Daily Recovery Readings - September

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September 26

Daily Reflections

OUR CHILDREN

The alcoholic may find it hard to re-establish friendly
relations with his children. . . . In time they will see
that he is a new man and in their own way they will let
him know it. . . . From that point on, progress will be
rapid. Marvelous results often follow such a reunion.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 134

While on the road to recovery I received a gift that
could not be purchased. It was a card from my son in
college, saying, "Dad, you can't imagine how glad I
am that everything is okay. Happy Birthday, I love you."
My son had told me that he loved me before. It had been
during the previous Christmas holidays, when he had said
to me, while crying, "Dad, I love you! Can't you see what
you're doing to yourself?" I couldn't. Choked with emotion,
I had cried, but this time, when I received my son's card,
my tears were tears of joy, not desperation.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Continuing the consideration of the term "spiritual experience":
"The acquiring of an immediate and overwhelming God-consciousness,
resulting in a dramatic transformation, though frequent, is by
no means the rule. Most of our spiritual experiences are of the
educational variety, and they develop slowly over a period of
time. Quite often friends of newcomers are aware of the
difference long before they are themselves. They finally
realize that they have undergone a profound alteration in
their reaction to life and that such a change could hardly have
been brought about by themselves alone." Is my outlook on
life changing for the better?

Meditation For The Day

Look at the world as your Father's house. Think of all people
you meet as guests in you Father's house, to be treated with
love and consideration. Look at yourself as a servant in your
father's house, as a servant of all. Think of no work as beneath
you. Be ever ready to do all you can for others who need your
help. There is gladness in God's service. There is much
satisfaction in serving the highest that you know. Express your
love for God in service to all who are living with you in your
Father's house.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may serve others out of gratitude to God.
I pray that my work may be a small repayment for His grace
so freely given me.

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As Bill Sees It

Those Other People, p.268

"Just like you, I have often thought myself the victim of what other
people say and do. Yet every time I confessed the sins of such
people, especially those whose sins did not correspond exactly with
my own, I found that I only increased the total damage. My own
resentment, my self-pity would often render me well-nigh useless to
anybody.

"So, nowadays, if anyone talks of me so as to hurt, I first ask myself if
there is any truth at all in what they say. If there is none, I try to
remember that I too have had my periods of speaking bitterly of
others; that hurtful gossip is but a symptom of our remaining
emotional illness; and consequently that I must never be angry at the
unreasonableness of sick people.

"Under very trying conditions I have had, again and again, to forgive
others--also myself. Have you recently tried this?"

Letter, 1946

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Walk In Dry Places

The Limited and Unlimited
Spiritual growth.
In our human experience, we face one imitation after another. We are
always up against limited time energy, limited knowledge.
Yet everything we're learning tells us that all of these are without limit
in the universal. In terms of energy, for example, we know that we
would be rich beyond belief if we could really tap the sun's energy that
rushes to the earth.
What we call human progress may really refer to the gaining of knowledge
that enables us to shake off limitations. We actually did that by becoming
sober in our 12 Step program. Now we're learning to extend our limits in
many other ways; and though we are human and limited, we surely have
not begun to each any limits as far as God is concerned. Limited though
we seem to be, we're part of a Universe that is without limits.
I'll focus today on the possibility of extending my limits, knowing that
this is what God has planned for me.

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Keep It Simple

The distance doesn’t matter; only the first step is difficult.---Mme. Marquise du Deffand
During our addiction, we were on a path leading to death---death of our
spirit, mind, and body.
On that path, we tired not to think about where it would lead. We didn’t
want to get there. We just followed the path toward death, with one drink,
pill, snort or toke at a time.
Now we’ve chosen a new path for our lives. Making that choice was hard.
We knew only the old path. We were afraid to change. But we did it. That
was the hardest part.
We are excited to follow our new path. We know it leads to good things.
We can follow the map---the Twelve Steps---and enjoy the trip. It will last
as long as we live, and the map will guide us.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for helping me choose the path of life.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll study the map for my life by reading the Twelve Steps.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Why is life so tragic, so like a little strip of pavement over an abyss? I look
down; I feel giddy; I wonder how I am ever to walk to the end. --Virginia Woolf
As we look toward the hours ahead, we can be thankful that we need be
concerned with only a single day's worth of hours. No more. What may
come tomorrow, a decision that might be necessary next week, a big change
in our lives coming next year, all will be handled with ease, when the time is right.
How fortunate we are, those of us who share this program for living! Our
worries about the future are over, if we want them to be. We need to take
only one step at a time. One day at a time. And always in the care of God.
Relief from our lives of worry is immediate when we live the axiom, "Let go and let God."
Life does present us with tragedies, and we learn from them. They need not
detour us, however. In fact, they strengthen us and encourage personal growth.
And no experience will ever be more than we and our higher power can handle.
I will turn to the program and everything it offers today. Just today, and no more,
is my concern.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

WE AGNOSTICS

Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.

p. 55

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."

We also fall into another similar temptation. We form ideas as to what we think God's will is for other people. We say to ourselves, "This one ought to be cured of his fatal malady," or "That one ought to be relieved of his emotional pain," and we pray for these specific things. Such prayers, of course, are fundamentally good acts, but often they are based upon a supposition that we know God's will for the person for whom we pray. This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of presumption and conceit in us. It is A.A.'s experience that particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God's will, whatever it is, be done for others as well as for ourselves.

p. 104

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"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for
to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they
satisfy you."
--Wayne Dyer

Every second of every moment is a new beginning.
I can start my day over any time I choose.
I can also begin my life anew at any time.
This very moment can be a new beginning!

"Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

"Our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than
by the fine emotions we feel."
--Elias L, Magoon

"It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis."
--Margaret Bonano

"Each day provides its own gifts."
--Martial

"The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as
is rightfully possible today."
--Charles W. Eliot

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again.
--Dorothy Fields

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

PAIN

"You can't hold a man down
without staying down with him."
-- Booker T. Washington

I know who was holding me down in my life. I was. I know who was
bringing pain and sadness in my life. I was. I know who was making me
the victim of addiction. I was. I would beat myself up and then
complain about the bruises!

I did this because I could not "see". I had not accepted or understood
the implications of my alcoholism. Today I am beginning to take care
of myself because I have accepted my disease. I do not choose today
to be the enemy in my life -- I have surrendered to live. I do not want
to hurt anymore. I do not want to hide in guilt and fear anymore. I do
not choose to be my victim today.

God, I thank You for the freedom to determine my life and my
victories.

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“The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will
reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit
will reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:8

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

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Daily Inspiration

An ordinary day can become profound by realizing your importance to others
and acting on it. Lord, may I be dependable to those who depend on me
without complaints or resentments.

Rejoice. This is the day the Lord has made. Lord, my days pass so quickly.
May I have a generous heart and the time to see the needs of those around me.