Daily Recovery Readings - April

[bluidkiti]

April 10

Daily Reflections

GROWING UP

The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for
the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder
whatever responsibility this entails.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 115

Sometimes when I've become willing to do what I should
have been doing all along, I want praise and recognition.
I don't realize that the more I'm willing to act
differently, the more exciting my life is. The more I am
willing to help others, the more rewards I receive.
That's what practicing the principles means to me. Fun
and benefits for me are in the willingness to do the
actions, not to get immediate results. Being a little
kinder, a little slower to anger, a little more loving
makes my life better--day by day.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

When I came into A.A., I came into a new world. A sober
world. A world of sobriety, peace, serenity, and happiness.
But I know that if I take just one drink, I'll go right
back into that old world. That alcoholic world. That world
of drunkenness, conflict, and misery. That alcoholic world
is not a pleasant place for an alcoholic to live in. Looking
at the world through the bottom of a whiskey glass is no fun
after you've become an alcoholic. Do I want to go back to
that alcoholic world?

Meditation For The Day

Pride stands sentinel at the door of the heart and shuts out
the love of God. God can only dwell with the humble and the
obedient. Obedience to God's will is the key unlocking the
door to God's kingdom. You cannot obey God to the best of your
ability without in time realizing God's love and responding to
that love. The rough stone steps of obedience lead up to where
the mosaic floor of love and joy is laid. Where God's spirit
is, there is your home. There is heaven for you.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that God may make His home in my humble and obedient
heart. I pray that I may obey His guidance to the best of
my ability.

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As Bill Sees It

The Forgotten Mountain, p. 100

When I was a child, I acquired some of the traits that had a lot to do
with my insatiable craving for alcohol. I was brought up in a little
town in Vermont, under the shadow of Mount Aeolus. An early
recollection is that of looking up at this vast and mysterious
mountain, wondering what it meant and whether I could ever climb
that high. But I was presently distracted by my aunt who, as a
fourth-birthday present, made me a plate of fudge. For the next
thirty-five years I pursued the fudge of life and quite forgot about the
mountain.

<< << << >> >> >>

When self-indulgence is less than ruinous, we have a milder word for
it. We call it "taking our comfort."

1. A.A. Comes Of Age, pp. 52-53
2. 12 & 12, p. 67

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Walk in Dry Places

Protecting Sobriety
Though AA members never criticize drinking customs, we do tell newcomers that it's wise to avoid situations involving alcohol. Even this is not an absolute, because we also concede that it's sometimes necessary to attend a cocktail reception or to lunch with a friend in a bar. So how do we distinguish between what's safe and what's likely to lead to trouble.
The litmus test is always to look at our own motives and spiritual guidance. A drink has no power over us unless we want to take the drink. If we are not deliberately seeking out drinking situations, our motives are probably good. If our spiritual house is in order, our Higher Power will also protect us in any situation.

Wherever we go, however, we should also make our sobriety the first priority of business. Whatever the importance of any social event, it is insignificant compared with the importance of sobriety. Keep sobriety at the top of your list, and the other decisions will follow in proper order.
We should hole the additional thought that "walking in dry places" is really thinking of our selves as always being in dry places under God's guidance.

..Today I will focus on the sober world I want to enjoy and share. The world of drinking has nothing for me. I may encounter situations involving casual drinking today, but I will not be part of them in mind and spirit. I will think and walk in dry places.

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Keep It Simple

You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making their nest in your head.---Chinese proverb
Life is full of feelings. We can be happy, sad, mad, scared. These feelings can come and go quickly. Or we may hang on to them. As recovering addicts, we used to hang on to feelings that made us feel bad. We let them make"nest" in our hair. We used our feelings as excuse to drink or use other drugs. Now we're learning to hang on to our good feelings. We can let go of anger, hurt, and fear. We can shoo away the birds of sadness and welcome the birds of happiness.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me become a "bird watcher." Help me learn from my feelings. And help me let go of the bad one so I can be happy.
Action For the Day: If I need to get rid of the sadness or anger that I'm hanging on to, I'll get help from my sponsor, a counselor, or a clergy person.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Even though I can't solve your problems, I will be there as your sounding board whenever you need me. --Sandra K. Lamberson
The prize we each have been given is our ability to offer full and interested attention to people seeking our counsel. And seldom does a day pass, that we aren't given the opportunity to listen, to nurture, to offer hope where it's been dashed.
We are not separate, one from another. Interdependence is our blessing; however, we fail to recognize it at our crucial crossroads. Alone we ponder. Around us, others, too, are often suffering in silence. These Steps that guide our lives push us to break the silence. The secrets we keep, keep us from the health we deserve.
Our emotional well-being is enhanced each time we share ourselves - our stories or our attentive ears. We need to be a part of someone else's pain and growth in order to make use of the pain that we have grown beyond. Pain has its purpose in our lives. And in the lives of our friends, too. It's our connection to one another, the bridge that closes the gap.
We dread our pain. We hate the suffering our friends must withstand. But each of us gains when we accept these challenges as our invitations for growth and closeness to others.
Secrets keep us sick. I will listen and share and be well.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

Cessation of drinking is but the first step away from a highly strained, abnormal condition. A doctor said to us, “Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic. The entire family is, to some extent, ill.” Let families realize, as they start their journey, that all will not be fair weather. Each in his turn may be footsore and may straggle. There will be alluring shortcuts and by-paths down which they may wander and lose their way.

pp. 122-123

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

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

It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression. To the doubters we could say, "Perhaps you're not an alcoholic after all. Why don't you try some more controlled drinking, bearing in mind meanwhile what we have told you about alcoholism?" This attitude brought immediate and practical results. It was then discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again. Following every spree, he would say to himself, "Maybe those A.A.'s were right..." After a few such experiences, often years before the onset of extreme difficulties, he would return to us convinced. He had hit bottom as truly as any of us. John Barleycorn himself had become our best advocate.

pp. 23-24

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May I look at my experiences, not as trouble, but as a way to use my
experience to help others.
--SweetyZee

When you make a mistake, make amends immediately.

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
--Eric Hoffer

Life is like a mirror. If you frown at it, it frowns back. If you smile, it
returns the greeting.

"One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention."
--Jim Rohn

"Develop a benevolent world view; look for the good in the people and
circumstances around you."
--Brian Tracy

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

TODAY

"Real generosity towards the
future consists in giving all to
what is present."
--Albert Camus

Much of the gratitude that I talk about needs to be centered in what I do
with today; I need to focus on the present, rather than procrastinate for
the future.

As a sick alcoholic I lived either in the guilt of yesterday or the fear of
tomorrow - missing the reality of the present. The present moment is all
that I have and through this "moment" I live and breathe and have my
existence!

My understanding of prayer is centered in the present moment because
any understanding of relationship and communication, especially with
God, must begin from where one is, rather than where one would like to
be. Spirituality is the reality of the moment.

Master, thank You for the life that is experienced in the moment.

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"O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever."
Psalm 30:12

"You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for
You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created."
Revelation 4:11

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

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he
said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this
child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:1-4

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Daily Inspiration

Let life's lessons grow into wisdom so that you may be the light for someone else's darkness. Lord, help me put to good use that which today brings so that I am better prepared for tomorrow.

To know someone doesn't mean to know every detail of that person's life. It means to feel affection, confidence and to believe in that person. Lord, may I really know You and have it reflect in how I treat others.