Sunday, June 26, 2016
June 26, 2016 - Women usually pay the price when male entitlement reaches for a gun
June 26, 2016 - The tyranny of the sex/gender/sexuality binary
June 26, 2016 - Femme guys need to stay their manly selves
June 26, 2016 - When gay people are told homosexuality is a sin
June 26, 2016 - Hate crimes against LGBT people as a public health crisis
June 26, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
 |
| The Serenity Prayer |
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Hatred is never anything but fear - if you feared no one, you would hate no one.
-- Hugh Downs
On those occasions when we find the bigger person within, we are more generous in spirit toward others. But sometimes we think too much about what is wrong with others and how they ought to change. That is a form of hate. If we are searching for what we have power to change in our families, in our friendships, in the world, we can learn to be big enough to set aside our fears.
Do we bear ill will toward someone today? When we are honest with ourselves, do we feel a sense of fear in relation to this person? What are we really afraid of? Perhaps the same person fears us. When we can do something about our fear, the hatred melts with no further effort. Then we are in touch with the bigger person within.
I have the inner strength to face my fears today. I will not send them outward as hatred.
Hatred is never anything but fear - if you feared no one, you would hate no one.
-- Hugh Downs
On those occasions when we find the bigger person within, we are more generous in spirit toward others. But sometimes we think too much about what is wrong with others and how they ought to change. That is a form of hate. If we are searching for what we have power to change in our families, in our friendships, in the world, we can learn to be big enough to set aside our fears.
Do we bear ill will toward someone today? When we are honest with ourselves, do we feel a sense of fear in relation to this person? What are we really afraid of? Perhaps the same person fears us. When we can do something about our fear, the hatred melts with no further effort. Then we are in touch with the bigger person within.
I have the inner strength to face my fears today. I will not send them outward as hatred.
You are reading from the book:
Touchstones ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation
June 26, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step
 |
| The Serenity Prayer |
Sunday, June 26, 2016
"More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows in his heart he doesn't deserve it." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6 ("Into Action"), p 73.
Today, if I take the Fifth Step and confess to another person "the exact nature of (my) wrongs," may I be given the strength and courage to be honest with my toughest prospect: myself. Like Jekyll and Hyde, I displayed two personalities in my drinking days - the party animal or the isolated, depressed lonely drinker as I drank toward oblivion and, the morning after, the physically and emotionally broken person for everyone to see. I must meld both characters into one to find the actual self on which to build recovery, and that effort will likely be nil if I am not honest with myself first before taking Step Five. Honesty begins with myself; without it, my Fifth - and my Fourth, for that matter - is based on illusion. In the end, so will my recovery be based on illusion. Today, let me understand the wisdom that honesty, before it is given to anyone else, has to begin with me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016
June 26, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, June 26, 2016
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 its presence, we may discover that it is imaginary and can be overcome by a change of thinking. We admit that we are alcoholics and we would be foolish if we refused to accept our handicap and 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
June 26, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time
 |
| The Serenity Prayer |
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Reflection for the Day
How many of us would presume to announce, "Well, I'm sober and I'm happy. What more can I want, or do? I'm fine just the way I am." Experience has taught us that the price of such smug complacency - or, more politely, self-satisfaction - is an inevitable backslide, punctuated sooner or later by a very rude awakening. We have to grow, or else we deteriorate. For us, the status quo can only be for today, never for tomorrow. Change we must; we can't stand still.
Am I sometimes tempted to rest on my laurels?
Today I Pray
May I look around me and see that all living things are either growing or deteriorating; nothing that is alive is static, life flows on. May I be carried along on that life-flow, unafraid of change, disengaging myself from the snags along the way which hold me back and interrupt my progress.
Today I Will Remember
Living is changing.
Hazelden Foundation
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)