Daily Recovery Readings - April

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April 2

Daily Reflections

CHARACTER BUILDING

Demands made upon other people for too much attention,
protection, and love can only invite domination or
revulsion....
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44

When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step,
I didn't think it should rank as a character defect. I
wanted to think of it more as an asset (that is, the desire
to please people). It was quickly pointed out to me that
this "need" can be very crippling. Today I still enjoy
getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to
pay the price I used to pay to get it. I will not bend
myself into a pretzel to get others to like me. If I get
your approval, that's fine; but if I don't, I will
survive without it. I am responsible for speaking what
I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may
want to hear.
Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly
concerned about my reputation. Since being enlightened
in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward
becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit
my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was
before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with
me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I
feel that the friends I've found in A.A. are real friends?
Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and
do I want to help them if I can? Do I really care now about
other people?

Meditation For The Day

Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle-
working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of
God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company
with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace,
you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time,
you throw that one aside for a yet finer one. And so from
character to character, you are gradually transformed.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each
acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better
person.

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As Bill Sees It

Walking Toward Serenity, p. 92

"When I was tired and couldn't concentrate, I used to fall back on an
affirmation toward life that took the form of simple walking and deep
breathing. I sometimes told myself that I couldn't do even this--that I
was too weak. But I learned that this was the point at which I could
not give in without becoming still more depressed.

"So I would set myself at a small stint. I would determine to walk a
quarter of a mile. And I would concentrate by counting my
breathing--say, six steps to each slow inhalation and four to each
exhalation. Having done the quarter-mile, I found that I could go on,
maybe a half-mile more. Then another half-mile, and maybe another.

"This was encouraging. The false sense of physical weakness would
leave me (this feeling being so characteristic of depressions). The
walking and especially the breathing were powerful affirmations
toward life and living and away from failure and death. The counting
represented a minimum discipline in concentration, to get some rest
from the wear and tear of fear and guilt."

Letter, 1960

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Walk in Dry Places

Accepting Risk
Facing Reality.
Like it or not, life seems to have certain risks that just can't be avoided. Alcoholics are not really comfortable with risk-taking. This is especially true in situations that include risk of rejection, risk of defeat, or risk of loss.
If we try to get through life without accepting some risk, however, we're simply not being realistic. The refusal to accept risk may also mean that we miss wonderful opportunities in the process.
What should we do? We should face risk intelligently and with spiritual preparation. FIRST, we do everything possible to reduce risk in any situation (thus making it a "calculated risk"). THEN we pray for guidance and inspiration (but not a certain outcome). FINALLY, we do our very best to succeed in the situation, whether it's a courtship, a job search, competition in sports, or whatever.
We might surprise ourselves by succeeding more times than we fail. But even in temporary failure, we gain if we follow through in accepting reasonable and necessary risks.
I'll exercise prudence and good judgment in all my undertakings today, but I won't expect to be able to "play it safe" in everything. As a human being, I have to take risks in life.

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Keep It Simple

To know all things is not permitted.--- Horace
In recovery, we give up trying to be perfect. We give up trying to know
everything. We work at coming to know and accept our short-comings. In
Step Four and Five, we look at our good points and our bad points. In Step
Six, we become ready to have our Higher Power remove our "defects of
character." Then in Step Seven we ask our Higher Power to remove our
"shortcomings."
Recovery is about coming to accept that we're not prefect. We admit that
trying to be perfect got in the way of being useful to ourselves, our
Higher Power, and those around us. Pretending to be prefect doesn't allow
us to be real. It's also boring and no fun---you never get to mess up.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You will let me know what I need to know. Allow me to claim
my mistakes and shortcomings.
Action for the Day: I will work at being okay today. Not prefect, just okay.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. --Amelia Earhart
We have learned from experience that a wave of peacefulness washes over us after we have successfully finished a task that was difficult to face. Courage has its reward. However, from time to time, and from task to task, we find we need the reminder that peace will come once the loose ends have been tied by us.
Our search for peace was desperate and unending in past years. Our fears overwhelmed us more often than not. Courage was seldom displayed. Tasks were often left half done or not done at all. Challenges went unmet. And peace eluded us.
We are so lucky that the program found us, and that we found the program! We are looking forward, at last, with the courage that trusting a higher power has given us. Peace is ours, now and always, as we go forth with the strength of the program to bolster us. New jobs, new friends, new situations may still elicit our old fears. But their hold on us is gone. We have learned that we face nothing alone. What relief that simple truth brings.
Courage is one of the program's gifts. I will have courage to go forward: to meet the new day, to handle whatever confronts me. Peace is coupled with courage, now and forever.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 8 - TO WIVES

Another feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and loyalty could not cure our husbands of alcoholism. We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years. At such moments we forget that alcoholism is an illness over which we could not possibly have had any power. Your husband will be the first to say it was your devotion and care which brought him to the point where he could have a spiritual experience. Without you he would have gone to pieces long ago. When resentful thoughts come, try to pause and count your blessings. After all, your family is reunited, alcohol is no longer a problem and you and your husband are working together toward an undreamed-of future.

pp. 118-119

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Foreword

As A.A. now enters maturity, it has begun to reach into forty foreign lands.* In the view of its friends, this is but the beginning of its unique and valuable service.
It is hoped that this volume will afford all who read it a close-up view of the principles and forces which have made Alcoholics Anonymous what it is.

(A.A.'s General Service Office may be reached by writing:
Alcoholics Anonymous, P.O. Box 459,
Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163, U.S.A.)

*In 1998, A.A. is established in 150 countries.

p. 18

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"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
there."
--Will Rogers

Laughter is by definition healthy.
--Doris Lessing

He who laughs, lasts.
--Mary Pettibone Poole

The best portion of a good man's life is in his little nameless,
unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
--William Wordsworth

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
--Aesop

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never
thrown away.
--Arthur Helps

"We get so much in the habit of wearing a disguise before others that
we eventually appear disguised before ourselves."
--Jim Bishop

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

PROBLEMS

"The real problem is in the
hearts and minds of men."
--Albert Einstein

We are facing not so much a "drug problem" as a people problem - and
this requires a solution from the people. I believe the solution and
recovery has already been given by God, but it must be discovered from
within. We need to seek out what is truly in our minds and hearts: what
are our problems, what are our needs, what do we long for, where are
we going in our lives?

Today it is not enough for me to know my problems, I need also to talk
about them. Today I choose to express my feelings.

God, I thank You for the creative gift of communication.

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O, come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the
LORD our maker.
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and
the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice.
Psalm 95:6-7

When you lie down you will not be afraid; when you lie down , your sleep
will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:24

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Daily Inspiration

There are always better things to come than that which we have left behind. Lord, I look with excitement toward the enexpected joys of today.

Forget what you have done for others and remember what they have done for you. Lord, a gift is given freely with no expection. May I become a truly giving person.