Daily Recovery Readings - August

[bluidkiti]

August 28

Daily Reflections

LIGHTENING THE BURDEN

Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very
thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. . . . the
dark past is . . . the key to life and happiness for others.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p.124

Since I have been sober, I have been healed of many pains:
deceiving my partner, deserting my best friend, and spoiling my
mother's hopes for my life. In each case someone in the program
told me of a similar problem, and I was able to share what happened
to me. When my story was told, both of us got up with lighter
hearts.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"We must continue to take personal inventory and continue to set
right any new mistakes as we go along. We should grow in
understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter;
it should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for
selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop
up, we ask God at once to remove them. We must not rest on our
laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do. We are not cured of
alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve, contingent on
the maintenance of our spiritual condition." Am I checking my
spiritual condition daily?

Meditation For The Day

Happiness cannot be sought directly; it is a byproduct of love and
service. Service is a law of our being. With love in your heart, there
is always some service to other people. A life of power and joy
and satisfaction is built on love and service. Persons who hate or
are selfish are going against the law of their own being. They are
cutting themselves off from God and other people. Little acts of
love and encouragement, of service and help, erase the rough
places of life and help to make a path smooth. If we do these things,
we cannot help having our share of happiness.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may give my share of love and service. I pray that I may
not grow weary in my attempts to do the right thing.

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As Bill Sees It

When And How To Give, p.239

Men who cry for money and shelter as a condition of their sobriety are
on the wrong track. Yet we sometimes do provide a new prospect
with these very things--when it becomes clear that he is willing to
place his recovery first.

It is not whether we shall give that is the question, but when and how
to give. Whenever we put our work on a material plane, the alcoholic
commences to rely upon alms rather than upon a Higher Power and
the A.A. group. He continues to insist that he cannot master alcohol
until his material needs are cared for.

Nonsense! Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this
truth: that, job or no job, wife or no wife, we simply do not stop
drinking so long as we place material dependence upon other people
ahead of dependence on God.

Alcoholics Anonymous, p.98

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Walk In Dry Places

No Prayer Goes Unanswered
Guidance.
It would be nearly impossible to do an accounting of the results of prayer. Sometimes there seems to be no answer , and at other times, an answer seems to be the result of coincidence. It's too easy to dismiss these results as things that would have happened even if we hadn't prayed.
Yet those of us who believe in prayer feel that it is indeed a way of communicating with our Higher Power. It takes many forms. Even thinking about God is a type of prayer.
The best answers to prayer come in the new ways we begin to feel about ourselves and others. If prayer brings us to a realization of being in tune with our Higher Power, we are working in the right way. The proper changes will come into our lives as needed. We should not try to measure results, because this tends to bring doubt into the process. Our only responsibility is to pray then let God's work take place in our lives.
I will pray regularly to day, thinking often about God and asserting to myself and others that this Higher Power is in charge.

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Keep It Simple

The saints are the sinners who kept going.---Robert Louis Stevenson
The saints are what our program calls the “winner.” We’re told to “stick” with the winners. Saints are just proven winners. They keep on believing in their Higher Power even when things get hard.
There will be times when we’ll want to give up. We may want to stop going to meetings. We may want to get high. We may want to stop working the Steps.
To be winners in this program, we need to follow the example of the saints. This means we live a spiritual life. We need to keep on going. One day at a time.
Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll be a winner in this program. Higher Power, be with me in the easy times and the hard times. Help me keep going.
Action for the Day: I’ll list people who are winners in this program. I’ll ask one of the how he or she keeps going in tough times.

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Each Day a New Beginning

There are sounds to seasons. There are sounds to places, and there are sounds to every time in one's life. --Alison Wyrley Birch
Live is rich and full. Your life. My life. Even when the day feels flat or hollow, there's a richness to it that escapes our attention. We see only what we choose to see. We hear selectively, too. Our prejudgment precludes our getting the full effects of any experience. Some days we hear only the drum of the humdrum.
But the greater our faith in the program and a loving God, the clearer our perceptions become. We miss less of the day's events; we grow in our understanding of our unfolding, and we perceive with clarity the role others are playing in our lives.
We can see life as a concert in progress when we transcend our own narrow scope and appreciate the variety of people and situations all directed toward the same finale. The more we're in tune with the spiritual activity surrounding us; the more harmoniously we will be able to perform our parts.
I will listen to the music of today. I will get in tune, in rhythm. I am needed for the concert's beauty.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

WE AGNOSTICS

To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.

p. 44

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Ten - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."

Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics. It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective. Nor were we ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger. As we saw it, our wrath was always justified. Anger, that occasional luxury of more balanced people, could keep us on an emotional jag indefinitely. These emotional "dry benders" often led straight to the bottle. Other kinds of disturbances--jealousy, envy, self-pity, or hurt pride--did the same thing.

p. 90

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Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. . .
Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness,
and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted."
--Paul Tillich

"Life didn't promise to be wonderful."
--Teddy Pendergrass

Today I do not need to say the first thing that comes into my head, or
react to what others say about me. Today I can practice restraint of
tongue and pen...think before I speak...and say kind things or nothing
at all.
--Ruth Fishel

One of the first things to do, is to love everybody ... with love, all
things are possible ... and the one who has learned to love all people
will find plenty of people who will return that love.
--Ernest Holmes

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many
-- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
--Charles Dickens

Sit down with a pen and paper and write your thoughts down.
It frees your mind.
--unknown

God's answers are always wiser than your prayers...

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

CHARACTER

"A man never discloses his own
character so clearly as when he
describes another's."
-- Johann Paul Richter

I was always so perceptive when it came to assessing the character
faults of others. I could offer the best therapy and treatment to
others; the best advice in the world. I was excellent at "pulling the
covers" on a con-man --- but always I missed me! I never really
heard my insights. I never followed my advice. I always minimized
my character faults.

Usually what I saw in others was reflected in my own personality.
The things I loathed in others existed in me. The anger and
resentments came from a denial of self.

In sobriety I hear the advice of others. I don't always like it but I
hear it. I give criticism and today I am growing in my acceptance of
criticism.

In relationships may I see clearly my own reflection.

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"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience."
Colossians 3:12

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and
admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."
Colossians 3:16

"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one
another."
John 13:34

"The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved
me."
Psalms 116:6

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Daily Inspiration

If you are too easily offended and become upset too quickly, you are taking life far too seriously. Lord, help me avoid looking for things to complain about.

Never underestimate the power of your presence nor your ability to comfort and encourage. Lord, thank You for my opportunities to do Your work.