Dec. 28, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017

Today's thoughts from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation are:

It took me a long time to realize that when I hate somebody it doesn't hurt them. Only me.

*****

Call your sponsor before, not after, you take your first drink.

*****

Nothing is so bad that relapse won't make it worse.

*****

I can't handle it, God. You take over.

*****

You cannot think your way into right actions.
You have to act your way into right thinking.

You are reading from the book:

Keep Coming Back Gift Book by Meiji Stewart

Keep Coming Back © 1995 by Meiji Stewart

Dec. 28, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 

Today, let me loosen my grip on my perspective that the program hammers what I cannot do and, instead, that it enables me with what I can do. While I cannot continue in futile endeavor to regain control over alcohol, I can control it by not feeding it. While I cannot continue to engage in conduct that injures myself and others, I can chart a 180-degree course change and start to give something nurturing instead of inflicting harm. And while I cannot always make direct amends for whatever reason, I can make indirect amends by working a program in which my sobriety is its own amend. AA is not a program of cannot; it is, instead, a program of can. Today the first word in can't is can. And I can. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M, 2017

Dec. 28, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017

AA Thought for the Day
AA may be human in its organization, but it is divine in its purpose. The purpose is to point me toward God and the good life. My feet have been set upon the right path. I feel it in the depths of my being. I am going in the right direction. The future can be safely left to God. Whatever the future holds, it cannot be too much for me to bear. I have the Divine Power with me to carry me through everything that may happen.

Am I pointed toward God and the good life?

Meditation for the Day
Although unseen, the Lord is always near to those who believe in Him and trust Him and depend on Him for the strength to meet the challenges of life. Although veiled from mortal sight, the Higher Power is always available to us whenever we humbly ask for it. The feeling that God is with us should not depend on any passing mood of ours; we should try to be always conscious of His power and love in the background of our lives.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may feel that God is not too far away to depend on for help. I pray that I may feel confident of His readiness to give me the power that I need.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017

Reflection for the Day
The Program, for me, is not a place nor a philosophy, but a highway to freedom. The highway leads me toward the goal of a "spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps." The highway doesn't get me to the goal as quickly as I sometimes wish, but I try to remember that God and I work from different timetables. But the goal is there, and I know that the Twelve Steps will help me reach it.

Have I come to the realization that I - and anyone - can now do what I had always thought impossible?

Today I Pray
As I live The Program, may I realize more and more that it is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. May I keep in mind that the kind of spirituality it calls for is never complete, but is the essence of change and growth, a drawing nearer to an ideal state. May I be wary of setting time-oriented goals for myself to measure my spiritual progress.

Today I Will Remember
Timetables are human inventions.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017

It is very often easier to identify an alcoholic by his hang-over than by his drinking pattern. Alcoholics, for the most part, resemble the non-alcoholics when they have a load aboard, but in the morning, when the sweats and the shakes set in, then the alcoholic can be identified by the degree of his suffering. The alcoholic's hang-over cannot be gotten rid of by 10:30 simply with aspirin or Bromos.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2017 - Good morning to a terrific Thursday with reaffirmed faith, hope, confidence and gratitude

Dec. 27, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

It only takes one person to change your life - you.
 -- Ruth Casey

Change is not easy, but it's absolutely unavoidable. Doors will close. Barriers will surface. Frustrations will mount. Nothing stays the same forever, and it's such folly to wish otherwise. Growth accompanies positive change; determining to risk the outcome resulting from a changed behavior or attitude will enhance our self-perceptions. We will have moved forward; in every instance, our lives will be influenced by making a change that only each of us can make.

We have all dreaded the changes we knew we had to make. Perhaps even now we fear some impending changes. Where might they take us? It's difficult accepting that the outcome is not ours to control. Only the effort is ours. The solace is that positive changes, which we know are right for us and other people in our lives, are never going to take us astray. In fact, they are necessary for the smooth path just beyond this stumbling block.

When we are troubled by circumstances in our lives, a change is called for, a change that we must initiate. When we reflect on our recent as well as distant past, we will remember that the changes we most dreaded again and again have positively influenced our lives in untold ways.

Change ushers in glad, not bad, tidings.

You are reading from the book:

Each Day a New Beginning by Karen Casey

Each Day a New Beginning by Karen Casey. © 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017 

Today, the first word in hopelessness is hope; the first word in helplessness is help; the first word in senselessness is sense; the first word in powerlessness is power. Within insanity is sanity; within fear, fearlessness; within pain, strength; within anger, reconciliation. This is our program: from hopelessness, hope; from helplessness, help; from senselessness, sense; from powerlessness, power; from insanity, sanity; from fear, courage; from pain, strength; from anger, forgiveness. And from them - recovery. It's that simple. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

Dec. 27, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017

AA Thought for the Day
I need the AA principles for the development of the buried life within me, that good life which I had misplaced but which I found again in this fellowship. This life within me is developing slowly but surely, with many setbacks, many mistakes, many failures, but still developing. As long as I stick close to AA, my life will go on developing, and I cannot yet know what it will be, but I know that it will be good. That's all I want to know. It will be good.

