Daily Recovery Readings - December

[bluidkiti]

December 15

Daily Reflections

DOING ANYTHING TO HELP

Offer him [the alcoholic] friendship and fellowship. Tell
him that if he wants to get well you will do anything to
help.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 95

I remember how attracted I was to the two men from A.A.
who Twelfth-Stepped me. They said I could have what they
had, with no conditions attached, that all I had to do was
make my own decision to join them on the pathway to
recovery. When I start convincing a newcomer to do things
my way, I forget how helpful those two men were to me in
their open-minded generosity.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Service to others makes the world a good place. Civilization
would cease if all of us were always and only for ourselves. We
alcoholics have a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the
well-being of the world. We have a common problem. We find
a common answer. We are uniquely equipped to help others
with the same problem. What a wonderful world it would be
if everybody took their own greatest problem and found the
answer to it and spent the rest of their lives helping
others with the same problem, in their spare time. Soon we
would have the right kind of a world. Do I appreciate my unique
opportunity to be of service?

Meditation For The Day

Today can be lived in the consciousness of God's contact,
upholding you in all good thoughts, words and deeds. If
sometimes there seems to be a shadow on your life and you
feel out of sorts, remember that this is not the withdrawal
of God's presence, but only your own temporary unwillingness
to realize it. The quiet gray days are the days for doing
what you must do, but know that the consciousness of God's
nearness will return and be with you again, when the gray
days are past.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may face the dull days with courage. I pray
that I may have faith that the bright days will return.

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As Bill Sees It

A.A. In Two Words, p.271

"All A.A. progress can be reckoned in terms of just two words:
humility and responsibility. Our whole spiritual development can
be accurately measured by our degree of adherence to these
magnificent standards.

"Ever deepening humility, accompanied by an ever greater
willingness to accept and to act upon clear-cut obligations--these are
truly our touchstones for all growth in the life of the spirit. They
hold up to us the very essence of right being and right doing. It is by
them that we are enabled to find and to do God's will."
Talk, 1965 (Printed In Grapevine, January 1966)

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Walk In Dry Places

Watching our boundaries.
Personal relationships
Setting boundaries in personal relationships is how we manage actions that could otherwise get out of control. One firm boundary in AA, for example, is maintaining other members' anonymity, as well as our own. We are always overstepping boundaries if we disclose another's AA membership without permission.
It's wise, too, not to expect the easy familiarity of the meetings to carry over into all other activities. One member who was employed by another AA member apparently wondered why his boss was so easygoing and cordial at AA meetings and so remote and businesslike in the factory. It made perfect sense, however; their relationship in the plant was different from their AA relationship and required another set of boundaries.
We can protect ourselves and others by being careful to establish proper boundaries for all relationships. This means that what's appropriate for one setting may not be for another.
I'll check to be sure that I'm observing proper boundaries, for myself and others. I must not violate others' rights any more than I want my own violated.

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Keep It Simple

As ass is beautiful to an ass, and a pig to a pig.-- English proverb.
When we see someone drunk and out of control, can we see the beautiful person inside them?
If we can't, who will? Step Twelve reminds us that we have to help the alcoholic or other drug addict who suffers. This task has been given to us because we, most of all, should be able to look past the drunkenness and see the person. We were there. We know what it's like to be trapped in a world without meaning. If these memories have faded, we may need to go back over Step One. We may find ourselves angry with the practicing drunk or other drug addict. This is a sign that we have gotten too far from our past. Remember, "But for the grace of God..."
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, Help me remember my past and what it's like now. This helps me care about the person who still suffers.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll respect my illness. I'll look for the beauty inside every drunk and other drug addict.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Happiness is a form of freedom, and of all people I should be the freest. I've earned this happiness and this freedom.
--Angela L. Wozniak
Life is a process, and we are progressing beautifully. We are no longer abusing our bodies and minds with drugs. We are taking special time, daily, to look for guidance. We are working the Steps of the program, better and better as the abstinent days add up. We are free from past behaviors. And we can be free from our negative attitudes too.
Making a decision to look for the good in our experiences and in our friends and acquaintances frees us from so much frustration. It ushers in happiness, no only for us but for the others we are treating agreeably. Happiness is a byproduct of living the right kind of life.
We can take a moment today, each time an action is called for, to consider our response. The one that squares with our inner selves and feels good, is the right one. Happiness will accompany it.
Happiness is always within my power. My attitude is at the helm.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

BILL'S STORY

But my friend sat before me, and he made the point blank declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat. Then he had, in effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a level of life better than the best he had ever known!

p. 11

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

The Vicious Cycle

How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.

This was my introduction to this "understanding fellowship" although it was to be more than a year later before our Society was to bear the name, Alcoholics Anonymous. All of us in A.A. know the tremendous happiness that is in our sobriety, but there are also tragedies. My sponsor, Jackie, was one of these. He brought in many of our original members, yet he himself could not make it and died of alcoholism. The lesson of his death still remains with me, yet I often wonder what would have happened if somebody else had made that first call on me. So I always say that as long as I remember January 8th that is how long I will remain sober.

pp. 220-221

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."

What are these facts of A.A. life which brought us to this apparently impractical principle?
John Doe, a good A.A. moves - let us say - to Middletown, U.S.A. Alone now, he reflects that he may not be able to stay sober, or even alive, unless he passes on to other alcoholics what was so freely given him. He feels a spiritual and ethical compulsion, because hundreds may be suffering within reach of his help. Then, too, he misses his home group. He needs other alcoholics as much as they need him. He visits preachers, doctors, editors, policemen , and bartenders ... with the result that Middletown now has a group, and he is the founder.

pp. 132-133

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Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening
ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the
potential to turn a life around.
--Leo Buscaglia

He who speaks sows, and he who listens harvests.
--Argentinean Proverb

God is my compass, may I follow direction.
--Shelley

"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your
energies on moving forward toward finding the answer."
--Denis Waitley

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and
thinking that having problems is a problem."
--Theodore Rubin

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

POVERTY

"The poor you always have with
you."
-- Jesus (John 12:8)

Whoever said that life was going to be easy? A great number of people are placed in
circumstances that are beyond their control and they die in helpless poverty. The poor
are always with us. I cannot understand this dilemma and I have few answers for
most of the world's suffering. However, I have a faith in God's love being
realized beyond the grave for everyone.

But many of "the poor" are spiritually destitute by their own making. They choose to
live lives that are consistently destructive and they refuse to change. Alcoholics and
drug addicts are committing suicide by their lifestyle! I know because for years I was
one. This produces a spiritual poverty that need not remain. This is a poverty that
can be overcome. Recovery is finding the hidden treasure that is within.

Let me find Your treasure in the loving care I give myself.

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Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may
abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God
of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort
those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by
God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is
abundant through Christ."
2 Corinthians 1:3-5

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful;
he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,
he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
I Corinthians 10:13

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Daily Inspiration

Add excitement to the day by meeting everything as though it is your very first time. Lord, give me the ability to change the ordinary into something special, to do more than just slide through the moments of the day and take time to notice that my life really is terrific most of the time.

We have two ends; one for sitting and one for thinking. My success depends on which one I use more. Lord, grant me the determination and the necessary energy that I need to accomplish my goals for today and for my future.