Daily Recovery Readings - 1/18

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Daily Reflections

WOULD A DRINK HELP?

By going back in our drinking histories, we could show
that years before we realized it we were out of control,
that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that was
indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 23

When I was still drinking, I couldn't respond to any of
life's situations the way other, more healthy, people
could. The smallest incident triggered a state of mind
that believed I had to have a drink to numb my feelings.
But the numbing did not improve the situation, so I
sought further escape in the bottle. Today I must be
aware of my alcoholism. I cannot afford to believe that
I have gained control of my drinking - or again I will
think I have gained control of my life. Such a feeling
of control is fatal to my recovery.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The new life can't be built in a day. We have to take the
program slowly, a little at a time. Our subconscious
minds have to be re-educated. We have to learn to think
differently. We have to get used to sober thinking
instead of alcoholic thinking. Anyone who tries it, knows
that the old alcoholic thinking is apt to come back on us
when we least expect it. Building a new life is a slow
process, but it can be done if we really follow the A.A.
program. Am I building a new life on the foundation of
sobriety?

Meditation For The Day

I will pray daily for faith, for it is God's gift. On
faith alone depends the answer to my prayers. God gives
it to me in response to my prayers, because it is a
necessary weapon for me to possess for the overcoming of
all adverse conditions and the accomplishments of all
good in my life. Therefore, I will work at strengthening
my faith.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may so think and live as to feed my faith
in God. I pray that my faith may grow because with faith
God's power becomes available to me.

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As Bill Sees It

Praying Rightly, p.295

We thought we had been deeply serious about religious practices.
However, upon honest appraisal we found that we had been most
superficial. Or sometimes, going to extremes, we had wallowed in
emotionalism and had also mistaken this for true religious feeling.
In both cases, we had been asking something for nothing.

We had not prayed rightly. We had always said, "Grant me my
wishes," instead of "Thy will be done." The love of God and man
we understood not at all. Therefore, we remained self-deceived,
and so incapable of receiving enough grace to restore us to sanity.

12 & 12, p. 32

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Walk in Dry Places

The Greatest Thing In The World___Love and Goodwill
In a famous sermon, Henry Drummond described love as a spectrum with nine ingredients. Love is patience, kindness, and generosity; it is humility, courtesy, and unselfishness. Finally, it is also good temper, gentleness, and sincerity. Drummond called love the "greatest thing in the world."
Growth in sobriety includes improvement in all the nine ingredients that make up love. It has been fashionable in recent years to talk and sing about love as something the world needs, and we have an opportunity to practice love when we strengthen the qualities that make us loving people. And if we are uncomfortable with love as a word, we can call it goodwill.
If we are practicing the elements of love or goodwill, we won't have to sing about it or tell people what we're doing. They will see the change in our own lives and will be attracted by it. Love acts the part, and even people who cannot define love will respond to it. If love is present in our AA activities, it will cover a multitude of sins and will make up for many other shortcomings.
I'll try to practice the nine ingredients that make up love. Around difficult people, I'll remember that God's love is always present with us.

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Keep It Simple

The reality is that changes are coming....they must come. You must share in bring them.
--John Hersey
Change. It's scary. It's hard. It's needed. Sometimes it feels bad. But one thing is for sure: it keeps on happening. Just when our life seems settled, it changes. We can't stop life. We can't stay this age forever. The world changes. Life moves on. There are always new things to do and learn. Changes means we're always beginners in some ways. We need to ask for wisdom and courage. We get it by listening, by praying, by meditating. When we ask, our Higher Power will teach us to be part of good changes.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me believe that Your plans call for good changes.
Action for the Day: Today I'll think about the changes in my life. I've lived through a lot. I'll be okay when more changes come, with God's help. I can keep on growing.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

FLOODED WITH FEELING - When a barrier to God collapsed, this self-described agnostic was at Step Three.

