Today's Thought - April

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April 1

AA Thought for the Day

In the story of the Good Samaritan, the wayfarer fell among robbers and was left lying in the gutter, half dead. And a priest and a Levite both passed by on the other side of the road. But the Good Samaritan was moved with compassion and came to him and bound up his wounds and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Do I treat another alcoholic like the priest and the Levite or like the Good Samaritan?
Meditation for the Day

Never weary in prayer. When one day you see how unexpectedly your prayer has been answered, then you will deeply regret that you have prayed so little. Prayer changes things for you. Practice praying until your trust in God has become strong. And then pray on, because it has become so much a habit that you need it daily. Keep praying until prayer seems to become communion with God. That is the note on which true times of prayer should end.
Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may form the habit of daily prayer. I pray that I may find the strength I need as a result of this communion.

Today's reading is from the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day: A Spiritual Resource with Practical Applications for Daily Life*

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April 2

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume, you shall assume.

~Walt Whitman

Some of us may think Walt Whitman must have been terribly conceited to have written words like that. But he wasn't. He knew himself well, and accepted himself, even his darker side. He could laugh at himself and celebrate his humanness.

And because he loved and accepted himself just as he was, others could do the same. That's difficult to understand sometimes, but it's true: no one else is going to love and accept us until we come to love and accept ourselves.

We teach others how to treat us by the way we treat ourselves, so perhaps it makes sense to apply a variation of the Golden Rule: "Do unto ourselves as we would have others do unto us."

Can I allow my kindness to myself overflow to another person today?

Today's reading is from the book Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families*

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April 3

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

~Ernest Hemingway

It's hard to listen in a complete way. Often we listen, but we're still thinking about ourselves. We wonder, "How do their words relate to me? Do I have anything to add?" Often, fear is behind these questions. We fear saying the wrong thing. We fear looking stupid.

Good listeners know how to let go. They let go of their fears. To listen completely, we step outside ourselves, and we're totally there for someone else. Sometimes we listen for only a few moments. Sometimes we don't even agree with the people we're listening to. But we let them know that they count. What a gift we give when we listen in a complete way!
Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, teach me to listen in a complete way. Teach me to step outside myself and be there for others.
Action for the Day

Today I'll listen to what the person says.

Today's reading is from the book Keep it Simple: Daily Meditations for Twelve Step Beginnings and Renewal*

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April 4

I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well.

~Psalms 139:14

Some days we feel bad about ourselves. Perhaps there is no real reason except that a mood has come over us. Moodiness is a remnant of our past. Or perhaps we feel guilty or ashamed or hurt. We feel blue. We feel grouchy toward ourselves, toward others around us, toward the world.

This is a time to turn it over to our Higher Power. We are children of the universe. We are loved. Our Creator has endowed us with marvelous strengths and potentials. Today may be a day we allow ourselves to be carried along by the love of our Higher Power. If we reach out, we will feel the presence of the spirit in our contact with other people. We need not try so hard. We only need to pray for openness within ourselves to feel the love of God.

I pray for help today to renew the feeling within that God loves me and never abandons me.

Today's reading is from the book Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men*

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April 5

Recovering Out Loud

I don't know about you, but my recovery started when I spoke the truth aloud. Speaking it aloud to somebody else gave it flight, lifted it up and away. Recovering out loud might mean you tell just one person that you are in recovery from suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, or substance use.

It doesn't mean you have to start an international movement. It doesn't mean that you reveal your recovery on social media or the front page of the local newspaper. It might just mean that when somebody around you is talking about a personal struggle or something a family member is going through, you turn to them and say, "I have some personal experience with that. Do you mind if I share?" When you do share in this way, you will be helping one another and also helping to eliminate stigma.

Here's the thing: our voices matter. As we grow prouder in our recovery, we grow louder in it too. The reason I recover out loud is to lead other women into recovery, to reach those suffering in silence. I want to help them so their words can take flight too.

Words matter. Especially when we speak them out loud.

