Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick.
As I look at myself practicing the Fourth Step, it is easy to gloss over the wrong that I have done, because I can easily see it as a question of “getting even” for a wrong done to me. If I continue to relive my old hurt, it is a resentment and resentment bars the sunlight from my soul. If I continue to relive hurts and hates, I will hurt and hate myself. After years in the dark of resentments, I have found the sunlight. I must let go of resentments; I cannot afford them.
Twenty–Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
A police captain once told about certain cases he had come across in his police work. The cause of the tragedy in each case was drunkenness. He told his audience about a man who got into an argument with his wife while he was drunk and beat her to death. Then he went out and drank some more. The police captain also told about a woman who got too near the edge of an old quarry hole when she was drunk and fell one hundred and fifty feet to her death. When I read or hear these stories, do I think about our motto: “But for the grace of God”?
Meditation For The Day
I must keep balance by keeping spiritual things at the centre of my life. God will give me this poise and balance if I pray for it. This poise will give me power in dealing with the lives of others. This balance will manifest itself more and more in my own life. I should keep material things in their proper place and keep spiritual things at the centre of my life. Then I will be at peace amid the distractions of everyday living.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may dwell with God at the centre of my life. I pray that I may keep that inner peace at the centre of my being.
As Bill Sees It
We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing, we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life.
As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow, or the hereafter. We were reborn.
Walk in Dry Places
What causes a binge?
Understanding honesty.
In the foggy world of drinking, we were sometimes confused about cause and effect. A person might think of a binge as having been caused by a fight with his or her spouse. The real truth, however, is that he or she provoked the fight in order to get out of the house to launch a drinking spree. It was really the need to drink that caused the fight, and not the reverse, as the alcoholic believes. We must always understand that the compulsion to drink is the root cause of every binge. We may blame certain things that seemed to trigger a drunk, but it is always our own compulsion that gives force to such an action. Non alcoholics have the same human experiences we do, but such things do not cause them to have binges.
Seasoned AA members are trained by their experience to detect and defuse these false causes. “There are excuses but never good reasons for drinking,” they say. We always drink because we want to drink, not because another’s actions forced us into it.
Once we’ve established real sobriety, we also learn to identify the excuses and devices that helped us blame our binges on other people and conditions. We learn that we are always responsible for maintaining our own sobriety.
I intend to get along with everybody today and to meet all conditions and circumstances in a mature manner. Nothing can trigger a binge but my own desire to take a drink.
Keep It Simple
It is enough that I am of value to somebody today.–Hugh Prather
Even in recovery, we addicts often feel we are not enough. Maybe it’s leftover shame from our using days. But we are enough. We are of great value. We all need each other to stay sober.
Each of us needs other recovering people to help us remember the hell of addiction. We can forget how bad it was, but telling our stories makes us remember. When you feel you don’t want to stay sober for yourself, then stay sober for your brothers and sisters in the program. They need you.
You’re their recovery, as they’re yours. There may be days you don’t feel glad to be sober. But your friends in this fellowship are glad you’re sober. They thank–you for your sobriety
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, may Your will, not mine, be done.
Action For the Day: I’ll stop and think of all the people I’m glad for. I’ll start telling them today.
May I sit comfortably in silence, so that I can hear Gods words.—SweetyZee
Be thankful for each and every morning. Enjoy life and don’t worry about things that won’t matter in 10 years anyway.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.–Albert Einstein
And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.–Abraham Lincoln
“One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention.” –Jim Rohn
“Put duties aside at least an hour before bed and perform soothing, quiet activities that will help you relax.”–Dianne Hales
“If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”–Dolores Huerta
“Minutes are worth more than money. Spend them wisely.”–Thomas P. Murphy
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, but expecting a different result.”–Albert Einstein
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
Life
“May you live all the days of your life.”–Jonathan Swift
I heard a story that offers a key to the meaning of spirituality: Two little fish were huddled together, afraid to move. A large fish swam by them, confident and strong. The big fish shouted out to the two little fish, “Why don’t you swim out and enjoy the beautiful ocean?” The two little fish looked at each other and asked, “Where is the ocean?” They were in it but they didn’t know it!
As an alcoholic I existed in life but I didn’t live: I missed vacations, people, friendships, feelings, nature, sunsets and God. Like so many addicts, I was numbered amongst the “walking dead”. Today I continue to make a spiritual choice that avoids alcohol and I am able to feel again. Today I am alive.
In You I live to love and love to live.
Daily Inspiration
Start the day with prayer and a commitment to conquer any difficulties that happen and a firmer commitment to not let them conquer you. Lord, bless me with all that I need to make the best of every situation.
Celebrate your creativity. You are a child of the Great Creator, created in His image. Lord, may I touch others because of the gifts with which you have blessed me.
Contributed By: Shreerang Karkare
