March 29, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Loving others is directly proportional to how much we love ourselves.

Do we really love ourselves? Do we forgive ourselves when we blatantly judge others or when we fail on the job or in a relationship? Expecting perfection of ourselves is setting a standard that is unachievable. To love means to accept ourselves wholly, failings and all.

We can practice forgiving ourselves and others. Forgiving ourselves for our transgressions, regardless of what they are, will get easier with practice. Forgiving others will remove the barriers that separate us and prevent us from knowing love.

Our Higher Power asks very little of us. Careers aren’t dictated. We can live almost anywhere we want. We may choose to have children or remain childless. All that’s really asked is that we live our lives with love in our hearts. Being willing to love ourselves helps us love others too.

If I’m feeling hateful or judgmental toward someone today, I’m not loving myself either.

Hazelden Foundation

March 29, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, March 29, 2020

Today, if I start out with dread, I probably need to do a 10th Step or re-do my Fourth. Clearly something is wrong and I have not yet reaped benefits of sobriety or, worse, I am little more than a dry drunk. The Serenity Prayer tells me that I have no control over what this day might serve up, but it also tells me what I can change is me. The Program gives me the tools to do it, from its first four words - "Admitted (I am) powerless" - to the 12th Step's promise of a new me through a spiritual awakening and its command to practice all the Steps "in all (my) affairs." And if I take the attitude that the day ahead is something to just get through, I will likely make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Today, I am powerless over whatever this day has in store, but my attitude can make or break the serenity that recovery promises. Sobriety and life are not to simply to endure or just get through. Today, I will live, not just endure or get through. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

March 29, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, March 29, 2020

AA Thought for the Day
Before I met AA, I was very dishonest. I lied to my spouse constantly about where I had been and what I'd been doing. I took time off from my work and pretended I'd been sick or gave some other dishonest excuse. I was dishonest with myself, as well as with other people. I would never face myself as I really was or admit when I was wrong. I pretended to myself that I was as good as the next person, although I suspected I wasn't.

Am I now really honest?

Meditation for the Day
I must live in the world and yet live apart with God. I can go forth from my secret times of communion with God to the work of the world. To get the spiritual strength I need, my inner life must be lived apart from the world. I must wear the world as a loose garment. Nothing in the world should seriously upset me, as long as my inner life is lived with God. All successful living arises from this inner life.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may live my inner life with God. I pray that nothing shall invade or destroy that secret place of peace.

Hazelden Foundation

March 29, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Sunday, March 29, 2020

Reflection for the Day
What is the definition of humility? "Absolute humility," said AA co-founder Bill W., "would consist of a state of complete freedom from myself, freedom from all the claims that my defects of character now lay so heavily upon me. Perfect humility would be a full willingness, in all times and places, to find and to do the will of God." 

Am I striving for humility?

Today I Pray
May God expand my interpretation of humility beyond abject subservience or awe at the greatness of others. May humility also mean freedom from myself, a freedom which can come only through turning my being over to God's will. May I sense the omnipotence of God, which is simultaneously humbling and exhilarating. May I be willing to carry out His will.

Today I Will Remember
Humility is freedom.

Hazelden Foundation

March 29, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Sunday, March 29, 2020

Do you want to be happy? Then go buy that strange kid on the corner a bag of candy. It may help cause his teeth to decay, but what's a tooth between two glad hearts?

Hazelden Foundation

March 29, 2020 - Good morning and let's be confident and assured on this truly beautiful Sunday

March 28, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Reflection for the Day

“What you have may seem small; you desire so much more. See children thrusting their hands into a narrow-necked jar, striving to pull out the sweets. If they fill the hand, they cannot pull it out, and then they fall to tears. When they let go a few, they can draw out the rest. You, too, let your desire go; covet not too much,” wrote Epictetus.

Let me expect not too much of anyone, particularly myself. Let me learn to settle for less than I wish were possible and be willing to accept it and appreciate it.

Do I accept gratefully and graciously the good that has already come to me in the program?

Today I Pray

May I search my soul for those little hankerings of want that may keep me from delighting in all that I have. If I can just teach myself not to want too much, not to expect too much, then when those expectations are not satisfied, I will not be let down. May I accept with grace what the grace of my Higher Power has provided.

Today I will Remember

I, alone, can grant myself the “freedom from want.”

