where we see that our greatest need is for knowledge of God's will for us and the strength to carry that out"
Basic Text p. 46
When we first arrived in NA, we had all kinds of ideas of what we needed. Some of us set our sights on amassing personal possessions. We thought recovery equaled outward success. But recovery does not equal success. Today, we believe that our greatest need is for spiritual guidance and strength.
The greatest damage done to us by our addiction was the damage done to our spirituality. Our primary motivation was dictated by our disease: to get, to use, and to find ways and means to get more. Enslaved by our overwhelming need for drugs, our lives lacked purpose and connection. We were spiritually bankrupt.
Sooner or later, we realize that our greatest need in recovery is "for knowledge of God's will for us and the strength to carry that out" There, we find the direction and sense of purpose our addiction had hidden from us. In our God's will we find freedom from self-will. No longer driven only by our own needs, we are free to live with others on an equal footing.
There's nothing wrong with outward success. But without the spiritual connection offered by the NA program, our greatest need in recovery goes unmet, regardless of how "successful" we may be.
Just for today: I will seek the fulfillment of my greatest need: a vital, guiding connection with the God of my understanding.
-----
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.
Help!
When we hit bottom and are ready to swallow our pride, help is available. When we admit that by ourselves we are powerless, a Higher Power takes over. Most of us have tried for years to control what we eat by ourselves. Often it seems that the harder we try, the more miserably we fail. We despair. When we are truly desperate and ask for help, OA can help us.
We have proven that we cannot solve our problem alone. A diet is not enough. We need a program that fills our emotional and spiritual needs as well as our physical ones.
Step by step and day by day we can learn to live without overeating. We will gradually become convinced that no amount of physical food will ever satisfy our emotional and spiritual hunger. The Higher Power, which infuses each OA GROUP, becomes our lifesaver and our nourishment.
God, save me from myself.
-----
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. --Faith Baldwin
Change surrounds us. It lies within us, too. The trees in the yard have changed. They've grown taller. Their leaves die and scatter on the ground in the fall. We don't resemble our baby pictures much anymore, either. Like trees, we've grown up. As babies, we couldn't walk. But we learned to run, ride bikes, go out alone to movies and parties. Some changes we don't notice while they're going on. The snow melts; the birds fly south; our hair grows a little every day. Other changes startle us. A best friend moves away. Perhaps a favorite grandparent dies. These changes we wish hadn't happened, and we have to remember that change is as natural as breathing. We can't keep it from happening, but we can trust that change never means to harm us. It's a sign we're growing up.
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. - Ursula K. Le Guin
Our relationships are alive. We don't control them and neither do the other people involved. We certainly influence our relationships - and if we are aware, we see they also have their own yeast. Whether we are talking of a love relationship with our spouse, lover, children, friends, or parents, it is a very fluid and dynamic affair. If we are actively involved with the other person and give time and nourishment to the relationship, it will grow. But if we are passive and only waiting, the relationship will grow stale.
God speaks to us through other people. Our relationship with our Higher Power influences our relationships with all the people in our lives. Today we can nurture our relationships with time, tolerance, and honesty. In turn, we will be nourished.
May this day be one in which I give attention to those I love.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore. --Dorothy Bryant
Sometimes we feel buried in sand, blocked, clogged, unable to move. Then we must remember that we are not alone. Help is at hand, if only we will ask for it. If we invoke our higher power, our source of spiritual strength can help us to believe that there is gold somewhere in all this sand, and that the sand itself is useful.
No one and no thing is good all the time. Let us remember that if we expect nothing but gold, we are distorting life, getting in our own way. We don't want to falsify the texture of our lives; the homespun quality helps us to appreciate the gold when it appears.
I will find some gold among the sand, today.
You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Nurturing Self Care
.. .there isn't a guidebook for setting boundaries. Each of us has our own guide inside ourselves. If we continue to work at recovery, our boundaries will develop. They will get healthy and sensitive. Our selves will tell us what we need to know,' and we'll love ourselves enough to listen.
--Beyond Codependency
What do we need to do to take care of ourselves?
Listen to that voice inside. What makes you angry? What have you had enough of? What don't you trust? What doesn't feel right? What can't you stand? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you want? Need? What don't you want and need? What do you like? What would feel good?
In recovery, we learn that self care leads us on the path to God's will and plan for our life. Self-care never leads away from our highest good; it leads toward it.
Learn to nurture that voice inside. We can trust ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We are wiser than we think. Our guide is within, ever present. Listen to, trust, and nurture that guide.
Today, I will affirm that lama gift to the Universe and myself. I will remember that nurturing self care delivers that gift in its highest form.
Today my body guides me to refocus and God heals me deep within as I again become strong and free. --Ruth Fishel
God help me to stay sober and clean today!
There is a song that goes, "You can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want; but if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need." This has certainly been the case for me in the program. In fact, I have come to accept that I have little or no control over the outcome. I am only responsible for the effort. When I look back at my drinking and my drug use, I rarely if ever got what I wanted. Sure, maybe in the beginning, I got high like I wanted; but it didn't take long for me to start chasing that ever-elusive high.
In recovery, however, I find that I get out of the program what I put into it. And if I put faith in a Higher Power into my program, I am amazed at how often I get what I need. Yes, I don't always get what I want; but I do get what I need. When I am faced with my own weakness, I am given strength and patience. When I am faced with fear, I am given courage. When I am faced with truth, I am given choices for positive change. Am I putting what I need to into the program?
