Daily Recovery Readings - April

[bluidkiti]

April 19

Daily Reflections

BROTHERS IN OUR DEFECTS
We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue
as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common
strivings to overcome them.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167

The identification that one alcoholic has with another is
mysterious, spiritual--almost incomprehensible. But it is
there. I "feel" it. Today I feel that I can help people
and that they can help me.
It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone;
to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to
know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to
share those feelings so that someone can have relief. I
never knew how to do this--or how to try. I never even cared.
The Fellowship of A.A., and God, are teaching me how to care
about others.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Since I've been putting sobriety into my life, I've been
taking out a lot of good things. I can describe it best as
a kind of quiet satisfaction. I feel good. I feel right with
the world, on the right side of the fence. As long as I put
sobriety into my life, almost everything I take out is good.
The satisfaction you get out of living a sober life is made
up of a lot of little things. You have the ambition to do
things you didn't feel like doing when you were drinking.
Am I getting satisfaction out of living a sober life?

Meditation For The Day

It is a glorious way - the upward way. There are wonderful
discoveries in the realm of the spirit. There are tender
intimacies in the quiet times of communion with God. There
is an amazing, almost incomprehensible understanding of the
other person. On the upward way, you can have all the
strength you need from that Higher Power. You cannot make
too many demands on Him for strength. He gives you all the
power you need, as long as you are moving along the upward
way.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may see the beautiful horizons ahead on the
upward way. I pray that I may keep going forward to the more
abundant life.

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As Bill Sees It

Trouble: Constructive or Destructive?, p. 110

"There was a time when we ignored trouble, hoping it would go
away. Or, in fear and in depression, we ran from it, but found it was
still with us. Often, full of unreason, bitterness, and blame, we fought
back. These mistaken attitudes, powered by alcohol, guaranteed our
destruction, unless they were altered.

"Then came A.A. Here we learned that trouble was really a fact of
life for everybody--a fact that had to be understood and dealt with.
Surprisingly, we found that our troubles could, under God's grace, be
converted into unimagined blessings.

"Indeed, that was the essence of A.A. itself: trouble accepted,
trouble squarely faced with calm courage, trouble lessened and often
transcended. This was the A.A. story, and we became a part of it.
Such demonstrations became our stock in trade for the next
sufferer."

Letter, 1966

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Walk in Dry Places

Who pushes my buttons?
Personal Relations
AA old-timers would be mystified today to hear program members talk about people “pushing their buttons.” (They can't get your goat if they don't know where it is tied) This expression wasn't around when the early AA members pulled themselves out of the swamp and began their long journey to sobriety.
But they had their buttons pushed aplenty. Dr. Bob, treating alcoholics at St. Thomas Hospital; heard snide comments from other physicians who resented giving bed space to drunks. Bill W. struggling to launch a worldwide movement, took most every alcoholic, then and now, gets some heavy kidding from the world of drinkers.
What is the real problem in these instances? Are others pushing our buttons, or do we set ourselves up for this by being sensitive and vulnerable? Nobody could push our buttons if we didn't have buttons to push.
We no longer have to worry about button-pushers if we accept them as they are, realizing that we don't need their approval and can't really be hurt by anything they do or say. Our serenity in the face of such problems may actually serve to attract people to AA.
Nobody can push my buttons unless I let them. Today I'll be serene and clam no matter what others say and do. Thanks to the program, I'll not worry about certain individuals who try to get under my skin.

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Each Day a New Beginning

In the process of defining myself, I have a tendency to set up rules and boundaries and then forget that rules are made to be broken, as are boundaries to be expanded and crossed. --Kathleen Casey Theisen
Recovery has given us the freedom to address life honestly, with forethought and a certainty about the rightness of our actions. We need be mindful that what is right today may not be right tomorrow or thereafter. As we move through our experiences, we are changed, and then we look with a new perspective on old conditions. Our new perspective hones our value systems, and yesterday's rules and boundaries no longer fit today's situations.
Our growth as women is an unending process. What we confront today with assurance, we prepared for yesterday. And tomorrow will be eased by our definition of today. The program has gifted us with clarity - clarity about ourselves, clarity regarding others, and clarity on how to continue our growth.
My value system awaits finer definition, and every experience, today, presents me with an opportunity for that definition.

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Keep It Simple

We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. Sacred ritual chant.
Good things keep happening to us. We are sober. We can think clearly. We can see progress on how we handle our problems. We have friends. We have love. We have hope.
We are starting to feel joy. Our fears are getting smaller. We are starting to trust our new way of life. Our new life brings good things to us. It brings blessings every day. We are beginning to expect them. But we’re still surprised at how good life can be. What a difference from the days before we entered our program!
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for the blessings You keep on giving. And thanks for whatever today will bring.
Action for the Day: One way to give thanks for my blessings is to share them with others. How can I share my recovery today?

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve. We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories. A man may criticize to laugh at himself and it will affect others favorably, but criticism or ridicule coming from another often produce the contrary effect. Members of a family should watch such matters carefully, for one careless, inconsiderate remark has been known to raise the very devil. We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time to outgrow that serious handicap.

p. 125

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

"Then I woke up. I had to admit that A.A. showed results, prodigious results. I saw that my attitude regarding these had been anything but scientific. It wasn't A.A. that had the closed mind, it was me. The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel. Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting and practice the rest of A.A.'s program as enthusiastically as I could.

p. 27

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Time is the greatest gift of all.
--Cited in Even More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES

Gifts are for giving.
--Ian and Sylvia Tyson

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way
things turn out."
--John Wooden

"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but
rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."
-Scottish Proverb

My sponsor pointed out that now that I've been around the program
for awhile there is no denial . . . there is only refusal.
--Anonymous

With accepting God in my life each day, Through the trials and
triumphs, I rest in comfort knowing God is leading me to Him.
--Tammy B.

You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.
--Irish Proverb

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

FREEDOM

"Freedom is the right to choose:
the right to create for yourself the
alternatives of choice. Without the
possibility of choice and the
exercise of choice a man is not a
man but a member, an instrument,
a thing ..."
--Archibald MacLeish

Spirituality involves the freedom to change; it requires the variety of
choice in order to grow.

My past addiction was a life of slavery because it removed from me
creative choice and left me obsessing about drugs and alcohol. My life,
conversation and thoughts revolved around the bottle, and I was
oblivious to the true meaning of life. I could not "do better" in my life
because I was addicted not only to drugs but to the destructive
lifestyle that goes with them. My freedom to experience the spiritual
power of God's creativity was lost to a mindless craving for drugs; in
this sense, drug addiction is slavery.

Today I am free to see God's world in people, places and things and I
make a choice to live, love and laugh.

I am growing in the awareness of Your multifaceted love for me.

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Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that
hope in the Lord.
Psalm 31:24

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is
perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For
the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not
seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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Daily Inspiration

Peace is one of our greatest needs because it provides for the strength we need in times of turmoil. Lord, I turn to You because You are my source of peace.

Stand tall and smile often and it will be very difficult to be unhappy. Lord, may my disposition reflect the joy and peace that is Your Will.