Hazelden Foundation

March 28, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, March 28, 2020

Today, I will not romanticize my drinking days as "fun" or good if a newcomer to the Program or even a veteran talk about "the good old days." By embellishing drinking before "things went bad" and even constructing a vision that any of it was good, I am probably pining for days when I might have drank "safely" without being honest that those days never existed at all. And by longing for non-existent "good old days," I am vulnerable to a slip or relapse and denying the truth that I am now, and forever will be, "powerless over alcohol." More pointedly, if I try to re-do my last drunk into something that is not true, I have basically forgotten my last drunk. And as one of the Program's old sayings goes, if I can't remember my last drunk, I haven't had it. Today, I will remember with honesty how it was and that it has been, so far by the grace of God, my last drunk. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

March 28, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, March 28, 2020

AA Thought for the Day

When you come into an AA meeting, you're not just coming into a meeting, you're coming into a new life. I'm always impressed by the change I see in people after they've been in AA for a while. I sometimes take an inventory of myself to see whether I have changed and, if so, in what way. Before I met AA, I was very selfish. I wanted my own way in everything. I don't believe I ever grew up. When things went wrong, I sulked like a spoiled child and often went out and got drunk.

Am I still all get and no give?

Meditation for the Day

There are two things that we must have if we are going to change our way of life. One is faith, the confidence in things unseen, the fundamental goodness and purpose in the universe. The other is obedience: that is, living according to our faith, living each day as we believe that God wants us to live, with gratitude, humility, honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. Faith and obedience, these two, will give us all the strength we need to overcome sin and temptation and to live a new and more abundant life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have more faith and obedience. I pray that I may live a more abundant life as a result of these things.

Hazelden Foundation

March 28, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Reflection for the Day

We must think deeply of all those sick persons still to come to The Program. As they try to make their return to faith and to life, we want them to find everything in The Program that we have found, yet more, if that be possible. No care, no vigilance, no effort to preserve The Program's constant effectiveness and spiritual strength will ever be too great to hold us in full readiness for the day of their homecoming.

How well do I respect the Traditions of The Program?

Today I Pray

God help me to carry out my part in making the group a lifeline for those who are still suffering from addictions, in maintaining the Steps and the Traditions which have made it work for me for those who are still to come. May The Program be a "homecoming" for those of us who share the disease of addiction. May we find common solutions to the common problems which that disease breeds.

Today I Will Remember

To do my part.

Hazelden Foundation

March 28, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, March 28, 2020

Why is the world? Why are we here? What is our purpose? Why must we live and suffer and die? Without God, there would be no answer. We do not know the great extent of God's purpose, but we do know that we as individuals, each and every one, must somehow fit into that purpose.

We can only know God as He has revealed Himself to us. We know His principle attribute is goodness. Therefore, His purpose must be good, and we can best serve that purpose by aspiring to the highest standard of goodness that we can conceive.

Hazelden Foundation

March 28, 2020 - Good morning and let's make it a stress-, worry- and fear-free Saturday and weekend

March 27, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, March 27, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Working Today

As we approach a new year, many of us feel fear. We look back on the past and worry about the future. But if we remember we only have today, we can work to make that future better. We have found true friends in our fellowship, and this is a time to be with them.

Am I ensuring a fruitful future by working with all I’ve got today?

Higher Power, I pray for guidance for today and for freedom from worry about tomorrow.

Today I will work for the fellowship by…

Hazelden Foundation

March 27, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Friday, March 27, 2020

Today, if I am afraid, anxious, worried or uncertain about anything, I can draw strength from the mercy and blessing of my Higher Power that guided me through the darkness and active alcoholism to face the challenges before me now. If I believe that drinking was the darkest chapter of my life but that I survived with the strength of a Higher Power, I can also believe that the same strength can lead me through a lesser turmoil. Step 2 of coming to believe in a Higher Power is refuge from any storm I am weathering now, and the Third Step of yielding to a greater Power calms any fears or doubts with faith. Today, I can draw strength and hope from the yesterday when I had my last drink to believe that, with faith and strength in the Power that got me through those days, I can get through anything less - with unconditional faith and by seeking His will over mine. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

March 27, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, March 27, 2020

AA Thought for the Day

You get the power to overcome drinking through the fellowship of other alcoholics who have found the way out. You get power by honestly sharing your past experience by a personal witness. You get power by coming to believe in a Higher Power, the Divine Principle in the universe which can help you. You get power by working with other alcoholics. In these four ways, thousands of alcoholics have found all the power they needed to overcome drinking.

Am I ready and willing to accept this power and work for it?

Meditation for the Day

The power of God's spirit is the greatest power in the universe. Our conquest of each other, the great kings and conquerors, the conquest of wealth, the leaders of the money society, all amount to very little in the end. But he that conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city. Material things have no permanence. But God's spirit is eternal. Everything really worthwhile in the world is the result of the power of God's spirit.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may open myself to the power of God's spirit. I pray that my relationships with others may be improved by this spirit.

Hazelden Foundation