~*~A

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Disease
Dis=ease
"Some strongly object to the AA position that alcoholism is an illness. This concept, they feel, removes
moral responsibility from alcoholics. As any AA knows, this is far from true. We do not use the concept of sickness
to absolve our members from responsibility. On the contrary, we use the fact of fatal illness
to clamp the heaviest kind of moral obligation onto the sufferer,
the obligation to use AA's Twelve Steps to get well."
Bill W., Talk, 1960 As Bill Sees It, p. 32

Thought to Consider . . .

The road to recovery is always under construction.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
STEPS
Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Candor

STEP FIVE: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

"When we reached A.A., and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was tremendously exciting. We thought the isolation problem had been solved. But we soon discovered that while we weren't alone any more in a social sense we still suffered many of the old pangs of anxious apartness. Until we had talked with complete candor of our conflicts, and had listened to someone else do the same thing, we still didn't belong. Step Five was the answer. It was the beginning of true kinship with man and God."

*~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~*
THE EASIER, SOFTER WAY

If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 72

I certainly didn't leap at the opportunity to face who I was, especially when the pains of my drinking days hung over me like a dark cloud. But I soon heard at the meetings about the fellow member who just didn't want to take Step Five and kept coming back to meetings, trembling from the horrors of reliving his past. The easier, softer way is to take these Steps to freedom from our fatal disease, and to put our faith in the Fellowship and our Higher Power.

(c)Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.(c)

*~*~*~*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*~*~*~*
Seeking Fool's Gold

Pride is the basic breeder of most human difficulties, the chief block to true progress. Pride lures us

into making demands upon ourselves or upon others which cannot be met without perverting or misusing

our God-given instincts. When the satisfaction of our instincts for sex, security, and a place in society becomes

the primary object of our lives, then pride steps in to justify our excesses.

*** ***

I may attain "humility for today" only to the extent that I am able to avoid the bog of guilt and rebellion on

one hand and, on the other hand, that fair but deceiving land which is strewn with the fool's-gold coins of pride.

This is how I can find and stay on the highroad to humility, which lies between these extremes.

Therefore, a constant inventory which can reveal when I am off the road is always in order.

1.TWELVE AND TWELVE, pp. 48-49
2. GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no
middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was
becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through

human aid, we had but two alternatives:
One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of
our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept
spiritual help. This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were
willing to make the effort."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 46~

*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

In A.A. we find fellowship and release and strength. And having found these things, the real reasons for our drinking are taken away. Then drinking has no more justification in our minds. We no longer need to fight against drink. Drink just naturally leaves us. At first, we are sorry that we can't drink, but we get so that we are glad that we don't have to drink. Am I glad that I don't have to drink?

Meditation for the Day

Try never to judge. The human mind is so delicate and so complex that only its Maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different, actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different circumstances, influenced by such different sufferings, you cannot know all the influences that have gone to make up a personality. Therefore, it is impossible for you to judge wholly that personality. But God knows that person wholly and He can change it. Leave to God the unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God to teach you the proper understanding.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not judge other people.

I pray that I may be certain that God can set right what is wrong in every personality