Daily Recovery Readings - March

[bluidkiti]

March 20, 2014

Daily Reflections

LOVE AND TOLERANCE

Love and tolerance of others in our code.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84

I have found that I have to forgive others in all
situations to maintain any real spiritual progress.
The vital importance of forgiving may not be obvious
to me at first sight, but my studies tell me that every
great spiritual teacher has insisted strongly upon it.
I must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a
matter of form, but in my heart. I do this not for the
other persons' sake, but for my own sake. Resentment,
anger, or a desire to see someone punished, are things
that rot my soul. Such things fasten my troubles to me
with chains. They tie me to other problems that have
nothing to do with my original problem.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

When we were drinking, we used to worry about the future.
Worry is terrible mental punishment. What's going to
become of me? Where will I end up? In the gutter or the
sanitarium? We can see ourselves slipping, getting worse
and worse, and we wonder what the finish will be.
Sometimes we get so discouraged in thinking about the
future that we toy with the idea of suicide. In A.A.
have I stopped worrying about the future?

Meditation For The Day

Functioning on a material plane alone takes me away from
God. I must also try to function on a spiritual plane.
Functioning on a spiritual plane as well as on a material
plane will make life what it should be. All material
activities are valueless in themselves alone. But all
activities, seemingly trivial or of seemingly great moment,
are all alike if directed by God's guidance. I must try to
obey God as I would expect a faithful, willing servant to
carry out directions.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that the flow of God's spirit may come to me through
many channels. I pray that I may function on a spiritual
plane as well as on a material plane.

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As Bill Sees It

Whose Responsibility?, p. 79

"An A.A. group, as such, cannot take on all the personal problems of
its members, let alone those of nonalcoholics in the world around us.
The A.A. group is not, for example, a mediator of domestic relations,
nor does it furnish personal financial aid to anyone.

"Though a member may sometimes be helped in such matters by his
friends in A.A., the primary responsibility for the solutions of all his
problems of living and growing rests squarely upon the individual
himself. Should an A.A. group attempt this sort of help, its
effectiveness and energies would be hopelessly dissipated.

"This is why sobriety--freedom from alcohol--through the teaching
and practice of A.A.'s Twelve Steps, is the sole purpose of the group.
If we don't stick to this cardinal principle, we shall almost certainly
collapse. And if we collapse we cannot help anyone."

Letter, 1966

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Walk in Dry Places

Think, Think, Think
Prudence.
It's hard to believe, but some AA members insist that newcomers shouldn't think. "Whoever said you should think?" some members are told. The newcomer is apparently supposed to suspend all thinking for several months until reaching a certain level of recovery.
This is nonsense, and it also contradicts AA teaching. If we don't want people to use their heads, why do we have printed cards on meeting room walls that say, "Think, Think, Think"? We are always capable of thinking, even in moments of deep despair. Indeed, we could not keep from thinking.
A constructive approach to thinking is to form complete sentences from the slogan on the wall: THINK what might happen if I take one drink. THINK of the wonderful new life that awaits me in sobriety. THINK about ways of improving myself and following a more satisfactory lifestyle.
It's also important to remember that good thinking will drive out bad thinking…. But good thinking has to be cultivated.
I'll keep my thinking centered today on the good things that can be done in life. I'll focus my attention only on matters that are under my control, and I know that better thinking will bring better conditions.

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Keep It Simple

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years of trying to get other people interested in you. ---Dale Carnegie
We wanted friends, but our addiction wanted all our attention. We had no time to be close to others.
Well, stand aside, addiction! The program has taught us that others are important. Our purpose is to help others. People have become what’s important to us.
Now we listen to others. We help them do what they want to do, not what we want them to do. We help people instead of use them. Friendship is now a way of life. And another promise of the program becomes a part of us.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to know that I’m here to help others, not just myself. Through others, I find myself.
Today’s’ Action: Today I’ll help someone the way he or she wants to be helped.

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Each Day a New Beginning

There's a period of life where we swallow a knowledge of ourselves and it becomes either good or sour inside. --Pearl Bailey
For too many of us, feelings of shame, even self-hatred, are paramount. No one of us has a fully untarnished past. Every man, every woman, even every child experiences regret over some action. We are not perfect. Perfection is not expected in the Divine plan. But we are expected to take our experiences and grow from them, to move beyond the shame of them, to celebrate what they have taught us.
Each day offers us a fresh start at assimilating all that we have been. What has gone before enriches who we are now, and through the many experiences we've survived, we have been prepared to help others, to smooth the way for another woman, perhaps, who is searching for a new direction.
We can let go of our shame and know instead that it sweetens the nuggets of the wisdom we can offer to others. We are alike. We are not without faults. Our trials help another to smoother sailing.
I will relish the joy at hand. I can share my wisdom. All painful pasts brighten someone's future, when openly shared.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 8 - TO WIVES

We find that most of this embarrassment is unnecessary. While you need not discuss your husband at length, you can quietly let your friends know the nature of his illness. But you must be on guard not to embarrass or harm your husband.

p. 115

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Foreword

Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide fellowship of more than one hundred thousand* alcoholic men and women who are banded together to solve their common problems and to help fellow sufferers in recovery from that age-old, baffling malady, alcoholism.

*In 1998, it is estimated that nearly two million have recovered through A.A.

p. 15

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"There is only one small letter between the words CAN and
CAN'T...and that one letter will TOTALLY change your destiny."
-–Doug Firebaugh

Happiness is intrinsic, it's an internal thing. When you build it
into yourself, no external circumstances can take it away. That kind of
happiness is a twenty-four-hour thing.
--Leo F. Buscaglia

God, if I can't see the joy in life, help me look again.
--Melody Beattie

Now and then I like to lift my eyes up from the details of daily life and
remember the bigger picture, and take a breath of God, and feel and
remember that ultimately, it's all okay.
--Dan Millman

God wants us to give from the heart when we see a need.
--Nancy Shelton

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

APATHY

"Science may have found a cure
for most evils; but it has found no
remedy for the worst of them all ---
the apathy of human beings."
-- Helen Keller

I read today of a woman who ate herself to death. Friends and family
when interviewed said, "She simply didn't seem to care." She had
stuffed her feelings for so long that she had forgotten what they were;
she had lost her spirituality. Apathy kills people.

So long as people do nothing, the disease of addiction gets worse and
more victims are claimed. Apathy feeds ignorance because it stops
activity; apathy stops life.

The antidote for apathy is spirituality. The spiritual person is alive with
positive attitudes and creative hope --- he is infectious. People are
challenged to discover a meaning to life in their own lives. Hope
produces recovery; recovery produces a message that must be shared; in
the message is the miracle of life.

I pray that in the face of apathy I can discover hope.

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"He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be
greatly moved."
Psalms 62:2

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:7

When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets.
Matthew 6:2

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Daily Inspiration

To run the life's race successfully we must run toward life, not away from it. Lord, bless me with the courage to meet my challenges as they happen and never allow fear to set up roadblocks.

No one can live for himself alone for then he will have no purpose in life. To give of self is one of life's greatest joys and blesses us with a full and rich life. Lord, help me to be selfless and loving to those around me.