Meditations for the Heart
One of the things I needed most in early recovery were friends, friends who would be willing to be honest with me and who genuinely cared for me. I knew how to make using buddies, but had no real idea how to make friends. If I was going to get what I needed, I had to become willing to put some effort into it. I had to become friendly, if I was going to make friends. This meant that I would have to talk to others in the program and begin to show a genuine interest in their life. I would need to strive to be helpful to those who were near me. I needed to search for something in every person I met that I could like. I had to stop looking at how others were different than I was and start looking for similarities. I had to stop making judgments about others. I needed to work on accepting them for who they were. I found that when I started to treat others with respect, I began to respect myself more. I found that when I cared enough to be honest with others, I could be more honest with myself. Am I putting effort into getting what I need?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
You have given me this day all I need and continue to provide for my needs. Grant me strength to reach out to others and to put effort into getting what I need. Help me this day to see things in a new light and to take advantage of the opportunities for growth that You give to me. Help me to seek out Your will for me this day.
Amen.
-----
NA Just For Today
Our Greatest Need
"We eventually redefine our beliefs and understanding to the point where we see that our greatest need is for knowledge of God's will for us and the strength to carry that out"
Basic Text p. 46
When we first arrived in NA, we had all kinds of ideas of what we needed. Some of us set our sights on amassing personal possessions. We thought recovery equaled outward success. But recovery does not equal success. Today, we believe that our greatest need is for spiritual guidance and strength.
The greatest damage done to us by our addiction was the damage done to our spirituality. Our primary motivation was dictated by our disease: to get, to use, and to find ways and means to get more. Enslaved by our overwhelming need for drugs, our lives lacked purpose and connection. We were spiritually bankrupt.
Sooner or later, we realize that our greatest need in recovery is "for knowledge of God's will for us and the strength to carry that out" There, we find the direction and sense of purpose our addiction had hidden from us. In our God's will we find freedom from self-will. No longer driven only by our own needs, we are free to live with others on an equal footing.
There's nothing wrong with outward success. But without the spiritual connection offered by the NA program, our greatest need in recovery goes unmet, regardless of how "successful" we may be.
Just for today: I will seek the fulfillment of my greatest need: a vital, guiding connection with the God of my understanding.
-----
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.
Help!
When we hit bottom and are ready to swallow our pride, help is available. When we admit that by ourselves we are powerless, a Higher Power takes over. Most of us have tried for years to control what we eat by ourselves. Often it seems that the harder we try, the more miserably we fail. We despair. When we are truly desperate and ask for help, OA can help us.
We have proven that we cannot solve our problem alone. A diet is not enough. We need a program that fills our emotional and spiritual needs as well as our physical ones.
Step by step and day by day we can learn to live without overeating. We will gradually become convinced that no amount of physical food will ever satisfy our emotional and spiritual hunger. The Higher Power, which infuses each OA GROUP, becomes our lifesaver and our nourishment.
God, save me from myself.
-----
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. --Faith Baldwin
Change surrounds us. It lies within us, too. The trees in the yard have changed. They've grown taller. Their leaves die and scatter on the ground in the fall. We don't resemble our baby pictures much anymore, either. Like trees, we've grown up. As babies, we couldn't walk. But we learned to run, ride bikes, go out alone to movies and parties. Some changes we don't notice while they're going on. The snow melts; the birds fly south; our hair grows a little every day. Other changes startle us. A best friend moves away. Perhaps a favorite grandparent dies. These changes we wish hadn't happened, and we have to remember that change is as natural as breathing. We can't keep it from happening, but we can trust that change never means to harm us. It's a sign we're growing up.
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. - Ursula K. Le Guin
Our relationships are alive. We don't control them and neither do the other people involved. We certainly influence our relationships - and if we are aware, we see they also have their own yeast. Whether we are talking of a love relationship with our spouse, lover, children, friends, or parents, it is a very fluid and dynamic affair. If we are actively involved with the other person and give time and nourishment to the relationship, it will grow. But if we are passive and only waiting, the relationship will grow stale.
God speaks to us through other people. Our relationship with our Higher Power influences our relationships with all the people in our lives. Today we can nurture our relationships with time, tolerance, and honesty. In turn, we will be nourished.
May this day be one in which I give attention to those I love.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore. --Dorothy Bryant
Sometimes we feel buried in sand, blocked, clogged, unable to move. Then we must remember that we are not alone. Help is at hand, if only we will ask for it. If we invoke our higher power, our source of spiritual strength can help us to believe that there is gold somewhere in all this sand, and that the sand itself is useful.
No one and no thing is good all the time. Let us remember that if we expect nothing but gold, we are distorting life, getting in our own way. We don't want to falsify the texture of our lives; the homespun quality helps us to appreciate the gold when it appears.
I will find some gold among the sand, today.
You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Nurturing Self Care
.. .there isn't a guidebook for setting boundaries. Each of us has our own guide inside ourselves. If we continue to work at recovery, our boundaries will develop. They will get healthy and sensitive. Our selves will tell us what we need to know,' and we'll love ourselves enough to listen.
--Beyond Codependency
What do we need to do to take care of ourselves?
Listen to that voice inside. What makes you angry? What have you had enough of? What don't you trust? What doesn't feel right? What can't you stand? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you want? Need? What don't you want and need? What do you like? What would feel good?
In recovery, we learn that self care leads us on the path to God's will and plan for our life. Self-care never leads away from our highest good; it leads toward it.
Learn to nurture that voice inside. We can trust ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We are wiser than we think. Our guide is within, ever present. Listen to, trust, and nurture that guide.
Today, I will affirm that lama gift to the Universe and myself. I will remember that nurturing self care delivers that gift in its highest form.
Today my body guides me to refocus and God heals me deep within as I again become strong and free. --Ruth Fishel
God help me to stay sober and clean today!