Saturday, January 3, 2015
The HIV year in review: World AIDS Day 2014
Idaho appeals pro-gay marriage federal ruling to Supreme Court
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| Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (R-Idaho) |
Gay marriage prompts a call for clergy to shun civil ceremonies
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| Holly Taylor Coolman, a theologian, called marriage a “communally discerned” phenomenon.Joel Hawksley for The New York Times |
Jan. 3, 2015 - Today's Gift from Hazelden
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
When I came in, they told me, "Let us love you until you can learn to love yourself."
-- Anonymous
It takes a long time to learn to love ourselves. So many things we've done seem hard to forgive. We might be trying to dig out from under tons of negative garbage, negative images. Fortunately, our friends in this program do love us. That will sustain us as we try to get the picture of ourselves back into proper focus.
The thing we must get locked firmly in our mind is that it's all right to be who we have been and who we are now. We know how to repair the damage now. Our program shows us the way to recovery, the way back to genuine esteem in ourselves as God's creations. God made us, and always loves us just the way we are.
I will try to love myself, remembering that God and other people love me as I am.
When I came in, they told me, "Let us love you until you can learn to love yourself."
-- Anonymous
It takes a long time to learn to love ourselves. So many things we've done seem hard to forgive. We might be trying to dig out from under tons of negative garbage, negative images. Fortunately, our friends in this program do love us. That will sustain us as we try to get the picture of ourselves back into proper focus.
The thing we must get locked firmly in our mind is that it's all right to be who we have been and who we are now. We know how to repair the damage now. Our program shows us the way to recovery, the way back to genuine esteem in ourselves as God's creations. God made us, and always loves us just the way we are.
I will try to love myself, remembering that God and other people love me as I am.
You are reading from the book:
In God's Care by Karen Casey. © 1991 by Hazelden Foundation
Jan. 3, 2015 - Step by Step
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Step by Step
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015
"We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period, we get worse, never better." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 3 ("More About Alcoholism"), p 30.
Today, conceding to "our innermost selves" that we are alcoholic is the first step in recovery. Without that admission, every subsequent attempt to stop drinking is doomed to failure: our private drinking histories are mute testimony to that. But if we can finally admit to ourselves that we are alcoholic, the answer to the next logical question - Why do I have to quit altogether instead of cutting back? - is obvious: alcoholism is a progressive condition that is never cured and, when fed, gets worse. But the illness can be arrested, and the only guaranteed method to date is total abstinence. Today, if I still struggle that the drinking problem I clearly have has progressed into alcoholism, I have to retreat within my innermost self in absolute honesty and, if I acknowledge the obvious answer, AA awaits me, just for the asking. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2015
Jan. 3, 2015 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015
AA Thought for the Day
When I came into AA, I learned what an alcoholic was and then I applied this knowledge to myself to see if I was an alcoholic. When I was convinced that I was an alcoholic, I admitted it openly. Since then, have I been learning to live accordingly? Have I read the book "Alcoholics Anonymous?" Have I applied the knowledge gained to myself? Have I admitted openly that I am an alcoholic?
Am I ready to admit it at any time when I can be of help?
Meditation for the Day
I will be renewed. I will be remade. In this, I need God's help. His spirit shall flow through me and, in flowing through me, it shall sweep away all the bitter past. I will take heart. The way will open for me. Each day will unfold something good, as long as I am trying to live the way I believe God wants me to live.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be taught, just as a child would be taught. I pray that I may never question God's plans, but accept them gladly.
Hazelden Foundation
Jan. 3, 2015 - A Day at a Time
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015
Reflection for the Day
My addiction is three-fold in that it affects me physically, mentally and spiritually. As a chemically-dependent person, I was totally out of touch not only with myself, but with reality. Day after miserable day, like a caged animal on a treadmill, I repeated my self-destructive pattern of living.
Have I begun to break away from my old ideas? Just for today, can I adjust myself to what is, rather than try to adjust everything to my own desires?
Today I Pray
I pray that I may not be caught up again in the downward, destructive spiral which removed me from myself and from the realities of the world around me. I pray that I may adjust to people and situations as they are instead of always trying, unsuccessfully and with endless frustration, to bend them to my own desires.
Today I Will Remember
I can only change myself.
Hazelden Foundation
Jan. 3, 2015 - The Eye Opener
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015
You can't tell a drunk anything, but you can show him. All too frequently, we dry out on Monday, attend our first meeting on Tuesday and try our hand at Twelve Stepping on Wednesday.
With a sketchy conception of what it is all about, with little or no knowledge of the Program, sometimes with the smell of paraldehyde still on our breath, we venture forth to dry up the world and, when we fail, we wonder why.
Remember the 12th Step says, "Having had a Spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics." You can't carry the message before you receive it nor can you give it if you don't possess it.
Hazelden Foundation
Friday, January 2, 2015
A gay man's letter to his boyfriend's homophobic family
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