09/08

DAILY PONDERABLES

Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny

Daily Reflections

"WE ASKED HIS PROTECTION"

We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 59

I could not manage my life alone. I had tried that road and failed. My "ultimate sin" dragged me down to the lowest level I have ever reached and unable even to function, I accepted the fact that I desperately needed help. I stopped fighting and surrendered entirely to God.

Only then did I start growing! God forgave me. A Higher power had to have saved me, because the doctors doubted that I would survive. I have forgiven myself now and I enjoy a freedom I have never before experienced. I've opened my heart and mind to Him. the more I learn the less I know --- a humbling fact --- but I sincerely want to keep growing. I enjoy serenity, but only when I entrust my life totally to God. As long as I am honest with myself and ask for his help, I can maintain this rewarding existence.

Just for today, I strive to live His will for me--- soberly.

I thank God that today I can choose not to drink.

Today, life is beautiful!

From the book Daily Reflections

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

Another of the mottoes of A.A. is "But for the Grace of God." Once we have fully accepted the program we become humble about our achievement. We do not take too much credit for our sobriety. When we see another suffering alcoholic in the throes of alcoholism, we say to ourselves: "But for the grace of God, there go I." We do not forget the kind of people we were. We remember those we left behind us. And we are very grateful to the grace of God which has given us another chance. Am I truly grateful for the grace of God?

Meditation for the Day

A consciousness of God's presence as One who loves you makes all life different. The consciousness of God's love promotes the opening of your whole being to God. It brings wonderful relief from the cares and worries of our daily lives. Relief brings peace and peace brings contentment. Try to walk in God's love. You will have that peace which passes all understanding and a contentment that no one can take from you. Feel sure of God's unfailing love and care for you and for all His children. There is freedom and serenity in those who walk in God's love, held safe in His loving care.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may walk in God's love. I pray that, as I go, I may feel the spring of God's power in my steps and the joy of His love in my heart.

From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day

NA - Just for Today

Rebellion

Page 262

"We need not lose faith when we become rebellious."

Basic Text, p.35

Many of us have lived our entire lives in revolt. Our initial response to any type of direction is often negative. Automatic rejection of authority seems to be a troubling character defect for many addicts.

A thorough self-examination can show us how we react to the world around us. We can ask ourselves if our rebellion against people, places, and institutions is justified. If we keep writing long enough, we can usually get past what others did and uncover our own part in our affairs. We find that what others did to us was not as important as how we responded to the situations we found ourselves in.

Regular inventory allows us to examine the patterns in our reactions to life and see if we are prone to chronic rebelliousness. Sometimes we will find that, while we may usually go along with what is suggested to us rather than risk rejection, we secretly harbor resentments against authority. If left to themselves, these resentments can lead us away from our program of recovery.

The inventory process allows us to uncover, evaluate, and alter our rebellious patterns. We can't change the world by taking an inventory, but we can change the way we react to it.

Just for Today: I want freedom from the turmoil of rebelliousness. Before I act, I will inventory myself and think about my true values.

From the book Just for Today

Thought for Today

We are too blessed to be depressed!

Out from underneath

a basement dark and Gloomy is filled with rage and control

tiny windows laugh with manipulation as if something holds me back.

will someday come in freedom after years and years ?

the cutter and relentless pressure and resentment and fear a simple miracle to pray

the entire place and all within the darkness and sadness , and the walls and floors windows fell down collapsing so far down that it was all crashed and disintegrated to never become again total disappearance

I was in that basement and God and AA made sure to get me out from underneath

Michelle B.

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

If we do not try, we will not know.

-Ayya Khema, Be An Island

Native American

"Keep your life simple because the more you get, the more complicated it becomes."

--Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE

The old ones say, lead a simple life. The society we live in is all about getting more houses, cars, luxury and credit cards. The law of worry says, the more you have, the more you need to worry. You get a house, then you need insurance, then you need to take care of the yard and the list goes on. Next, you may want a bigger house with a bigger yard which costs more in insurance. Along with the accumulation of materialism, are other "gifts." Soon you become a slave and the materialism owns you. Lead a simple life and have peace of mind. Lead a simple life and be spiritual.

Creator, let my foundation be spiritual and simple.

Walk In Dry Places

Admitting a Wrong

Inventory.

It is all but impossible for some people to make the simple admission, I was wrong.

We might have a problem with such admissions because we tend to believe that

they place us at a disadvantage.

The reality is that the sooner we can admit a wrong, the more rapidly it can

be corrected and put behind us. The refusal to admit a wrong, the more

rapidly it can be corrected and put behind us. The refusal to admit a

wrong means making more of the same mistakes, thus bringing further harm

to ourselves and others.

We may have trouble admitting a wrong because we once faced excessive

punishments when we were found wrong. We can find our true course

by realizing that admission of our wrongs is the route to well-being and

improvement.

I'll continue to take every opportunity to learn when I might be

wrong, thus helping to avoid such mistakes in the future.

TWELVE STEPS

and

TWELVE TRADITIONS

Step Five (pgs 54-56)

“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”

ALL of A.A.’s Twelve Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural desires … they all deflate our egos. When it comes to ego deflation, few Steps are harder to take than Five. But scarcely any Step is more necessary to longtime sobriety and peace of mind than this one.

A.A. experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them. If we have swept the searchlight of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has revealed in stark relief those experiences we’d rather not remember, if we have come to know how wrong thinking and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday gets more urgent than ever. We have to talk to somebody about them.

So intense, though, is our fear and reluctance to do this, that many A.A.’s at first try to bypass Step Five. We search for an easier way—which usually consists of the general and fairly painless admission that when drinking we were sometimes bad actors. Then, for good measure, we add dramatic descriptions of that part of our drinking behavior which our friends probably know about anyhow.

But of the things which really bother and burn us, we say nothing. Certain distressing or humiliating memories, we tell ourselves, ought not be shared with anyone. These will remain our secret. Not a soul must ever know. We hope they’ll go to the grave with us.

Yet if A.A.’s experience means anything at all, this is not only unwise, but is actually a perilous resolve. Few muddled attitudes have caused us more trouble than holding back on Step Five. Some people are unable to stay sober at all; others will relapse periodically until they really clean house. Even A.A. oldtimers, sober for years, often pay dearly for skimping this Step. They will tell how they tried to carry the load alone; how much they suffered of irritability, anxiety, remorse, and depression; and how, unconsciously seeking relief, they would sometimes accuse even their best friends of the very character defects they themselves were trying to conceal. They always discovered that relief never came by confessing the sins of other people. Everybody had to confess his own.

This practice of admitting one’s defects to another person is, of course, very ancient. It has been validated in every century, and it characterizes the lives of all spiritually centered and truly religious people. But today religion is by no means the sole advocate of this saving principle. Psychiatrists and psychologists point out the deep need every human being has for practical insight and knowledge of his own personality flaws and for a discussion of them with an understanding and trustworthy person. So far as alcoholics are concerned, A.A. would go even further. Most of us would declare that without a fearless admission of our defects to another human being we could not stay sober. It seems plain that the grace of God will not enter to expel our destructive obsessions until we are willing to try this.