Daily Recovery Readings - November

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November 11

Daily Reflections

SELF-ACCEPTANCE

We know that God lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will
be well with us, here and hereafter.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105

I pray for the willingness to remember that I am a child of God, a divine soul in human
form, and that my most basic and urgent life-task is to accept, know, love and nurture
myself. As I accept myself, I am accepting God's will. As I know and love myself, I am
knowing and loving God. As I nurture myself I am acting on God's guidance. I pray for
the willingness to let go of my arrogant self-criticism, and to praise God by humbly
accepting and caring for myself.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

When I think of all who have gone before me, I realize that I am only one, not very
important, person. What happens to me is not so very important after all. And A.A. has
taught me to be more outgoing, to seek friendship by going at least half way; to have a
sincere desire to help. I have more self-respect now that I have less sensitiveness. I
have found that the only way to live comfortably with myself is to take a real interest in
others. Do I realize that I am not so important after all?

Meditation For The Day

As you look back over your life, it is not too difficult to believe that what you went
through was for a purpose, to prepare you for some valuable work in life. Everything in
your way may well have been planned by God to make you of some use in the world. Each
person's life is like the pattern of a mosaic. Each thing that happened to you is like one
tiny stone in the mosaic, and each tiny stone fits into the perfected pattern of the mosaic
of your life, which has been designed by God.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may not need to see the whole design of my life. I pray that I may trust the
Designer.

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As Bill Sees It

In The Sunlight At Last, p. 313

When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal
to me, I didn't like the idea. So my friend Ebby made what then
seemed a novel suggestion. He said, "Why don't you choose your own
conception of God?"

That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in
whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the
sunlight at last.

<< << << >> >> >>

It may be possible to find explanations of spiritual experiences such as
ours, but I have often tried to explain my own and have succeeded only
in giving the story of it. I know the feeling it gave me and the results
it has brought, but I realize I may never fully understand its deeper
why and now.

1. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 12
2. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 45

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Walk In Dry Places

The rewards of truth
Seeking the truth
"The punishment of the liar is that he cannot believe anyone else," wrote one shrewd philosopher. This is another way of saying that we reap what we sow, or that we tend to judge others by our own actions.
But when we decide to be completely truthful, we are not immediately given the ability to discern whether others are lying or not. It's more important for us to realize that others' lies don't have the power to hurt us permanently if we persevere in the program.
Some people would argue with this, pointing to lies that have hurt innocent people in the past. But having no way of knowing all the facts of these cases, we cannot be the judge.
In our own experience, we'll find that God alone is the source of all truth and will give us the protection and care we need if we seek truthfulness in everything we do. Any fear of being victimized by lying, we'll learn, will melt away as we follow this conviction.
I'll be as discreet as possible today, but I'll also be truthful. I'll find that this alone will lessen any fear of being victimized by a liar.

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Keep It Simple

Have the courage to live; anyone can die.---Robert Cody
Living means facing all of life. Life is joy and sorrow. We used to be people who wanted the joy without the sorrow. But we can learn from hard times, maybe more than we do in easy times. Often, getting through hard times helps us grow. When things get tough, maybe we want to turn and run. Then, a gentle voice from within us say, “I am with you. You have friends who will help.” If we listen, we’ll hear our Higher Power. This is what is meant by “conscious contact” in Step eleven. As this conscious contact grows, our courage grows. And we find the strength to face hard times.
Prayer for the Day: I pray for the strength and courage to live. I pray that I’ll never have to face hard time alone again.
Action for the Day: I’ll list two examples of conscious contact” in my life.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Life has got to be lived--that's all there is to it. At 70 I would say the advantage is that you take life more calmly. You know that, "This, too, shall pass!" --Eleanor Roosevelt
Wisdom comes with age, but also with maturity. It is knowing that all is well in the midst of a storm. And as our faith grows, as we trust more that there is a power greater than ourselves which will see us through, we can relax, secure that a better time awaits us.
We will come to understand the part a difficult circumstance has played in our lives. Hindsight makes so much clear. The broken marriage, the lost job, the loneliness have all contributed to who we are becoming. The joy of the wisdom we are acquiring is that hindsight comes more quickly. We can, on occasion, begin to accept a difficult situation's contribution to our wholeness while caught in the turmoil.
How far we have come! So seldom do we stay caught, really trapped, in the fear of misunderstanding. Life must teach us all we need to know. We can make the way easier by stretching our trust--by knowing fully that the pain of the present will open the way to the serenity of the future.
I know that this too shall pass.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Doctor's Opinion

