~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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(\ ~~~ /)
( \(AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
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Let Go
If you have decided you want what we
have and are willing to go to any length to get it --
then you are ready to take certain
steps. At some of these
we balked.
We thought we could find an easier, softer
way. But we could not.
With all the earnestness at our
command, we beg of you
to be fearless and thorough
from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas
and the result was nil until we let go
absolutely.
c.
2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 58
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Thought to Consider . . .
When I let go of what I am, I become
what I might be.
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
G I F T S = Getting It From The Steps
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Stereotypes
Tradition Two: For our group
purpose there is but one ultimate authority- a loving God as He may express
Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do
not govern.
"Former
group leaders divide into two classes known in A.A. slang as 'elder statesmen'
and 'bleeding deacons.' The elder statesman is the one who sees the wisdom of
the group's decision, who holds no resentment over his reduced status, whose
judgment, fortified by considerable experience, is sound, and who is willing to
sit quietly on the sidelines awaiting developments. The bleeding deacon is one
who is just as surely convinced that the group cannot get along without him,
who constantly connives for reelection to office, and who continues to be
consumed with self-pity."
Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions, (c) 2005, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services,
Inc., pg. 135
*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
I DON'T RUN THE SHOW
When we
became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either
God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is,
or He isn't. What was our choice to be?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 53
Today my
choice is God. He is everything. For this I am truly grateful.
When I think I am running the show I am blocking God from my life. I pray
I can remember this when I allow myself to get caught up into self. The
most important thing is that today I am willing to grow along spiritual lines,
and that God is everything. When I was trying to quit drinking on my own,
it never worked; with God and A.A., it is working. This seems to be a
simple thought for a complicated alcoholic.
©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Membership Rules
Around 1943 or
1944, the Central Office asked the groups to list their membership rules and
send them in.
After they arrived we set them all
down. A little reflection upon these many rules brought us to an
astonishing conclusion. If
all of these edicts had been in force everywhere at once it would have
been practically impossible for any alcoholic to have ever
joined A.A. About nine-tenths of our oldest
and best members could never have got by!
<<<>>>
At last experience taught us that to
take away any alcoholic's full chance for sobriety in A.A. was sometimes to
pronounce his death sentence, and often to condemn him to endless misery. Who
dared to be judge, jury, and executioner of his own sick brother?
1.
GRAPEVINE, AUGUST 1946 - 2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, p. 141
Copyright®1967 Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc.
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
As we look
back, we feel we had gone on drinking many years beyond
the point where we could quit on our will
power. If anyone questions
whether he has entered this dangerous
area, let him try leaving
liquor alone for one year. If he is a
real alcoholic and very far
advanced, there is scant chance of
success. In the early days of our
drinking we occasionally remained sober
for a year or more, becoming
serious drinkers again later. Though
you may be able to stop for a
considerable period, you may yet be a
potential alcoholic. We think
few, to whom this book will appeal, can
stay dry anything like a
year. Some will be drunk the day after
making their resolutions; most
of them within a few weeks."
~Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, pg. 34~
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day
Since I
realized that I had become an alcoholic and could never have any more fun with
liquor and since I knew that from then on liquor would always get me into
trouble, common sense told me that the only thing left for me was a life of
sobriety. But I learned another thing in A.A., the most important thing anyone
can ever learn. That I could call on a Higher Power to help me keep away from
liquor. That I could work with that Divine Principle in the universe,
and that God would help me to live a sober, useful, happy life. So now I no
longer care about the fact that I can never have any more fun with drinking.
Have I learned that I am much happier without it?
Meditation
for the Day
Like a
tree, I must be pruned of a lot of dead branches before I will be ready to bear
good fruit. Think of changed people as trees that have been stripped of their
old branches, pruned, cut, and bare. But through the dark, seemingly dead
branches flows silently, secretly, the new sap, until with the sun of spring
comes new life. There are new leaves, buds, blossoms, and fruit, many times
better because of the pruning. I am in the hands of a Master Gardener, who
makes no mistakes in His pruning.
Prayer for
the Day
I pray
that I may cut away the dead branches of my life.
I pray that I may not mind the pruning, since it helps me to bear good fruit later