Daily Recovery Readings - April

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April 7

Daily Reflections

A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE

And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare
that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither
of us could have lived to see A.A.'s beginning.
THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67

Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to
my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I
might never have survived to reach A.A.'s doors? I will
work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is
showing me which links our lives together.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In A.A. alcoholics find a way to solve their personality
problems. They do this by recovering three things. First,
they recover their personal integrity. They pull themselves
together. They get honest with themselves and with other
people. They face themselves and their problems honestly,
instead of running away. They take a personal inventory of
themselves to see where they really stand. Then they face
the facts instead of making excuses for themselves. Have
I recovered my integrity?

Meditation For The Day

When trouble comes, do not say: "Why should this happen to
me?" Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people
and their troubles and you will forget about your own.
Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the
consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while,
it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not
so important any more, except as your experience can be used
to help others who are in the same kind of trouble.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may become more unselfish. I pray that I may
not be thrown off the track by letting the old selfishness
creep back into my life.

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As Bill Sees It

Self-Respect Through Sacrifice, p. 97

At the beginning we sacrificed alcohol. We had to, or it would have
killed us. But we couldn't get rid of alcohol unless we made other
sacrifices. We had to toss the self-justification, self-pity, and anger
right out the window. We had to quit the crazy contest for personal
prestige and big bank balances. We had to take personal
responsibility for our sorry state and quit blaming others for it.

Were these sacrifices? Yes, they were. To gain enough humility and
self-respect to stay alive at all, we had to give up what had really
been our dearest possessions--our ambitions and our illegitimate
pride.

A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 287

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Walk in Dry Places

Deserving Happiness___Emotional Control
Somewhere in the course of living sober, we should realize that we can deserve to be happy. If happiness is eluding us, the fault may lie in a peculiar guilt from our past. In a perverse way, we may be using unhappiness as penance for our past wrongs.
We deserve to be happy if we are doing the things that should bring happiness to ourselves and others. Thinking and living rightly is a path to happiness. Meeting our obligations to society and others contributes to personal happiness. Placing the overall responsibility for our lives in God's hands is yet another route to happiness.
We can also learn from our experience. Did any of us ever meet a truly happy person who was totally self-seeking? Do we remember any happy, serene people among our drinking companions? Did any of our temporary successes and victories bring permanent happiness?
AA experience gives us the answers we need. Happiness is always in the direction of love and service, never in anything selfish. We deserve to be happy, but we must plant seeds of happiness by our thoughts and actions.
I'll be happy today. If I'm worrying about something, I'll suspend the worry and let myself be happy in spite of it. I deserve to be happy and I am usually the person who is responsible for this happiness.

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Keep It Simple

To make the world a friendly place One must show it a friendly face.---James Whitcomb Riley
We are beginning to learn that we get what we expect. Why? If we believe that people are out to get us, we'll not treat them well. We will think it's okay to "get them" before they "get us." Then, they'll be angry and want to get even. And on it goes. It's great when we can meet the world with a balance. We are honest people. We can expect others to be fair with us. We get the faith, strength, and courage to do this because of our trust in our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I put my life in Your care. Use me to spread Your love to others.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll spread friendliness. I will greet people with a smile.

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Each Day a New Beginning

It is only when people begin to shake loose from their preconceptions, from the ideas that have dominated them, that we begin to receive a sense of opening, a sense of vision. --Barbara Ward
A sense of vision, seeing who we can dare to be and what we can dare to accomplish, is possible if we focus intently on the present and always the present. We are all we need to be, right now. We can trust that. And we will be shown the way to become who we need to become, step by step, from one present moment to the next present moment. We can trust that, too.
The past that we hang onto stands in our way. Many of us needlessly spend much of our lives fighting a poor self-image. But we can overcome that. We can choose to believe we are capable and competent. We can be spontaneous, and our vision of all that life can offer will change--will excite us, will cultivate our confidence.
We can respond to life wholly. We can trust our instincts. And we will become all that we dare to become.
Each day is a new beginning. Each moment is a new opportunity to let go of all that has trapped me in the past. I am free. In the present, I am free.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 8 - TO WIVES

We never, never try to arrange a man’s life so as to shield him from temptation. The slightest disposition on your part to guide his appointment or his affairs so he will not be tempted will be noticed. Make him feel absolutely free to come and go as he likes. This is important. If he gets drunk, don’t blame yourself. God has either removed your husband’s liquor problem or He has not. If not, it had better be found out right away. Then you and your husband can get right down to fundamentals. If a repetition is to be prevented, place the problem, along with everything else, in God’s hands.

p. 120

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable."

When first challenged to admit defeat, most of us revolted. We had approached A.A. expecting to be taught self-confidence. Then we had been told that so far as alcohol is concerned, self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a total liability. Our sponsors declared that we were the victims of a mental obsession so subtly powerful that no amount of human willpower could break it. There was, they said, no such thing as the personal conquest of this compulsion by the unaided will. Relentlessly deepening our dilemma, our sponsors pointed out our increasing sensitivity to alcohol--an allergy, they called it. The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the process. Few indeed were those who, so assailed, had ever won through in single-handed combat. It was a statistical fact that alcoholics almost never recovered on their own resources. And this had been true, apparently, ever since man had first crushed grapes.

p. 22

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It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
--Vince Lombardi

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always
yours. And if they don't, they never were.
--Kahlil Gibran

"Devote uninterrupted chunks of time to the most important people in
your life."
--Brian Tracy

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
--John Powell

You can sit there choosing to live your life in pain, or you can choose
to take action and free yourself from the bondage.
--Gary Barnes

Nothing is better than experiencing joy except sharing it with someone
else.
--Deanna Smythe

There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart.
--Celia Thaxter

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

OLD AGE

"You just wake up one morning
and you got it!"
--Moms Mabley

I am so busy living I don't think about "getting old". I am so grateful in
my recovery from alcoholism that tomorrow, the future and age are
secondary.

In my sickness I was always living in the future; what would tomorrow
bring? Will I die crippled, lonely and afraid? My projections into the
future produced an emotional pain.

Today I do not need to do this. I welcome old age because I bring into
it the joy and experience of my sobriety. Will I be lonely? I doubt it if I
stick to my recovery program; I have so many friends all over the
world meeting together to face the disease on a daily basis. Also I
know that nothing could ever compare with the loneliness of my
drinking days.

My spiritual program reminds me to be grateful for my life and this
includes the inevitability of old age.

Lord, as I grow in age may I also grow in wisdom and tolerance.

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"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall
come forth as gold."
Job 23:10

Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully near you.
Proverbs 3:29

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Daily Inspiration

One of the best parts of receiving blessings is enjoying them. Lord, may I take time to recognize my blessings and appreciate their wonder.

As a mother sets aside gifts for her children long before they need them, so, too, has God prepared for our needs long before we call out to Him. Lord, I give thanks and place my trust in Your loving arms.