AA Thoughts For Today - August

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AA Thought for the Day

August 28

A Fearless Moral Inventory

When AA suggests a fearless moral inventory, it must seem to every newcomer
that more is being asked of him than he can do. Both his pride and his fear beat
him back every time he tries to look inside himself. Pride says, "You need not
pass this way," and Fear says, "You dare not look!" But the testimony of AA's
who have really tried a moral inventory is that pride and fear of this sort turn
out to be bogeymen, nothing else.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) p. 49

Thought to Ponder . . .
All of AA's suggestions are free.
The ones I don't take are the ones I end up paying for.

AA-related 'Alconym'
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Self-appraisal
"I used to be a champ at unrealistic self-appraisal.
I wanted to look only at the part of my life
which seemed good.
Then I would greatly exaggerate whatever virtues
I supposed I had attained.
Next I would congratulate myself on the grand job
I was doing.
So my unconscious self-deception never failed
to turn my few good assets into serious liabilities.
This astonishing process was always a pleasant one. . .
I was falling straight back
into the pattern of my drinking days. . .
I shall forever regret the damage I did to people around me.
Indeed, I still tremble when I realize
what I might have done to AA and to its future."
Bill W., June 1961
1988AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, pp. 256-7

Thought to Consider . . .
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A A = Altered Attitudes

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

Tornado Technique
From: "When AA Came of Age"
Still another famous early itinerant was Irwin M., a Cleveland AA who had become a champion salesman of Venetian blinds to department stores in the deep South. He used to range a territory bounded by Atlanta and Jacksonville on one side and Indianapolis, Birmingham, and New Orleans on the other. Irwin weighed 250 pounds and was full of energy and gusto. The prospect of Irwin, as a missionary, scared us rather badly. At the New York Headquarters we had on file a long list of topers in many a Southern city and town, people who had not been personally visited. Irwin had long since broken all the rules of caution and discreet approach to newcomers, so it was with reluctance that we gave him the list. Then we waited - but not for long. Irwin ran them down, every single one, with his home-crashing tornado technique. Day and night, besides, he wrote letters to his prospects and got them to writing each other.
Stunned but happy Southerners began to send their thanks to Headquarters. As Irwin himself reported, many a first family of the South had been an easy pushover. He had cracked the territory wide open and had started or stimulated many an original group.
1985, AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, page 25

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"When I've examined a situation all ways from Sunday, and the only thing I can see are bad consequences, then I can say, 'God, I don't have the least idea what to do.' That seems to be the magic phrase for me. Then something happens, and it is usually an action I hadn't thought of doing, and the result is good for all."
Irasburg, Vermont, December 1997
"Distilled Spirits,"
AA Grapevine

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"Everybody knows that those in bad health, and those who seldom play,
do not laugh much. So let each family play together or separately as
much as their circumstances warrant. We are sure God wants us to be
happy, joyous, and free."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 132~

"Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or
trying on our own power. We had to have God's help."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 62

“Returning home we find a place where we can be a quiet for an hour, carefully reviewing what we have done.”
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 75

“A quiet, objective view will be our steadfast aim.”
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 82 (Step Eight)

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

We cannot disclose anything to our wives or our parents which will hurt them and make them unhappy. We have no right to save our own skins at their expense.
Such damaging parts of our story we tell to someone else who will understand, yet be unaffected. The rule is, we must be hard on ourselves, but always considerate of others.
Good judgment will suggest that we ought to take our time in making amends to our families. It may be unwise at first to rehash certain harrowing episodes. While we may be quite willing to reveal the very worst, we must be sure to remember that we cannot buy our own peace of mind at the expense of others.

Prayer for the Day: (Prayer of St Francis of Assisi) —"Lord, make me a channel of thy peace - that where there is hatred, I may bring love - that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness - that where there is discord, I may bring harmony - that where there is error, I may bring truth - that where there is doubt, I may bring faith - that where there is despair, I may bring hope - that where there are shadows, I may bring light - that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted - to understand, than to be understood - to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen."