July 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Guilt keeps us stuck.

Who doesn’t have some guilt? Surely no one we know has been "good" all the time. It's human to make mistakes and hurt others in the process. On occasion, we have even intentionally harmed someone. We can't undo the past. What's done is done. However, we can get free of the inhibiting shadow it casts over our lives today if we use the tools of this program of recovery.

The first step in shedding our guilt is to admit to ourselves that some of the things we have done are wrong. The next step is harder. We need to admit our wrongdoing to the one we have harmed and ask for his or her forgiveness. This can be made easier if we remember to bring along our Higher Power.

Why is all this necessary? As long as we have wounds in our relationships, we won't be able to see all the possibilities for growth and change that beckon us today. Our guilt keeps us stuck in the past, and it’s the present that promises us the happiness we desire.

How are my relationships today? Do any feel tense because of my past behavior? If I really want to get the most from what today offers, I need to mend the past. With God's help I can.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Thursday, July 25, 2024

Today, self-pity comes off my dance card. Just as alcohol drove me to being sick and tired of being sick and tired, so it goes with self-pity. The reason for self-pity can never be justified. For me, self-pity ranks behind resentment as the quickest and surest way to a slip or relapse. I have to ask why I harbor pity for myself. Is it because I endured so many travails during and after my drinking days? Or maybe I lost a job or two, got a lifetime driver’s license suspension, drank my way into a sea of debt, got a divorce or two, have family who still wants nothing to do with me. Or maybe there’s death taking too much and too many from me. So what is the function of self-pity? Maybe my ego still requires me to be the center of attention, or maybe I have a victim complex, or maybe I’m looking for justification to start drinking again — or to keep drinking. Or maybe I simply don’t know how to deal with whatever psychic pain exists. Whatever its reason or purpose, self-pity serves only to impose isolation and keeps me from feeling and living something better. Today, just as it did with drinking, the same goes for self-pity: enough is enough! And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

July 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, July 25, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
We are living on borrowed time. We are living today because of AA and the grace of God. And what there is left of our lives we owe to AA and to God. We should make the best use we can of our borrowed time and in some small measure pay back for that part of our lives which we wasted before we came into AA. Our lives from now on are not our own. We hold them in trust for God and AA. And we must do all we can to forward the great movement that has given us a new lease on life.

Am I holding my life in trust for AA?

Meditation for the Day
You should hold your life in trust for God. Think deeply on what that means. Is anything too much to expect from such a life? Do you begin to see how dedicated a life on trust for God can be? In such a life, miracles can happen. If you are faithful, you can believe that God has many good things in store for you. God can be Lord of your life, controller of your days, of your present and your future. Try to act as God guides and leave all results to Him. Do not hold back, but go all out for God and the better life. Make good your trust.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may hold my life in trust for God. I pray that I may no longer consider my life as all my own.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Thursday, July 25, 2024

Reflection for the Day
The slogans of The Program are seemingly clear and simple. Yet they may still have different meanings for different people, according to their own experience and reaction to the words and ideas. Take, for example, the slogan, “Let Go and Let God.” For some people, it may suggest that all we have to do is sidestep the challenges that confront us and, somehow, God will do all the work. We must remember that God gives us free will, intelligence and good sense — it is clearly His intention that we use these gifts. If I’m receptive, God will make His will known to me step by step, but I must carry it out.

Do I sometimes act as if surrender to God’s will is a passport to inertia?

Today I Pray
May my “passport” be stamped with “action.” May my travels be motivated by challenges I can readily recognize as things to do, not things to watch. I pray that I may make the most of my gifts from God, of talents that I am aware of and some I have yet to discover. May I not “let go” and give up but keep on learning, growing, doing, serving, praying, carrying out the will of God as I understand it.

Today I Will Remember
God meant me to make the most of myself.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Thursday, July 25, 2024

Poverty will often force a man into sobriety because of the lack of funds with which to purchase more to drink. Prosperity, on the other hand, gives us the money, the leisure and inclination to celebrate that prosperity.

Far too frequently the new man climbs out of the gutter, gets a job and becomes re-established with his family and does well until a payday puts cash in his pocket again.

That bank roll which you think you want may be the very thing you least want.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2024 - Good morning and let's get rolling on what's going to be a fantabulous Thursday

 

Good morning and here's a cute little smiling ape to help get your Thursday going on an uplifting note ...have a really good day, and don't allow anything and anyone to screw it up

July 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Recovery depends on continuing revelation.

-- David Crawford

Perhaps we sense that something is still standing in the way of our usefulness to our Higher Power, ourselves, and other human beings. We may be aware of a habit that feels addictive or of fears or resentments that are holding us back, preventing us from fully using our gifts.

Step Six suggests that we become entirely ready for change. This means letting go of our illusions about the ways we limit our freedom and happiness -- letting go of any denials or excuses. It means trusting that our attitudes and behaviors are capable of transformation. It does not mean attempting to force situations in which our fantasies of control haven't worked before. Being entirely ready means that we're honest about what hasn't succeeded in the past and that we're willing to accept our Higher Power's help. Genuine honesty and openness to change are the essence of the humility we need in order to grow.

Today, I look honestly at what stands in the way of my life's usefulness.