When I first came to A.A., I thought everybody had drunk more than I had, that everybody had gotten into more trouble. But I kept coming to meetings, and after a while, I began to hear the beginnings of their stories. I came to realize that I was on the same road. I just hadn't gone as far--yet.

p. 369

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Five - "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

So intense, though, is our fear and reluctance to do this, that many A.A.'s at first try to bypass Step Five. We search for an easier way--which usually consists of the general and fairly painless admission that when drinking we were sometimes bad actors. Then, for good measure, we add dramatic descriptions of that part of our drinking behavior which our friends probably know about anyhow.

p. 55

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Through morning prayers and meditation, we embark upon the day spiritually prepared. Without this preparation, we enter the day with yesterday's anxieties - our own and those of millions of others. --Marianne Williamson

The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but we will finally hear Him. --William McGill

I know and trust that God cares for me, and takes care of all my needs. --Shelley

Give your friends and family the gift of kindness all throughout the year. Your body is your vehicle through life. Do you take better care of your body or your car?

It seems in life that most of us end up doing things we don't enjoy. You can turn things that you don't enjoy into something you do by changing how you do those things AND changing how you view them.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

GLUTTONY

"Gluttony is not a secret vice."
-- Orson Welles

The unspoken disease of food: hide in food, bury anger with food, cry
behind food. Food addiction --- eating, forever dieting, starving --- is the
hidden disease that is becoming more obvious. But are we talking about
it? Recovering alcoholics minimize it and get lost in ice cream and
doughnuts. For many people the pain around food is as real as alcohol
or any other drug. And the family and relationships suffer.

Today I am willing to talk about it. Spirituality affects all my life and
this involves my eating habits and body weight. God does not make
junk and so I choose not to eat junk. Today I choose to talk about the
buried emotions that I am stuffing behind the food. That is a step
towards living.

When I bless the food at meal time, may I also bless my abstinence.

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"And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Psalms 9:10

"May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. Genesis 31:49

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:11-16

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Daily Inspiration

Do not walk around with a long face. Radiate God's love. Lord, help me live my daily life with gratitude and peace from knowing that You are always with me.

When you have faith in yourself and God, you will know that you are loved and safe and never alone. Lord, I am these things because You are always with me.

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
The stream that was locked up for the winter now ripples and gurgles along its way. --John F. Gardner
Winter presents us with a frozen world, silent, sometimes forbidding. It seems like such a harsh time, forcing us indoors, letting us out only when we're wrapped in extra woolens, extra boots, extra hats and mittens. But beneath the snow's blanket, the earth is resting. Just as we sleep at night, the earth naps, nurturing its roost and bulbs, replenishing its moisture and minerals, refreshing itself. Spring is the earth's first stirring; it open's one eye, then another, wiggles a toe, stretches, yawns. The earth rises, shaking leaves off, brushing twigs away. It sends new shoots up to welcome the day.
We, too, are part of nature, and as such we experience our own seasons. Sometimes we are happy, full of energy, always able to handle obstacles. When we are down; when things seem to be too much for us to handle, we must remember that it is natural and proper to feel that way, and that soon, without our even trying, a new season will lift our hearts.
When I feel low, what can I do best?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Communication leads to community--that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing. --Rollo May
We have all thought, "If I tell the innermost things about myself, I will be rejected or put down." Most real communication actually creates the opposite of what we fear. In this program, when we lowered our barriers and let our brothers and sisters know us better, they liked us more and our bonds became stronger. Are we concerned today about feelings, we need to emphasize those that make us feel most vulnerable.
The other side of communication is listening. In listening, our task is to hear without judgment and without trying to provide an answer or a cure for every pain. To express ourselves to others, to be fully understood, and to know we are understood will lift our hope and self-esteem.
Today, I can make contact with people in my life by revealing my feelings to them and listening to what they are saying.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
We are born in innocence. Corruption comes later. The first fear is a corruption, the first reaching for something that defies us. The first nuance of difference, the first need to feel better than the different one, more loved, stronger, richer, more blessed--these are corruptions. --Laura Z. Hobson
We are corrupted. To be a human is to be corrupted. Our corruptions interfere with our happiness at the very time we are seeking happiness. When we think if only we were prettier, smarter, had a better job, then we'd be happy, we are giving in to corruptions. And these corruptions stifle our growth. We are each who we need to be. We have a supporting role in one another's lives. We can teach and learn from one another.
Recovery is choosing to help ourselves and one another to be as we are; to quit making comparisons; to understand our equality as women; to celebrate our differences, knowing they give intensity to life's colors for us all.
I can celebrate our special and different gifts today. My heart will be lightened.


