A Prayer & Some Thoughts - September

[bluidkiti]

September 6


Prayer for Making Decisions

Lord,
You know that today—or very soon—I must make a decision which is going to affect my whole life.
Grant me your guidance, and the humility to accept it.
Help me not necessarily to choose what I want to do, but what I should do.
Grant that I may not be swayed solely by fear or by hope of gain, by selfish love of ease or comfort or by personal ambition, by the desire to escape or by longing for prestige.
Hear this prayer of mine and send an answer so clear that I cannot mistake it.
Amen

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Just a Thought

A drinking life isn't a happy life.

Excessive drinking cuts you off from other people and from God. One of the worst things about drinking is loneliness. And one of the best things about A.A. is the fellowship. Drinking cuts you off from other people, at least from the people who really matter to you, your wife and children, your family and real friends. No matter how much you love them, you build up a wall between you and them by drinking. You're cut off from any real companionship with them. As a result, you're terribly lonely.

So ............

Have I got rid of my loneliness?

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Just a Contemplation

Justified Resentments

One of the greatest hurdles in sobriety is the so-called justified resentment. We feel that we have a right to be angry at somebody who has hurt or offended us. This feeling might be correct if our anger could remedy the matter and bring it to a just conclusion, but this hardly ever happens. If we are angry, we usually want revenge more than we want justice. Uncontrolled anger will make us behave as unjustly as those who harmed us did. This means more trouble.

Whether revenge is sought or not, anger also poisons our own lives. Emmet Fox compared it to the insane practice of drinking prussic acid. People cannot take a drink of acid and then assign it to the person they detest. They will bear its effect in their own bodies. In the same way, our anger produces its own acids, which destroy our peace of mind and make us ineffective.

We can deal with "justified resentment" by reminding ourselves that there's no justification for the pain and sickness a festering resentment will cause in our lives. There is no justified resentment.

I will try not to let myself be drawn into the angry currents around me.

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Growing Up in AA

Life is meant to be lived by facing the challenges it brings. Otherwise, I'm not living, just existing. God didn't give me this gift of sobriety to sit in a rocking chair, imagining myself as some old wise woman who has arrived somewhere. There is no easier, softer way.

The Best Of The Grapevine [Vol.3], Page 320

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Just a Quote

"We cannot get rid of our emotions. We can, however, manage them by changing our perception of them." ~ Lennox Cornwall