Dec. 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Step Two

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. — Step Two of AA and Al-Anon

We come to believe in a better life through the powerful gift of other people—hearing them, seeing them, and watching the gift of recovery at work in their lives.

There is a Power greater than us. There is real hope now that things can and will be different and better for our life and us.

We are not in a “do it ourselves” program. We do not have to exert willpower to change. We do not have to force our recovery to happen. We do not have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps just so we believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves—one who will get the job done in our life. This Power will do for us what your greatest and most diligent efforts could not accomplish.

Our Higher Power will restore us to a sane and beneficial life. All we do is believe.

Look. Watch. See the people around you. See the healing they have found. Then discover your own faith, your own belief, your own healing.

Today, regardless of my circumstances, I will believe to the best of my ability that a Power greater than myself can and will restore me to a peaceful, sane way of living. Then I will relax and let Him do that.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

Today, when resolutions for the coming new year are in vogue, I will make none because to do so skirts the Program’s suggestion to take life one day at a time. Further, I have no guarantee that an entire year is promised me, and I cannot live for a day in the future because, in doing that, I am neglecting today. Recovery discourages us from looking too far ahead if today is sacrificed and encourages us to make our resolutions daily. Today, awakening to a new day, my resolution is to adhere to the Steps and Principles of the Program and not drink and, further, to grow in sobriety. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2019

Dec 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

AA Thought for the Day

Participating in the privileges of the movement, I shall share in the responsibilities, taking it upon myself to carry my fair share of the load, not grudgingly but joyfully. I am deeply grateful for the privileges I enjoy because of my membership in this great movement. They put an obligation upon me which I will not shirk. I will gladly carry my fair share of the burdens. Because of the joy of doing them, they will no longer be burdens, but opportunities.

Will I accept every opportunity gladly?

Meditation for the Day

Work and prayer are the two forces which are gradually making a better world. We must work for the betterment of ourselves and other people. Faith without works is dead. But all work with people should be based on prayer. If we say a little prayer before we speak or try to help, it will make us more effective. Prayer is the force behind the work. Prayer is based on faith that God is working with us and through us. We can believe that nothing is impossible in human relationships, if we depend on the help of God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my life may be balanced between prayer and work. I pray that I may not work without prayer or pray without work.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

Reflection for the Day
The success of The Program, I’ve been taught, lies in large measure in the readiness and willingness of its members to go to any lengths to help others tyrannized by their addictions. If my readiness and willingness cools, then I stand in danger of losing all that I’ve gained. I must never become unwilling to give away what I have, for only by so doing will I be privileged to keep it.

Do I take to heart the saying, “Out of self into God into others …?”

Today I Pray
May I never be too busy to answer a fellow addict’s call for help. May I never become so wound up in my pursuits that I forget that my own continuing recovery depends on that helping – a half-hour or so on the telephone, a call in person, a lunch date, whatever the situation calls for. May I know what my priorities must be.

Today I Will Remember
Helping helps me.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

Is someone happier, better or braver because of some act of yours today? If you can answer yes to any or all of them, then you can feel rather confident that you are progressing in the AA way of living.

If you can’t – then you are not giving it the old College try and you are cheating yourself out of a lot of happiness that could have been yours.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2019 - Good morning to the final Sunday of 2019, so let's do it with style and grace

Dec. 28, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Think in terms of depletion, not depression. — Sebastian R. N. Champort

Despair and depression may come over us suddenly, for no reason we can figure out. But if we stop and reflect, we may realize we are reacting to too much of something–too much work, too much excitement, too much fun. We may be having a letdown after holidays, after completing a project, or at the end of a school year.

When we feel a letdown coming on, we must give ourselves time. We need to take some time off and do nothing, plan nothing. Then we can ask God to help us let go of the negative feelings that come along with a letdown. We can plan a small gift for ourselves–a walk by the lake, for instance. In our excitement with a rush of events, we often forget that we, like the infants we once were, need to take a rest and re-energize.

Do I need to do something just for myself today?

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019

Today, 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, 2019

Dec. 28, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019

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, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019

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, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019

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, 2019 - Good morning with a big whoop for a holiday Saturday and weekend

Dec. 27, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, Dec. 29, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

We grow in time to trust the future for our answers. — Ruth Benedict

When we first started in recovery, we approached it as we did our codependent and addictive behaviors, wanting to possess it all—quickly and totally—and to do it right. Some of us thought we could learn all we needed to know about recovery in a few weeks. In living with this program, we begin to see we are engaged in a lifelong process. We are in a maturing process and this program is our guide. We can’t rush it or move on to the next stage too soon. An apple tree does not blossom in the fall, and we do not expect the newly forming apples to ripen before they’ve grown.

Our existence in this world is like walking through the woods on a rambling path. We can only see as far ahead as the next bend. We no longer seek some big moment when we finally get the outcome or a “cure” for life’s experiences. The experience along the way is all we need.

Today, I will think about the tasks and rewards of this day and trust the future for what is unanswered.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Friday, Dec. 27, 2019

Today, the first word in hopeless is hope; the first word in helpless is help; the first word in senseless is sense; the first word in powerless is power. Within insanity is sanity; within fear, fearlessness; within pain, strength; within anger, reconciliation. This is our Program: from hopeless, hope; from helpless, help; from senseless, sense; from powerless, 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., 2019

Dec. 27, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, Dec. 27, 2019

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