You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Gratitude
Sometimes in life, things happen too fast. we barely solve one problem when two new problems surface. We're feeling great in the morning, but we're submerged in misery by nightfall.
Every day we face interruptions, delays, changes, and challenges. We face personality conflicts and disappointments. Often when we're feeling overwhelmed, we can't see the lessons in these experiences.
One simple concept can get us through the most stressful of times. It's called gratitude. We learn to say, thank you, for these problems and feelings. Thank you for the way things are. I don't like this experience, but thank you anyway.
Force gratitude until it becomes habitual. Gratitude helps us stop trying to control outcomes. It is the key that unlocks positive energy in our life. It is the alchemy that turns problems into blessings, and the unexpected into gifts.
Today, I will be grateful. I will start the process of turning today's pain into tomorrow's joy.


My Higher Power guides me today. I can move forward with the faith and trust that I am lovingly being led along the way, a step at a time, a day at a time. --Ruth Fishel

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You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Abstain or Overeat

For the compulsive overeater, there is always one primary choice to be made. Will I abstain or will I overeat? For us, there is nothing in between. If we have hundreds of pounds to lose or if we have reached and are maintaining our goal weight, the choice is still the same. It is the key decision we make many, many times each day.

We are free at each moment to choose which we will do. There is no magic, which will make us, abstains, and there is no force, which can compel us to swallow food we do not need. The choice is ours alone.

No one graduates from OA. There is no point at which one can say, "This is it. I've got it made now." We are always aware of the fact that we are compulsive overeaters and are always one bite away from a binge. When we remember that abstaining or overeating is our primary choice, then other decisions become easier. To abstain is to choose life. To overeat is to choose death.

May I maintain constant awareness of my primary choice.

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Wisdom for Today
Sometimes you hear the same things over and over again at meetings. I often have wondered if I was learning anything new after awhile. Then, on the 963rd time I hear something, it clicks. It finally makes sense; it becomes something I can use. These are the moments of spiritual awakening. God seems to work much like this as well. He reveals to me over and over again, my defects of character. He shows me myself and helps me see how I turn my life over to dishonesty, ego, fear, expectations, rage, loneliness, and many other powers. I can let these powers take over my life and corrupt my will.
This is why we turn our will and our life over to His care. Left to our own devices, even clean and sober we can mess it all up. When our defects have been revealed to us enough times and they become painful enough, we ask God to remove them from our lives. We do not need to chase after the answers, God will bring them to us. In the Bible it says, "Be still, and know that I am God." It doesn't say run around like crazy and you will know God. Defects of character are resistant to change. Yet, if we are still, God will bring us the answers. Do I recognize when God brings me an answer?
Meditations for the Heart
Laughter is good medicine. One of the greatest blessings in recovery is the return of genuine laughter. Being able to laugh at ourselves and the insanity of our disease can bring healing to a troubled heart. When I slow down long enough to really think about some of the crazy things I did or that happened to me, I can't help but laugh about them now. At the time, some of these things were very painful or even stupid. Yet, as I have moved along in my recovery process, I have found that I can now laugh about these same events. One of the promises in the AA Big Book is that "we will not regret the past..." It is much nicer to get to a point when we can laugh at ourselves. Has laughter returned to my life?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
Today is a day that I know you again will teach me if I only open my mind and listen to your directions. Help me to do just that and to seek you out in all I do. Create in me a new perspective on life and help me to again laugh. Let me celebrate this day and all that is in it.
` Amen