Daily Recovery Readings - December

[bluidkiti]

December 25

Daily Reflections

AT PEACE WITH LIFE

Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of
God's will into all of our activities. "How can I
best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done."
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85

I read this passage each morning, to start off my
day, because it is a continual reminder to "practice
these principles in all my affairs." When I keep
God's will at the forefront of my mind, I am able to
do what I should be doing, and that puts me at peace
with life, with myself and with God.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good
Christmas for me." They will be looking back over the
past Christmases which were not like this one. They
will be thanking God for their sobriety and their new
found life. They will be thinking about how their
lives have changed when they came into A.A. They will
be thinking that perhaps God let them live through all
the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were
perhaps often close to death, in order that they may
be used by Him in the great work of A.A. Is this a happy
Christmas for me?

Meditation For The Day

The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the
sinners, the repentant. "And they presented unto him
gifts--gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Bring your gifts
of gold--your money and material possessions. Bring
your frankincense--the consecration of your life to a
worthy cause. Bring your myrrh--your sympathy and
understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet of
God and let Him have full use of them.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas day.
I pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.

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As Bill Sees It

"Fearless and Searching", p.261

My self-analysis has frequently been faulty. Sometimes I've failed
to share my defects with the right people; at other times, I've
confessed their defects, rather than my own; and still other times,
my confession of defects has been more in the nature of loud
complaints about my circumstances and my problems.

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When A.A. suggests a fearless moral inventory, it must seem to
every newcomer that more is being asked of him than he can do.
Every time he tries to look within himself, Pride says, "You need not
pass this way," and Fear says, "You dare not look!"

But pride and fear of this sort turn out to be bogymen, nothing
else. Once we have a complete willingness to take inventory, and
exert ourselves to do the job thoroughly, a wonderful light falls
upon this foggy scene. As we persist, a brand-new kind of
confidence is born, and the sense of relief at finally facing
ourselves is indescribable.

1. Grapevine, June 1958
2. 12 & 12, pp.49-50

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Walk In Dry Places

Liking Ourselves
Self-esteem.
It's maybe unsettling to learn that we need to like ourselves more, especially when we've often been accused of being conceited.
Being conceited does not mean liking oneself; it's really a matter of being smug and contemptuous in our dealing with others. This attitude is easily recognized by others, and it causes them to dislike us.
However, if we like ourselves in the right way, others sense this too, and they will be drawn to us. We will truly like ourselves more as we learn to practice the principles of AA. We will like the kind of life we are trying to live. We will like ourselves for practicing fairness and honesty. We will also like ourselves for letting people see us as we are and feel comfortable doing so. In liking ourselves, we feel no need to impress or dazzle others.
I'll remember today that I have a right to be in the world. I will do my best to be fair toward others, but I will like myself regardless of their reactions.

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Keep It Simple

To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.--Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz.
Not that we're getting well. We feel the need for love more than ever. We tried to avoid love by using chemicals to feel good. But it didn't work. Addiction cut us off even more from people. How do we fill our needs for love? We can think about this fact: People give us love all the time. Only we just haven't seen it. Every time someone comes to a meeting to get well with us, that is love. Love isn't all-or-nothing.
Little gems of love are all over. Watch them. Enjoy them. Give them to others.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, love comes from You. Help me see it, and give it.
Action for the Day: I'll look three persons in the eye today and send them love in my smile.

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Each Day a New Beginning

What we suffer, what we endure . . is done by us, as individuals, in private.
--Louise Bogan
Empathy we can give. Empathy we can find, and it comforts. But our pain, the depth of it, can never be wholly shared, fully understood, actually realized by anyone other than ourselves. Alone, each of us comes to terms with our grief, our despair, even our guilt.
Knowing that we are not alone in what we suffer, makes the difficulties each of us must face easier. We haven't been singled out, of that we're certain. Remembering that our challenges offer us the lessons we need in the school of life makes them more acceptable. In time, as our recovery progresses, we'll even look eagerly to our challenges as the real exciting opportunities for which we've been created.
Suffering prompts the changes necessary for spiritual growth. It pushes us like no other experience to God--for understanding, for relief, for unwavering security. It's not easy to look upon suffering as a gift. And we need not fully understand it; however, in time, its value in our lives will become clear.
I will not be wary of the challenges today. I will celebrate their part of my growth.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

BILL'S STORY

For a moment I was alarmed, and called my friend, the doctor, to ask if I were still sane. He listened in wonder as I talked.
Finally he shook his head saying, "Something has happened to you I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it. Anything is better than the way you were." The good doctor now sees many men who have such experiences. He knows that they are real.

p. 14

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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.

After the tire job came the thirties, the Depression, and the downhill road. In the eight years before A.A. found me, I had over forty jobs--selling and traveling--one thing after another, and the same old routine. I'd work like mad for three or four weeks without a single drink, save my money, pay a few bills, and then "reward" myself with alcohol. Then I'd be broke again, hiding out in cheap hotels all over the country, having one-night jail stands here and there, and always that horrible feeling "What's the use--nothing is worthwhile." Every time I blacked out, and that was every time I drank, there was always that gnawing fear, "What did I do this time?" Once I found out. Many alcoholics have learned they can bring their bottle to a cheap movie theater and drink, sleep, wake up, and drink again in the darkness. I had repaired to one of these one morning with my jug, and, when I left late in the afternoon, I picked up a newspaper on the way home. Imagine my surprise when I read in a page-one "box" that I had been taken from the theater unconscious around noon that day, removed by ambulance to a hospital and stomach-pumped, and then released. Evidently I had gone right back to the movie with a bottle, stayed there several hours, and started home with no recollection of what had happened.

p. 225

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."

To establish this principle of membership took years of harrowing experience. In our early time, nothing seemed so fragile, so easily breakable as an A.A. group. Hardly an alcoholic we approached paid any attention; most of those who did join us were like flickering candles in a windstorm. Time after time, their uncertain flames blew out and couldn't be relighted. Our unspoken, constant thought was "Which of us may be the next?"

p. 139

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Every day is a gift.
That is why we call it the present.
--unknown

"Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others."
--Brian Tracy

"The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors."
--Samuel Smiles

"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now,
don't say, 'Come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you.'"
--unknown

Life's lessons are not taught in classrooms.
--unknown

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them."
--Henry David Thoreau

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

GENEROSITY

"And the Word was made flesh
and dwelt amongst us."
-- John (1:14)

There is a beautiful fairy tale about a land where everybody had an abundance of "warm fuzzies" that they exchanged with
each other and shared with each other. Everything in this land was wonderful because all the people were generously giving
and receiving "warm fuzzies".

Then a rumor began that there was to be a shortage of "warm fuzzies," and people began to hoard and selfishly protect their
supply of "warm fuzzies." At this point, "cold pricklies" were introduced into the land. Sadness, pain, tension and persecution
developed in the land, and the growth of the "cold pricklies" kept people separated, fearful and alone.

The tragedy of this tale is that the rumor was not true! As long as people generously share their "warm fuzzies", they will
never disappear. The "warm fuzzies" only disappear when they are not shared. The more we give, the more we receive.
Abundance rests in giving, never hoarding!

Master, may I always be generous with all that You have given me.

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"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:11

"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
believed.'" John 20:29

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Daily Inspiration

Enthusiasm keeps the mind young and the spirit growing. Lord, may I always see wonder in the ordinary happenings of my day.

No detail is too insignificant for God's attention. Lord, You encourage me daily as You guide my humblest moments.