Daily Recovery Readings - December

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December 29

Daily Reflections

THE JOY OF LIVING

. . . . therefore the joy of good living is the theme
of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 125

A.A. is a joyful program! Even so, I occasionally balk
at taking the necessary steps to move ahead, and find
myself resisting the very actions that could bring about
the joy I want. I would not resist if those actions did
not touch some vulnerable area of my life, an area that
needs hope and fulfillment. Repeated exposure to
joyfulness has a way of softening the hard, outer edges
of my ego. Therein lies the power of joyfulness to help
all members of A.A.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Participating in the privileges of the movement, I shall
share in the responsibilities, taking it upon myself to
carry my fair share of the load, not grudgingly but
joyfully. I am deeply grateful for the privileges I
enjoy because of my membership in this great movement.
They put an obligation upon me which I will not shirk.
I will gladly carry my fair share of the burdens.
Because of the joy of doing them, they will no longer be
burdens, but opportunities. Will I accept every opportunity
gladly?

Meditation For The Day

Work and prayer are the two forces which are gradually
making a better world. We must work for the betterment of
ourselves and our fellow men. Faith without works is dead.
But all work with people should be based on prayer. If we
say a little prayer before we speak or try to help, it
will make us more effective. Prayer is the force behind
the work. Prayer is based on faith that God is working
with us and through us. We can believe that nothing is
impossible in human relationships, if we depend on the
help of God.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that my life may be balanced between prayer and
work. I pray that I may not work without prayer or pray
without work.

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As Bill Sees It

Unlimited Choice, p. 201

Any number of alcoholics are bedeviled by the dire conviction that if
they ever go near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some
particular brand of faith or theology.

They just don't realize that faith is never an imperative for A.A.
membership. That sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable
minimum of it, and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God--as
we understand Him--afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of
spiritual belief and action.

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In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man
be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to
agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he
likes, provided it makes sense to him.

The main thing is that he is willing to believe in a Power greater than
himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

1. Grapevine, April 1961
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 93

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Walk In Dry Places

Mending the past
No Regrets of the Past
"The past is best mended by living so fully today that its errors have no place in our lives." These words by an AA member suggest an approach for healing from the past.
All of us would benefit to use today's knowledge to deal with situations we mishandled in the past. But we must remember that whatever mistakes we made, we had available only the knowledge and resources we possessed the, and we may have done about as well as we possibly could at this time.
We should also remember that active alcoholism is a crippling and ugly disease with many terrible consequences. It's not surprising that bad things happened to others and us when we were drinking. We can only be grateful that we are now recovering and that matters are better, not worse, than they once were.
I'll live fully today, allowing no thoughts of regret from my past to intrude.

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Keep It Simple

Many people are living in an emotional jail without recognizing it. Virginia Satir.
Our disease was our jail. We felt so bad that we were sure we must have done something awful. But we didn't cause our disease. We have done nothing to deserve our disease. We aren't responsible for the fact that we have a disease. But we ARE responsible for our recovery. We have been granted probation. The terms of our probation are simple: don't drink or use other drugs, and work the Steps. If we follow these simple rules, we'll be free. And it will be clear to us that only a Power greater than ourselves could give us this freedom.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to stay free. For this next twenty-four - hour period, take from me any urge to drink or use other drugs. With Your help, I'll be free.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll think about my disease. I am not morally weak. I have a dangerous illness. What can keep me free from my disease?

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Each Day a New Beginning

Kindness and intelligence don't always deliver us from the pitfalls and traps. There is no way to take the danger out of human relationships. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Relationships with other people are necessary to escape loneliness; however, relationships do not guarantee freedom from pain. Nurturing a meaningful relationship with another human being takes patience, even when we don't have any. It takes tolerance, even if we don't feel it. It takes selflessness, at those very moments our own ego is crying for attention.
Yet, we need relationships with others; they inspire us. We learn who we are and who we can become through relationships. They precipitate our accomplishments. Our creativity is encouraged by them, and so is our emotional and spiritual development.
We can look around us, attentively. We can feel blessed, even when it's a negative situation. Every situation is capable of inspiring a positive step forward. Every situation is meant for our good.
There's risk in human relationships, and it's often accompanied by pain. But I am guaranteed growth, and I will find the happiness I seek. I will reach out to someone today.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

BILL'S STORY

An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature. Our struggles with them are variously strenuous, comic, and tragic. One poor chap committed suicide in my home. He could not, or would not, see our way of life.
There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish.
Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.