Am I thanking God for AA?

Meditation for the Day
Build your life on the firm foundation of true gratitude to God for all His blessings and true humility because of your unworthiness of these blessings. Build the frame of your life out of self-discipline; never let yourself get selfish or lazy or contented with yourself. Build the walls of your life out of service to others, helping them to find the way to live. Build the roof of your life out of prayer and quiet times, waiting for God's guidance from above. Build a garden around your life out of peace of mind and serenity and a sure faith.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may build my life on AA principles. I pray that it may be a good building when my work is finished.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017

Reflection for the Day
"The central characteristic of the spiritual experience," wrote AA co-founder Bill W., "is that it gives the recipient a new and better motivation out of all proportion to any process or discipline, belief or faith. These experiences cannot make us whole at once; they are a rebirth to a fresh and certain opportunity."

Do I see my assets as God's gifts, which have been in part matched by an increasing willingness on my part to find and do His will for me?

Today I Pray
I pray for the wholeness of purpose that can only come through spiritual experience. No amount of intellectual theory, pep-talking to myself, disciplined deprivation, "doing it for" somebody else can accomplish the same results. May I pray for spiritual enlightenment, not only in order to recover, but for itself.

Today I Will Remember
Total motivation through spiritual wholeness.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017

The average person has so much trouble in finding a satisfactory faith simply because the mind has difficulty visualizing a force so powerful as anything but a very complex thing. He thinks he must understand it in order to acquire it and use it.

When we eat a meal, we believe that we shall digest it and that we will be strengthened and sustained by it. Yet few of us know the mysteries of the digestive functions, but we get just as much sustenance from our meals as those who do.

We, therefore, eat our meals on faith, and we would probably ruin our digestion if we tried to figure it out.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2017 - Good morning to an awesome Wednesday with reaffirmed faith, hope, strength and gratitude

Dec. 26, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The best things in life are appreciated most after they have been lost.
 -- Roy L. Smith

Humankind has made such great technological progress, developing marvelous tools and instruments to make our life easier, that it is hard to imagine the struggles our ancestors endured. We are so used to these protective and labor-saving devices that we take them for granted. We fail to appreciate them.

So it is with our loved ones, our fellow workers, our friends, and acquaintances. We are so used to the help, the cooperation, the moral support, and the love we get from them that we may take them for granted. And then we wonder why our relationships don't always go smoothly. What if we were to show them a little appreciation? What if we were to ask God to bless them?

Today I will give thanks to my Higher Power for the people around me and tell them, one by one, how much I appreciate them.

You are reading from the book:

In God's Care by Karen Casey

In God's Care by Karen Casey. © 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017 
"When I try to reconstruct what my life was 'before,' I see a coin with two faces.
"One, the side I turned to myself and the world, was respectable ...
"The other side ...was sinister, baffling. I was inwardly unhappy most of the time. There would be times when the life of respectability and achievement seemed insufferably dull - I had to break out. This I would do by going completely 'bohemian' for a night, getting drunk and rolling home with the dawn. Next day remorse would be on me like a tiger. I'd claw my way back to 'respectability' and stay there - until the inevitable next time." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 16 ("Me an Alcoholic?"), p 432. 

Today, faith and security in recovery to know that there does not have to be "the inevitable next time." AA encourages us to live in the solution of sobriety and not in the problem of alcoholism, and I am in the latter if my focus is on fighting off "the inevitable next time." The threat of a "next time" is weakened if I practice with diligence and integrity the program's steps and principles and accept intuitively that drinking now, for me, is a choice and that I will be held responsible to the consequences of that choice. Today, "the inevitable next time" may be less so if I stick to the program and the understanding that I have a choice and the choice I make will have consequences. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

Dec. 26, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017

AA Thought for the Day
I am glad to be a part of AA, of that great fellowship that is spreading over the United States and all over the world. I am only one of the many AA's, but I am one. I am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help AA to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and so find it again.
Am I grateful to be an AA?
Meditation for the Day
These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of service to other people in a small way, at least. And we can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power. We can go along through life doing the best we can, but without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same time depend deeply on God.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may give my life to this worthwhile cause. I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from good work well done.

Hazelden Foundation