This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Just like treating diabetes you got to do it for life if you want to survive
During my early years in A.A. I saw Step Ten as a suggestion that I periodically look at my behaviour and reactions. If there was something wrong, I should admit it, if an apology was necessary, I should give one. After a few years of sobriety I felt I should undertake a self–examination more frequently. Not until several more years of sobriety had elapsed did I realize the full meaning of Step Ten, and the word “Continued.” “Continued” does not mean occasionally, or frequently. It means throughout each day.
Twenty–Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
How seriously do I take my obligations to A.A.? Have I taken all the good I can get out of it and then let my obligations slide? Or do I constantly feel a deep debt of gratitude and a deep sense of loyalty to the whole A.A. movement? Am I not only grateful but also proud to be a part of such a wonderful fellowship, which is doing such marvellous work among alcoholics? Am I glad to be a part of the great work that A.A. is doing and do I feel a deep obligation to carry on that work at every opportunity? Do I feel that I owe A.A. my loyalty and devotion?
Meditation For The Day
If your heart is right, your world will be right. The beginning of all reform must be in yourself. It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you take it. However restricted your circumstances, however little you may be able to remedy financial affairs, you can always turn to your inward self and, seeing something not in order there, seek to right it. And as all reform is from within outward, you will always find that the outward is improved as the inward is improved. As you improve yourself, your outward circumstances will change for the better. The power released from within yourself will change your outward life.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that the hidden power within me may be released. I pray that I may not imprison the spirit that is within me.
As Bill Sees It
“Among A.A.’s there is still a vast amount of mix–up respecting what is material and what is spiritual. I prefer to believe that it is all a matter of motive. If we use our worldly possessions too selfishly, then we are materialists. But if we share these possessions in helpfulness to others, then the material aids the spiritual.”
“The idea keeps persisting that the instincts are primarily bad and are the roadblocks before which all spirituality falters. I believe that the difference between good and evil is not the difference between spiritual and instinctual man, it is the difference between proper and improper use of the instinctual. Recognition and right channelling of the instinctual are the essence of achieving wholeness.”
1. Letter, 1958
2. Letter, 1954
Walk In Dry Places
Homeless and unemployed
Economic Insecurity
Alcoholism isn’t the sole cause of the homelessness and unemployment that troubles our world. Even in sobriety, people can lose their jobs and homes, through no fault of their own. Recovery makes it less likely that we will cause such conditions in our own lives. Beyond that , by keeping sober, we will be better able to deal with any setbacks that do occur. It is a painful fact that it is almost impossible to help any destitute alcoholic find a home or employment unless he or she stops drinking. We learn that much through our experience.
Our true home is with our Higher Power, and our best work bay be in the sharing of our experience and strength with others. Remembering this, we can be sympathetic and understanding about the general problems of homelessness and unemployment. We don’t have the complete answer, but we do have answers.
I’ll be grateful and understanding in any consideration of today’s problems of homelessness and unemployment. By staying sober, I am at least helping to alleviate some of the general problems.
Keep It Simple
To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil, you’re overdoing it. – Josh Jenkins
It’s okay to make mistakes. But we shouldn’t live a life of excuses. We shouldn’t slide over our mistakes, we should learn from them.
Excuses keep us part from ourselves and others. People don’t trust us if we won’t admit and accept our mistakes. Relying on excuses dooms us to repeat the same mistakes.
In recovery, we admit and accept our behaviour. We do this by continuing to take an inventory of our lives. We do this so we can learn from our mistakes. “Owning” our mistakes helps us grow.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me own my mistakes. Thank–you for Step Ten and the growth it holds for me.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list my five favourite excuses. I’ll think of the last time I used each of these. What was I trying to avoid.
- Listen in the silence. Listen and you shall hear God speak. – Frater Achad
- Life is for living, love is for sharing. Don’t let the good things pass you by! – Sue
- The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn. – David Russell
- What I am is God’s gift to me. What I make of myself is my gift to Him. – unknown
- G I F T = God Is Forever There. – unknown
- “The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.” – Unknown
- Happiness is intrinsic, it’s an internal thing. When you build it into yourself, no external circumstances can take it away. That kind of happiness is a twenty–four–hour thing. – Leo F. Buscaglia
- The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it. – John Ruskin
Culture
“The great law of culture: let
each become all that he was
created capable of being.”
– Thomas Carlyle
We are capable of great things. This history of man, although surrounded by wars and unspeakable acts of violence, is also the history of art, music, poetry and romance. Each person is capable of great and noble acts – but do we want to do them? We can be honest, loving and caring people only if we choose to be that. The power of freedom and choice is the determining factor in all our lives. Each culture has imaginative and creative features, but it is the people that make them happen. Nothing will happen unless people decide to make it happen.
So it is with the culture of recovery. The people who make up the recovering community in all the addictions are the people who make a decision and acted upon it. Talk is cheap and cruel unless it is followed by an event. Decisions must be made real. We all have the capacity to be honest and kind.
May I not only be grateful for my culture but may I live to add something to it.
Daily Inspiration
Many of life’s hassles are mere tests of our strength. Lord, help me remember that patience can often diffuse a situation quicker than a snap response.
Spend less time trying to change and more time making the best of who you are. Lord, help me daily to put Your words into action.