Bill W., co-founder of A.A.,
died January 24,1971.

p. 16

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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.

At that time the group in New York was composed of about twelve men who were working on the principle of every drunk for himself; we had no real formula and no name. We would follow one man's ideas for a while, decide he was wrong, and switch to another's method. But we were staying sober as long as we kept and talked together. There was one meeting a week at Bill's home in Brooklyn, and we all took turns there spouting off about how we had changed our lives overnight, how many drunks we had saved and straightened out, and last but not least, how God had touched each of us personally on the shoulder. Boy, what a circle of confused idealists! Yet we all had one really sincere purpose in our hearts, and that was not to drink. At our weekly meeting I was a menace to serenity those first few months, for I took every opportunity to lambaste that "spiritual angle," as we called it, or anything else that had any tingle of theology. Much later I discovered the elders held many prayer meetings hoping to find a way to give me the heave-ho but at the same time stay tolerant and spiritual. They did not seem to be getting an answer, for here I was staying sober and selling lots of auto polish, on which they were making one thousand percent profit. So I rocked along my merry independent way until June, when I went out selling auto polish in England. After a very good week, two of my customers took me to lunch on Saturday. We ordered sandwiches, and one man said, "Three beers." I let that sit too. Then it was my turn--I ordered, "Three beers," but this time it was different; I had a cash investment of thirty cents, and, on a ten-dollar-a-week-salary, that a big thing. So I drank all three beers, one after the other, and said, "I'll be seeing you, boys," and went around the corner for a bottle. I never saw either of them again.

pp. 227-228

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

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

Why did A.A. finally drop all its membership regulations? Why did we leave it to each newcomer to decide himself whether he was an alcoholic and whether he should join us? Why did we dare say, contrary to the experience of society and government everywhere, that we would neither punish nor deprive any A.A. of membership, believe anything, or conform to anything?
The answer, now seen in Tradition Three, was simplicity itself. At last experience taught us that to take away any alcoholic's full chance was sometimes to pronounce his death sentence, and often to condemn him to endless misery. Who dared to be judge, jury, and executioner of his own sick brother?

p. 141

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Keep your sobriety first to make it last.
--unknown

Having the world's best idea will do you no good unless you act on it. People who want
milk shouldn't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow will back up to
them.
--Curtis Grant

When you make a mistake, make amends immediately. It's easier to eat crow while
it's still warm.
--Sherrie R.

"When nobody around you measures up, it's time to check your yardstick."
--Bill Lemly

Without God's inner source of enlightenment and refreshment, I would soon stagnate
and feel despair.
--Shelley

The heart of AA is the act of one person giving to another.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

MADNESS

"The madman who knows that he
is mad is close to sanity."
-- Juan Ruiz de Alarcon

An alcoholic who continues to drink is committing suicide. An addict who continues to
use is committing suicide. An overeater who continues to eat compulsively and
destructively is committing suicide. Madness.

It is like a man standing in the town square stabbing himself with a knife and asking
the passer-by, "Why am I bleeding?"

Today I accept my past destructive behavior and try to change it on a daily basis.
Spirituality is loving yourself enough to "see" the writing on the wall and do something
about it. Change is sanity for the madman!

God, You seem to have given me a dose of insanity. Let me use it to Your glory.

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"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
Revelation 3:20

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you
regard one another as more important than himself.
Philippians 2:3

"Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls;
and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand."
Romans 14:4

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in
you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17

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Daily Inspiration

Today picture yourself as the happiest person that you know and watch how contagious this enthusiasm for life is. Lord, may I bring out the best in those with whom I share today so they can in turn bring out more of my best.

Choose God instead of choosing to worry. Lord, in Your justice, rescue and deliver me.