Hazelden Foundation

July 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Today, gratitude as attitude. Gratitude for even the smallest of gains, seen and unseen, as opposed to complaining that the gains aren’t big enough. My attitude is a reflection of the quality of my recovery. Even in the most demanding of days when most things seem to go wrong and few of them right, I must pause before reacting in a way that I will likely regret later and remember my attitude in my drinking days. Then, my attitude was based on feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, fear, anger, regret, revenge, apathy and self-centeredness. They are the character defects as confessed in my Fourth Step, and confession alone does not mean those defects are gone. They remain; my Program is to improve on them day by day until they exist no more. Today, my attitude is not to rekindle the defects of my character but to disempower them with humility, empathy, answering a call to service and remembering, always, that my attitude defines me as either sober or as a dry drunk. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

July 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
AA is like a dike, holding back the ocean of liquor. If we take one glass of liquor, it is like making a small hole in the dike and, once such a hole has been made, the whole ocean of alcohol may rush in upon us. By practicing the AA principles, we keep the dike strong and in repair. We spot any weakness or crack in that dike and make the necessary repairs before any damage is done. Outside the dike is the whole ocean of alcohol, waiting to engulf us again in despair.

Am I keeping the dike strong?

Meditation for the Day
Keep as close as you can to the Higher Power. Try to think, act and live as though you were always in God’s presence. Keeping close to a Power greater than yourself is the solution to most of the earth’s problems. Try to practice the presence of God in the things you think and do. That is the secret of personal power. It is the thing which influences the lives of others for good. Abide in the Lord and rejoice in His love. Keep close to the Divine Spirit in the universe. Keep God close behind your thoughts.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may keep close to the Mind of God. I pray that I may live with Him in my heart and mind.

Hazelden Foundation

July 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Reflection for the Day
How, exactly, can a person turn his own will and his own life over to the care of a Power greater than himself? All that’s needed is a beginning, no matter how small. The minute we put the key of willingness in the lock, the latch springs open. Then the door itself starts to open, perhaps ever so slightly; in time, we find that we can always open it wider. Self-will may slam the door shut again, and it often does. But the door can always be re-opened, time and time again if necessary, so long as we use our key of willingness.

Have I reaffirmed my decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him?

Today I Pray
May I reaffirm my decision to turn my will and my life over to a Higher Power. May my faith be staunch enough to keep me knowing that there is, indeed, a power greater than I am. May I avail myself of that Power simply by being willing to “walk humbly with my Lord.”

Today I Will Remember
Self-will minus self equals will.

Hazelden Foundation

July 24, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Last year I attended the Southeastern Convention at Miami Beach, and I had a grand time. Yet I do not recall, offhand, the name of a single speaker I heard, but I do remember the name of the man whom I called upon as a Twelfth-Stepper.

I fretted somewhat, at the time, that this man caused me to miss several meetings of the Convention, yet today it is my highlight of the affair. This man is happy on the AA Program, and I am happy that I was forced to forego some of the pleasure I traveled all the way to Miami to enjoy.

Hazelden Foundation

July 24, 2024 - Rise 'n shine for a totally fantabulous and worthwhile Wednesday

 

Good morning and here's hoping for a totally great and uplifting Wednesday for everyone, and let's just put our everyday worries on the shelf and simply enjoy the day

July 23, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

We are coming to believe in unconditional love.

Being loved unconditionally may be a new experience. Most of us were trained to get good grades or be extremely well mannered if we wanted to be loved. There were conditions, always.

We may have been raised to believe in a judgmental God too. If so, the God of this fellowship seems hard to trust. ("You mean, no matter what I do, I'll be loved and forgiven by my Higher Power?")

And because of our upbringing, we may be good at setting conditions for family members and friends who want our love. For instance, we may think that they can't let us down in any way or we won't love them.

We're fortunate indeed that we have the example of so many other women and men who have walked this path before us. It has to be possible for us to change too. We must be patient with ourselves. We lived with a very solid mindset for many years. We won't change overnight. But we can change, if we really want to.

I will affirm that I am loved unconditionally many times throughout the day. Time will heal me and change my understanding.

Hazelden Foundation

July 23, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Tuesday, July 23, 2024

“I took everything that AA had to give me. Easy does it, first things first, one day at a time. It was at that point that I reached surrender. I heard one very ill woman say that she didn’t believe in the surrender part of the AA program. …Surrender to me has meant the ability to run my home, to face my responsibilities as they should be faced, to take life as it comes to me day by day, and work my problems out. That’s what surrender has meant to me. I surrendered once to the bottle, and I couldn’t do these things.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Part II (“They Stopped in Time”), Ch. 4 (“The Housewife Who Drank at Home”), p 340.

Today, surrender and its various interpretations that can be integrated into my own recovery. While surrender arguably may be interpreted most often as entrusting our very lives to a Higher Power, surrendering is also regaining the ability to take back and carry out our responsibilities and meet problems head-on and work them out. This requires sobriety and being clean. Today, I long for those promises of recovery and, today, I become responsible enough to work for them. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

July 23, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, July 23, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
We should remember that all AA’s have “clay feet.” We should not set any member upon a pedestal and mark her or him out as a perfect AA. It’s not fair to the person to be singled out in this fashion and, if the person is wise, she or he will not wish it. If the person we single out as an ideal AA has a fall, we are in danger of falling, too. Without exception, we are all only one drink away from a drunk, no matter how long we have been in AA. Nobody is entirely safe. AA itself should be our ideal, not any particular member of it.

Am I putting my trust in AA principles and not in any one member of the group?

Meditation for the Day
The inward peace that comes from trust in God truly passes all understanding. That peace no one can take from you. No person has the power to disturb that inner peace. But you must be careful not to let in the world’s worries and distractions. You must try not to give entrance to fears and despondency. You must refuse to open the door to the distractions that disturb your inward peace. Make it a point to allow nothing today to disturb your inner peace, your heart-calm.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not allow those about me to spoil my peace of mind. I pray that I may keep a deep inner calm throughout the day.

Hazelden Foundation