Daily Recovery Readings - October

[bluidkiti]

October 26

Daily Reflections

ONE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY

For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may
express Himself in our group conscience.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 132

When I am chosen to carry some small responsibility for my fellows, I ask that God grant
me the patience, open-mindedness, and willingness to listen to those I would lead. I must
remind myself that I am the trusted servant of others, not their "governor," "teacher,"
or "instructor." God guides my words and my actions, and my responsibility is to heed
His suggestions. Trust is my watchword, I trust others who lead. In the Fellowship of
A.A., I entrust God with the ultimate authority of "running the show."

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Sixth, I have A.A. meetings to go to, thank God. Where would I go without them?
Where would I be without them? Where would I find the sympathy, the understanding, the
fellowship, the companionship? Nowhere else in the world. I have come home. I have
found the place where I belong. I no longer wander alone over the face of the earth. I am
at peace and at rest. What a great gift has been given me by A.A.! I do not deserve it.
But it is nevertheless mine. I have a home at last. I am content. Do I thank God
everyday for the A.A. Fellowship?

Meditation For The Day

Walk all the way with another person and with God. Do not go part of the way and then
stop. Do not push God so far into the background that He has no effect on your life. Walk
all the way with Him. Make a good companion of God, by praying to Him often during the
day. Do not let your contact with Him be broken for too long a period. Work all the way
with God and with other people, along the path of life, wherever it may lead you.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may walk in companionship with God along the way. I pray that I may keep
my feet upon the path that leads upward.

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As Bill Sees It

A VISION OF THE WHOLE, p. 297

"Though many of us have had to struggle for sobriety, never yet
has this Fellowship had to struggle for lost unity. Consequently,
we sometimes take this one great gift for granted. We forget that,
should we lose our unity, the millions of alcoholics who still 'do not
know' might never get their chance.

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"We used to be skeptical about large A.A. gatherings like conventions,
thinking they might prove too exhibitionistic. But, on balance, their
benefit is huge. While each A.A.'s interest should center principally in
those about him and upon his own group, it is both necessary and
desirable that we all get a larger vision of the whole.

"The General Service Conference in New York also produces this
effect upon those who attend. It is a vision-stretching process."

1. Letter, 1949
2. Letter, 1956

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Walk In Dry Places

Who is an Alcoholic?
AA's mission
Though AA's avowed mission is to carry its message to alcoholics, the fellowship does not really have a one-size-fits-all definition of alcoholism. This has created some confusion when nonalcoholics inadvertently show up at meetings that are supposed to be for alcoholics only, or when people with other addictions seek AA's help. A few groups even insist that people must declare themselves alcoholics in order to participate in a "closed" meeting.
But who is an alcoholic? The AA pioneers were not insistent that people should immediately declare themselves alcoholics in order to receive help. Newcomers were invited to attend meetings and then decide for themselves if they were alcoholics and needed the program. In today's environment, we have the added factor that troubled people might be addicted to both drugs and alcohol. Such cross-addiction, in fact, seems to be a strong trend. We also know that any alcoholic can easily become cross-addicted if he or she uses other drugs.
Our best course is to keep the door open for any person who comes to AA sincerely desiring help. If people find their answer in AA, they probably belong in the fellowship.
I'll be grateful today that I was able to admit that I had a problem and needed AA's help. I'll accept others just as I was accepted. To stay sober and grow in the program. I do not need to define alcoholism for anybody other myself.

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Keep It Simple

Nobody give you freedom. Malcolm X
We were not free. We were prisoners of our illness. What our illness wanted, we give itour dignity, our self-respect, even our families. Our prison walls were made of denial,
false pride, and self-will run riot. Now we know that brick walls don’t have to stop us. We don’t have to bang our heads on them.
Slowly, we’re learning about freedom. We’re learning that freedom. We’re learning that freedom comes from within. It comes when we think clearly and make our own choices.
It comes when we follow a better way of life. It comes when we take care of ourselves. It comes when we take responsibility. The key to freedom is in loving our Higher Power.
Do you choose freedom?
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, show me how to walk away from a wall or go around it. But teach me to stop and think when I get to a wall. Maybe it’s there for my safety.
Today’s Action: Today I’ll think about all the freedom I have given myself by living a sober way of life.

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Each Day a New Beginning

My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue, an everlasting vision of the ever-changing view. --Carole King
Every event of our lives is contributing a rich thread to our personal tapestry. Each of us is weaving one unique to ourselves, but all of our tapestries are complementary. We need others' rich designs in order to create our own.
We seldom have the foresight to understand the worth, the ultimate value of a particular circumstance at its beginning. But hindsight offers us clarity. It's good to reflect on the many circumstances that failed to thrill us; in all cases we can now see why we needed them. As our trust in God and the goodness of all experiences grows, we'll more quickly respond with gladness when situations are fresh. No experience is meant for harm. We are coming to understand that, even though on occasion we forget.
Practicing gratitude will help us more fully appreciate what has been offered us. Being grateful influences our attitude; it softens our harsh exterior and takes the threat out of most new situations.
If I greet the day, glad to be alive, I will be gladdened by all the experiences in store for me. Each is making a necessary contribution to my wholeness.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS

If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.

p. 66

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

Most married folks in A.A. have very happy homes. To a surprising extent, A.A. has offset the damage to family life brought about by years of alcoholism. But just like all other societies, we do have sex and marital problems, and sometimes they are distressingly acute. Permanent marriage breakups and separations, however, are unusual in A.A. Our main problem is not how we are to stay married; it is how to be more happily married by eliminating the severe emotional twists that have so often stemmed from alcoholism.

p. 117

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"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."
--Rabbinical Saying

It's amazing how well I feel when I'm not thinking about myself.
--Bob Y

"Appreciate people. Nothing gives more joy than appreciation."
--Ruth Smeltzer

"When someone does something well, applaud! You will make two people happy."
--Samuel Goldwyn

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
--Kahlil Gibran

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

KINDNESS

"Kindness in words creates
confidence. Kindness in thinking
creates profoundness. Kindness
in giving creates love."
-- Lao-tzu

It costs me nothing to say "hello" and yet it might make all the difference to my
neighbor. It costs me nothing to give a hug and yet that hug might make all the
difference to a friend. It costs me nothing to listen to anothers pain and yet the
listening might make all the difference to another person.

Love is to be found in the small, ordinary acts of kindness as well as in the
extravagant gesture. I need to seek God in the everyday happenings of life alongside
the "religious". Spirituality is in the smile that is real!

Today I know that I give only what I received --- and I received a great deal. People
loved me enough to be patient, they cared enough to telephone, they encouraged me
with the gentle word of hope: I am in the flow.

Lord, You have created this wondrous patterned fabric of life --- may I find You in its
smallest detail.

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Pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24

“Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for
the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
1 Timothy 4:12

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God..."
Ephesians 2:8

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Daily Inspiration

You have the choice to do or not to do and realizing this allows you to accomplish more than you thought possible. Lord, help me make wise decisions with my time and not allow the pressures of life to drain my effectiveness.

Often times that which we find difficult is that which teaches. Lord, may I always be able to see the good that comes from even my trials.