Dec. 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Men will find that they can prepare with mutual aid far more easily what they need and avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides, by united forces. — Baruch Spinoza

Three travelers stopped in a small town on their way to the city. They had tents to sleep in, but no food or money. They knocked on doors asking for a little food, but the people were poor. with little to eat and nothing to spare.

Cheerfully, they returned to their camp and built a fire. “What are you doing?” asked a bystander, “Building a fire with nothing to cook?”

“But we do have something to cook!” they said. “Our favorite dish, stone soup. We only need a pot.” “I think I can find one,” said one of the bystanders, and she ran home to fetch it.

When she returned, the travelers filled the pot with water and placed two large stones in it. “This will be the finest soup we’ve ever made!” said the first traveler. “I agree,” said the second, “but don’t you think it would taste better with a cabbage in it?”

“I think I can find one,” said another bystander. And so it went the whole afternoon until, by evening, the travelers had a hearty, fragrant feast, which they shared with the hungry townspeople.

What can I do with help today, that I couldn’t do alone?

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

Today, loosen my grip on my perspective that the Program hammers what I cannot do and, instead, what it enables me to 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 something destructive. 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, 2022

Dec. 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

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, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

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, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

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, 2022 – Good morning and welcome to a wonderful Wednesday

 

Good morning with the power of making this magnificent Wednesday what we want it to be and not by people and things who offer nothing worthwhile

Dec. 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's GIft from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

AA Thought for the Day

We must know the nature of our weakness before we can determine how to deal with it. When we are honest about it, we can change our lives through a change of thinking. We admit that we are alcoholics and we would be foolish if we refused to accept our disease or do something about it. So by honestly facing our weakness and keeping ever present the knowledge that for us alcoholism is a disease with which we are afflicted, we can take the necessary steps to arrest it.

Have I fully accepted my handicap?

Meditation for the Day

There is a proper time for everything. I must learn not to do things at the wrong time, that is, before I am ready or before conditions are right. It is always a temptation to do something at once instead of waiting until the proper time. Timing is important. I must learn, in the little daily situations of life, to delay action until I am sure that I am doing the right thing at the right time. So many lives lack balance and timing. In the momentous decisions and crises of life, they may ask God’s guidance, but into the small situations of life, they rush alone.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may delay action until I feel that I am doing the right thing. I pray that I may not rush in alone.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022

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., 2022

Dec. 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022

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, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022

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, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022

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, 2022 – Good morning and head out with faith that it’s going to be a great Tuesday

 

Good morning with hopes for a terrific Tuesday for everyone and without the stress, drama and trauma that people who aren’t worth our time try to bring into our lives

Dec. 26, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, Dec. 26, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Rediscovering love

We know that in each of us, a fountain of love lies buried, ready to be discovered. If we practice our newfound principles and continue searching, we’ll uncover our treasure, little by little, beneath our resentments, unhealthy style, and shame.

Our Higher Power and the Twelve Step program give us the guidance, strength, and tools necessary to uncover it.

Am I finding love?

Higher Power, help me use the tools you give me so that I may reconnect with my reservoir of love.

I will make myself open to love today by…

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, Dec. 26, 2022

“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.” Recovery 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, 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., 2022

Dec. 26, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Dec. 26, 2022

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