Today's reading is from the book She Recovers Every Day: Meditations for Women*

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April 6

Having realistic expectations

Sometimes we expect much too much of people and things. We will never be happy if we expect our doctor to work instant cures or if we blame our teacher for what we failed to learn. We need to examine what's realistic to expect of others and what we are responsible for ourselves. It's the same with the program: we cannot judge its effectiveness by whether we are happy all the time.

The program will be perfect only when we are perfect. We must let go of our childish all-or-nothing attitude and become more realistic. After all, when were we ever happy all the time?

Do I expect too much?

Higher Power, when I am unhappy with the program, help me be honest with myself about where the problem lies.

Today I will examine my expectations about...

Today's reading is from the book Day by Day: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts*

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April 7

It Takes What It Takes

In 1986, I was suffering the fallout of multiple affairs that my now-ex-wife was having. I was not handling this situation very well.

Long story short, I accidentally fired a gun into the couch of the living room. Not on purpose. I was drinking at the time. Because everybody cleans their guns while they're drinking scotch on the rocks, right? You know, that's at least what I thought.

But this incident did scare me. It made me think about my drinking, and I decided to go to AA. I liked it! I wasn't drinking, I was feeling good, and I was healthy. For six weeks. Then I figured, Okay, I've got this! I can do this on my own.

I didn't get sober then. But it did kick off the beginning of my journey, and I ended up where I am today. Now I sponsor people and I am sober myself.

Today I will recognize that it takes what it takes to get sober. I won't regret the journey it has taken me to get here.

~Ed C., U.S. Army, 1975–1979

Today's reading is from the book Leave No One Behind: Daily meditations for Military Service Members and Veterans in Recovery*

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April 8

Reflection for the Day

Rare are the practicing alcoholics and addicts who have any idea how irrational they are or, seeing their irrationality, can bear to face it. One reason is that they are abetted in their blindness by a world that doesn't yet understand the difference between sane drinking and alcoholism, sane substance use and addiction. The dictionary defines sanity as "soundness of mind." Yet no addict or alcoholic, soberly analyzing their destructive behavior, can truly claim soundness of mind. Have I come to believe, as the Second Step suggests, that a Power greater than myself can restore me to sanity?
Today I Pray

May I see that my own behavior as a practicing alcoholic, a drug user, or a compulsive overeater could be described as "insane." For those still actively addicted, admitting to "insane" behavior is well-nigh impossible. I pray that I may continue to abhor the insanities and inanities of my addictive days. May others like me recognize their problems of addiction, find help in treatment and in the program, and come to believe that a Higher Power can restore them to sanity.
Today I Will Remember

My Higher Power always restores my soul.

Today's reading is from the book A Day at a Time: Daily Reflections for Recovering People*

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April 9

What does it mean to be "awakened spiritually"?

Many of us believe in God. Most cultures in this world, in fact, believe in a supreme being. But simply believing in a Higher Power is not the same as being spiritually awake. Formally, spiritually awake means having a two-way relationship with God. Informally it means having a friendship that keeps our hope for a better life alive.

Now we no longer pray to a distant, unseen God. We talk, each day, with the God of our understanding.

Being active in the most important relationship we have is what keeps us awake spiritually. That, in turn, is what fosters every positive change, every aspect of growth we experience.

My chat with God today will keep me on track and firm in my understanding of the power of God's presence.

Today's reading is from the book A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance*

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April 10

I realized I was going to survive this loss. I learned that no matter how great my pain, or how alone and frightened I feel, I have only to remember.

~Raymond Berger

When we're suffering, we may think that we're never going to feel relief. We may forget that we have already survived our past, and that joy has followed pain over and over again. We may neglect to use the resources within us and surrounding us that can help through times of pain.

Prayer, creative expression, visiting nature, sharing feelings with people we trust, giving help and service to others, even performing simple meditative tasks like washing dishes or sweeping a floor - all these have helped put broken hearts back together.

To be alive is to feel. We don't have to numb or deny our feelings of pain or loss. We can respect and acknowledge whatever we're feeling without fear. In time, we are healed.

Today, I remember that I have always lived through pain. I remember the many resources that help me to heal.

Today's reading is from the book Glad Day

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April 11

Being Vulnerable

Part of recovery means learning to share ourselves with other people. We learn to admit our mistakes and expose our imperfections - not so that others can fix us, rescue us, or feel sorry for us, but so we can love and accept ourselves. This sharing is a catalyst in healing and changing.

Many of us are fearful of sharing our imperfections because that makes us vulnerable. Some of us have tried being vulnerable in the past, and people tried to control, manipulate, or exploit us, or they made us feel ashamed.

Some of us in recovery have hurt ourselves by being vulnerable. We may have shared things with people who didn't respect our confidence. Or we may have told the wrong people at an inappropriate time, and scared them away.

We learn from our mistakes - and despite our mistakes, it is still a good thing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and honest. We can learn to choose safe people with whom to share ourselves. We can learn to share appropriately so we don't scare or push people away. We can also learn to let others be vulnerable with us.

Today, God, help me learn to be appropriately vulnerable. I will not let others exploit or shame me for being vulnerable, and I will not exploit myself.

Today's reading is from the book The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency*

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Apeil 12

Inches make champions.

~Vince Lombardi

What's the difference between success and failure? Ideal conditions? Fifty percent more effort? Twice the talent? Ten times "the breaks"? Or is it simply that some people have what it takes and some people don't?

Vince Lombardi, the football coach who brought the Green Bay Packers from fifteen losing seasons to successive world championships, thought success was a matter of inches. A bit more concentration, one extra push in practice, a consistent second effort for a tiny additional gain. He didn't ask his players to be something other than they were - he asked them to improve their best an inch at a time. He knew inches add up in life as in sports.

In life as in football, it is often the little things that count: going to meetings when we feel like staying home, or speaking our minds, no matter how insignificant our opinion may seem. When we feel like simply hiding - inches make the difference.

Today, I will be aware that I am a champion in the making. I may not make a complete turnaround today, but I will make progress.

Today's reading is from the book Days of Healing, Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children*

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April 13

All day, where the sunlight played on the seashore, Life sat.

~Olive Schreiner

When we let ourselves, we look around and feel a deep sense of respect for life and our part in it. The land - its majesty and sustenance - children, pets, doing something we love: all of these nourish our spirit.

It's important to find the things that nurture our spirit and seek them out, and it's important to keep widening the possibilities for awakening our spirit. The excitement that arises from a moment of connection is wonderful to feel.

Although the moment can be simple, something we wouldn't have noticed in the past, we can now feel its reality. The deepest part of us reaches out to something or someone else, and we are connected. Intimacy with life renews life.

God, please help me today to say yes to the beauty, people, and experiences in my life.

Today's reading is from the book Answers in the Heart

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April 14

Service

Love is the forgetting of oneself in the service of another.

~R. Ainsley Barnwell

Any act of "carrying the message" can serve a useful purpose, whether or not we see the results. Our home group carries the message and observes the Fifth Tradition.

If we maintain an attitude of being of service with love, we can work wonders at any time and every moment of a day. Through our Twelve Step program, we become aware that we have the opportunity of being an example of happy, joyous, and free living without the crutch of our addiction. This "face" we present can be a positive model for anyone who comes in contact with us.

If we confine our activities to only those persons who seek our help, we might miss the chance of influencing someone who isn't the direct target of our "service of love."

Today I will use the gifts my Higher Power and the program have given me to be of service to others.

Today's reading is from the book Easy Does It: A Book of Daily Twelve Step Meditations*

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April 15

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

~Booker T. Washington

It seems that when we're not feeling good about ourselves, we're more prone to gossip about others or criticize even our dearest friends.

Or some days we may think we're in a pretty good place, and suddenly we begin taking someone else's inventory. We then discover that the ground under us has moved; we're no longer in a good place. Criticism breeds personal discontent. Our negative attitude toward ourselves or others multiplies and soon touches everyone we're in contact with.

Fortunately, acts of love also multiply. We can inspire at least two people right now through a loving deed or thought - ourselves and the nearest friend. More importantly, any act of genuine kindness is guaranteed to create a ripple of kindness that will finally reach the other side of town, maybe even the far side of the universe.

I will do my part today to spread love to the far reaches of the world.

Today's reading is from the book In God's Care: Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery*