~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
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Fear
The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking,
one that can never be wholly completed. When under heavy
attack, acute illness,
or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we shall
all react to this emotion --
well or badly, as the case may be. Only
the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear.
Bill
W., Grapevine, January 1962
c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 263
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Thought to Consider . . .
Courage is the willingness to accept fear
and act anyway.
*~*~*AKRONYMS*~*~*
F E A R =
Face Everything And Recover
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Paradox
Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives
had become unmanageable.
"We had approached A.A. expecting to
be taught self-confidence. Then we had been told that so far as alcohol is
concerned, self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a total
liability. Our sponsors declared that we were the victims of a mental obsession
so subtly powerful that no amount of human willpower could break it. There was,
they said, no such thing as the personal conquest of this compulsion by the
unaided will. The tyrant alcohol wielded
a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that
condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured
we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the process. Few indeed were those
who, so assailed, had ever won through in single-handed combat."
� 1952, AAWS, Inc.;
Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 22
*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
AN
UNSUSPECTED INNER RESOURCE
With few exceptions
our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they
presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than
themselves.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 569-70
From my first days
in A.A., as I struggled for sobriety, I found hope in these words from our
founders. I often pondered the phrase: "they have tapped an
unsuspected inner resource." How, I asked myself, can I find the
Power within myself, since I am so powerless? In time, as the founders
promised, it came to me: I have always had the choice between goodness and
evil, between unselfishness and selfishness, between serenity and fear.
That Power greater than myself is an original gift that I did not recognize until
I achieved daily sobriety through living A.A.'s Twelve Steps.
�Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.�
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Eternal Values
Many people will have
no truck at all with absolute spiritual values. Perfectionists, they say, are
either full of conceit because they fancy they have reached some impossible
goal, or else they are swamped in self-condemnation because they have not done
so. Yet I
think that we should not hold this view. It is not the fault of great ideals
that they are sometimes misused and so become shallow excuses for guilt,
rebellion, and pride. On the contrary, we cannot grow very much unless we
constantly try to envision what the eternal spiritual values are.
<<<>>>
"Day by day, we try to move a little toward God's perfection. So
we need not be consumed by maudlin guilt for
failure to achieve His likeness and
image by Thursday next. Progress is our aim, and His perfection is the beacon,
light-years away, that draws us
on."
1.
GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961 - 2. LETTER, 1966
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"Some day
we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to
a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we
shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or
hostility. Drinkers will not stand for it.
After all, our problems were of our own making. Bottles were only a
symbol. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We
have to!"
~Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 103~
*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*
A.A.
Thought for the Day
The A.A. program
is a way of life. It's a way of living and we have to learn to live the program
if we're going to stay sober. The twelve steps in the book are like
guide-posts. They point the direction in which we have to go. But all members
of the group have to find their own best way to live the program. We don't all
do it exactly alike. Whether by quiet times in the morning, meetings, working
with others, or spreading the word, we have to learn to live the program. Has
the A.A. way become my regular, natural way of living?
Meditation for the Day
I will relax and
not get tense. I will have no fear, because everything will work out in the
end. I will learn soul-balance and poise in a vacillating, changing world. I
will claim God's power and use it because if I do not use it, it will be
withdrawn. As long as I get back to God and replenish my strength after each
task, no work can be too much.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may
relax and that God's strength will be given to me.
I pray that I may subject my will to God's will and be free from all tenseness.