~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Service
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"Service gladly rendered, obligations
squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help,
the knowledge that at
home or in the world outside we are partners in a common effort,
the well-understood fact
that in God's sight all human beings are important,
the proof that love
freely given surely brings a full return, the certainty that we are no longer
isolated
and alone in
self-constructed prisons, the surety that we need no longer be square pegs
in round holes but can
fit and belong in God's scheme of things - these are the permanent and
legitimate satisfactions of right living for which no amount of pomp and
circumstance, no heap of material possessions,
could possibly be
substitutes. True ambition is not what we thought it was."
©1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 124
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Thought to Consider . . .
Service is love in work clothes.
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
G O
D = Group Of Drunks
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Simple
From
"Physician, Heal Thyself":
"'You've been sober, but
you've been floating way up on a cloud somewhere. Why don't you go home and get
the Big Book and open it at page fifty-eight and see what it says?' So I did. I
got the Big Book and I read it, and this is what it said: 'Rarely have we seen
a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.' The word 'thoroughly' rang
a bell. And then it went on to say: 'Half measures availed us nothing. We stood
at the turning point.' And the last sentence was 'We asked His protection and
care with complete abandon.'
"'Complete abandon';
'Half measures availed us nothing'; 'Thoroughly followed our path'; 'Completely
give themselves to this simple program' rang in my swelled head."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth
Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 305
*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
". . .OF ALL PERSONS WE HAD
HARMED"
"...and became willing to make amends to them all."
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 77
One of the key words in the
Eighth Step is the word all. I am not free to
select a few names for the list
and to disregard others. It is a list of
all persons I have harmed.
I can see immediately that this Step entails
forgiveness because if I'm not
willing to forgive someone, there is little
chance I will place his name on
the list. Before I placed the first name on
my list, I said a little
prayer: "I forgive anyone and everyone who has ever
harmed me at any time and under
any circumstances."
It is well for me to
contemplate a small, but very significant, two-letter
word every time the Lord's
Prayer is said. The word is as. I ask, "Forgive us
our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us." In this case,
as means, "In the same
manner." I am asking to be forgiven in the same
manner that I forgive others.
As I say this portion of the prayer, if I am
harboring hatred or resentment,
I am inviting more resentment, when I should be calling on the spirit of
forgiveness.
©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
God
Will Not Desert Us
"A Word comes to me that
you are making a magnificent stand in adversity - this adversity being the
state of your health. It gives me a chance to express my gratitude for your
recovery in A.A. and especially for the demonstration of
its principles you are now so
inspiringly giving to us all.
"You will be glad to know
that A.A.'s have an almost unfailing record in this
respect. This, I think, is
because we are so aware that God will not desert
us when the chips are down;
indeed, He did not when we were drinking. And so it should be with the
remainder of life.
"Certainly, He does not
plan to save us from all troubles and adversity. Nor,
in the end, does He save us
from so-called death - since this is but an
opening of a door into a new
life, where we shall dwell among His many
mansions. Touching these things
I know you have a most confident faith."
LETTER, 1966
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"We have no desire to
convince anyone that there is only one way by
which faith can be acquired. If
what we have learned and felt and
seen means anything at all, it
means that all of us, whatever our
race, creed, or color are the
children of a living Creator with whom
we may form a relationship upon
simple and understandable terms as
soon as we are willing and
honest enough to try."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, There Is A Solution, pg. 28~
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for
the Day
"We have an allergy to alcohol. The action of alcohol on
chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy. We allergic types can
never safely use alcohol in any form at all. We cannot be reconciled to a life
without alcohol, unless we can experience an entire psychic change. Once this
psychic change has occurred, we who seemed doomed, we who had so many problems
that we despaired of ever solving them, find ourselves able to control our
desire for alcohol." Have I had a psychic change?
Meditation for the Day
Ask God in daily prayer to give you the strength to change. When
you ask God to change you, you must at the same time fully trust Him. If you do
not fully trust Him, God may answer your prayer as a rescuer does that of a
drowning person who is putting up too much of a struggle. The rescuer must
first render the person still more helpless, until he or she is wholly at the
rescuer's mercy. just so must we be wholly at God's mercy before we can be
rescued.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be daily willing to be changed.
I pray
that I may put myself wholly at the mercy of God.