What is the solution? Perhaps I can best answer this by relating one of my experiences.
About one year prior to this experience a man was brought in to be treated for chronic alcoholism. He had but partially recovered from a gastric hemorrhage and seemed to be a case of pathological mental deterioration. He had lost everything worthwhile in life and was only living, one might say, to drink. He frankly admitted and believed that for him there was no hope. Following the elimination of alcohol, there was found to be no permanent brain injury. He accepted the plan outlined in this book. One year later he called to see me, and I experienced a very strange sensation. I knew the man by name, and partly recognized his features, but there all resemblance ended. From a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment. I talked with him for some time, but was not able to bring myself to feel that I had known him before. To me he was a stranger, and so he left me. A long time has passed with no return to alcohol.

p. xxxi

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Women Suffer Too

Despite great opportunities, alcohol nearly ended her life. Early member, she spread the word among women in our pioneering period.

It didn't stop there. They knew what to do about those black abysses that yawned ready to swallow me when I felt depressed, or nervous. There was a concrete program, designed to secure the greatest possible inner security for us long-time escapists. The feeling of impending disaster that had haunted me for years began to dissolve as I put into practice more and more of the Twelve Steps. It worked!

p. 207

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

After we come into A.A., if we go on growing, our attitudes and actions toward security--emotional security and financial security--commence to change profoundly. Our demand for emotional security, for our own way, had constantly thrown us into unworkable relations with other people. Though we were sometimes quite unconscious of this, the result always had been the same. Either we had tried to play God and dominate those about us, or we had insisted on being overdependent upon them. Where people had temporarily let us run their lives as though they were still children, we had felt very happy and secure ourselves. But when they finally resisted or ran away, we were bitterly hurt and disappointed. We blamed them, being quite unable to see that our unreasonable demands had been the cause.

p. 115

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I can't have a better tomorrow if I am thinking about yesterday all the time.
--unknown

"You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest, that it leaves your arms too full to
embrace the present."
--Jan Glidewell

Jesus is a friend who walks in when the world has walked out.
--unknown

When God leads, He provides.
--unknown

The times that are the most difficult for me are when God's answer is
"wait" (rather than "yes" or "no"). I can even take His "You've got
to be kidding!" or "You want WHAT??????" easier than "wait."
--unknown

You can choose to worry about something or you can realize that there are actually very
few circumstances in life you can control, and just let things be. This is not an "I don't
care" attitude, this is simply accepting what is.
--unknown

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

PEACE

"Peace without justice is tyranny."
-- William Allen White

Peace at any price! Not for me today. For years I sought a peace that was based upon
the "no-talk" principle remaining quiet, rather than causing upset or risking
embarrassment. Such a peace was unjust. It only fed the disease and helped to keep
me sick.

Today I seek a peace that involves discussing or confronting painful situations, often
making me and others uncomfortable. Serenity is a peace that is arrived at after
periods of pain but a necessary pain.

In my life today I have the courage to speak out and make choices that are good for me;
God is alive in my choice.

May I forever search for the "peace" that is real. May I find "peace" in the justice of
my lifestyle.

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O Lord I say to you "You are my God" Hear O Lord my cry for mercy.
Psalm 140:6

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what
it says."
James 1:22

Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest."
Matthew 11:28

"The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life."
Proverbs 15:4

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Daily Inspiration

Choose the direction of your day and then make a point of enjoying your choices. Lord, help me to do what I can when I can, but also, help me to know when doing nothing is the better choice.

Take care of yourself so that you may give care to others. Lord, may I never totally ignore myself and my feelings for the sake of others and fit in time daily to refresh my spirit.