Thoughts For The Day~*~Change ^*^*^ January 8

[Transitions Daily]

*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*

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Change

How many of us would presume to declare, "Well, I'm sober, and I'm happy. What more can I want, or do? I'm fine  the way I am." We know that the price of such  self-satisfaction is an inevitable backslide, punctuated at some point  by a very rude awakening. We have to grow or else deteriorate. For us, the status quo can  only be for today, never  for tomorrow. Change we must; we cannot stand still.

Bill W., April 1961

c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 25 

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Thought to Consider . . . 

Backsliding begins when knee-bending stops. 

*~*AACRONYMS*~*

C H A N G E =   Can Help Attract New Gifts and Energy

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*~Just For Today~*

When?

Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol , that our lives had become unmanageable.

Alcoholics who still had their health, their families, their jobs, and even two cars in the garage, began to recognize their alcoholism.  They were spared that last ten or fifteen years of literal hell the rest of us had gone through. Since Step One requires an admission that our lives have become unmanageable, how could people such as these take this Step?  It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.

1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 23

*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*

DO I HAVE A CHOICE? 

The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.  Our so called willpower becomes practically nonexistent. 

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p.  24

My powerlessness over alcohol does not cease when I quit drinking. In sobriety I still have no choice -  I can't drink. The choice I do have is to pick up and use the "kit of spiritual tools" (Alcoholics Anonymous, p.  25).  When I do that, my Higher Power relieves me of my lack of choice -- and keeps me sober one more day. If I could choose not to pick up a drink today, where then would be my need for A.A. or a Higher Power?

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.

*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*

A New Life

Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life - the one that did not work - for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever. 

Regardless of worldly success or failure, regardless of pain or joy, regardless of sickness or health or even of death itself, a new life of endless possibilities can be lived if we are willing to continue our awakening, through the practice of A.A.'s Twelve Steps.

GRAPEVINE, DECEMBER 1957

*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*

"Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will  find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The  most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 152~

*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*

A.A. Thought for the Day

Everyone who comes into A.A. knows from bitter experience that he or she can't drink. I know that drinking has been the cause of all my major troubles or has made them worse. Now that I have found a way out, I will hang onto A.A. with both hands. Saint Paul once said that nothing in the world, neither powers nor principalities, life nor death, could separate him from the love of God. Once I have given my drink problem to God, should anything in the world separate me from my sobriety? 

Meditation for the Day

I know that my new life will not be immune from difficulties, but I will have peace even in difficulties. I know that serenity is the result of faithful, trusting acceptance of God's will, even in the midst of difficulties. Saint Paul said: "Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may welcome difficulties. I pray that they may test my strength and build my character.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

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