~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Paradox
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"We Give Away to Keep. That
seems absurd and untrue. How can you keep anything if you give it away?
But in order to keep
whatever it is we get in AA, we must go about giving it away to others,
for no fees or rewards
of any kind. When we cannot afford to give away what we have
received so freely in
AA, we had better get ready for our next 'drunk.'
It will happen every
time. We've got to continue to give it away in order to keep it."
- The Professor and the Paradox
1955AAWS, Alcoholics
Anonymous (2nd Ed.), pp. 341-2
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Thought to Consider . . .
"We are not living just to
be sober;
we are living to learn,
to serve, and to love."
As Bill Sees It, p. 94
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
H
E L P =
Hope, Encouragement, Love, and Patience
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Attraction
Tradition Eleven: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
"Let's see how these two contrasting ideas - attraction and promotion - work out. A political party wishes to win an election, so it advertises the virtues of its leadership to draw votes. A worthy charity wants to raise money; forthwith, its letterhead shows the name of every distinguished person whose support can be obtained. Much of the political, economic, and religious life of the world is dependent upon publicized leadership. People who symbolize causes and ideas fill a deep human need. We of A.A. do not question that. But we do have to soberly face the fact that being in the public eye is hazardous, especially for us. By temperament, nearly every one of us had been an irrepressible promoter, and the prospect of a society composed almost entirely of promoters was frightening. Considering this explosive factor, we knew we had to exercise self-restraint."
1981, AAWS, Inc., Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 181
*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
PRIDE
For
thousands of years we have been demanding more than our share of security,
prestige, and romance. When we seemed to be succeeding, we drank to dream
still greater dreams. When we were frustrated, even in part, we drank for
oblivion. Never was there enough of what we thought we wanted.
In all these strivings, so many of them well-intentioned, our
crippling handicap had been our lack of humility. We had lacked the
perspective to see that character-building and spiritual
values had to come first, and that material satisfactions were not the
purpose of living.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 71
Time
and again I approached the Seventh Step, only to fall back and regroup.
Something was missing and the impact of the Step escaped me. What had I
overlooked? A single word: read but ignored, the foundation of all the
Steps, indeed the entire Alcoholics Anonymous program - that
word is "humbly".
I understood my
shortcomings: I constantly put tasks off; I angered easily; I felt too much
self-pity; and thought, why me? Then I remembered, "Pride goeth before the fall," and I eliminated pride from
my life.
Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*~*
Antidote for Fear
When our failings
generate fear, we then have soul-sickness. This sickness,
in turn, generates still
more character defects.
Unreasonable fear that
our instincts will not be satisfied drives us to covet
the possessions of
others, to lust for sex and power, to become angry when
our instinctive demands
are threatened, to be envious when the ambitions of
others seem to be realized
while ours are not. We eat, drink, and grab for
more of everything than
we need, fearing we shall never have enough. And,
with genuine alarm at
the prospect of work, we stay lazy. We loaf and
procrastinate, or at
best work grudgingly and under half steam.
These fears are the
termites that ceaselessly devour the foundations of
whatever sort of life we
try to build.
<<<>>>
As
faith grows, so does inner security. The vast underlying fear of
nothingness commences to
subside. We of A.A. find that our basic antidote for fear is a spiritual
awakening.
1. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 49 - 2. GRAPEVINE, JANUARY 1962
*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"We found that God does not make too hard terms with those
who seek
Him. To us, the Realm of
Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never
exclusive or forbidding
to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we
believe, to all
men."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, Page 46~
*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought
for the Day
After
we had sobered up through the A.A. program, we gradually began to get a peace
of mind and serenity which we never thought were possible. This peace of mind
is based on a feeling that fundamentally all is well. That does not mean that
all is well on the surface of things. Little things can keep going wrong and
big things can keep on upsetting us. But deep down in our hearts we know that
everything is eventually going to be all right, now that we are living sober
lives. Have I achieved a deep down, inner calm?
Meditation
for the Day
You are climbing up the ladder of life,
which reaches into eternity. Would
God plant your feet upon
an insecure ladder? Its supports may be out of
sight, hid- den in
secret places, but if God has asked you to step on and up
firmly, then surely He
has secured your ladder. Faith gives you the strength
to climb steadily this
ladder of life. You should leave your security to God
and trust Him not to let
you fall. He is there to give you all the power you
need to keep on
climbing.
Prayer
for the Day
I pray that I may climb
the ladder of life without fear.
I pray that I may progress steadily through the rest of my life with faith and confidence.