~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~ /)
( \(AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/ AA \
^*^*^*^*^
Fear
The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime
undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed. When under heavy
attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we
shall all react to this emotion -- well or badly, as the case may be. Only
the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from
fear.
Bill W., Grapevine, January 1962
c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill
Sees It, p. 263
^*^*^*^*^ Thought to Consider . .
.
Courage is the willingness to accept fear and act
anyway.
*~*AACRONYMS*~*
F E A R = Face Everything And Recover
*~*^Just For Today!^*~*
Paradox
Step One: We admitted we
were powerless over alcohol , that our lives had become
unmanageable.
"We had approached A.A.
expecting to be taught self-confidence. Then we had been told that so far as
alcohol is concerned, self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a
total liability. Our sponsors declared that we were the victims of a mental
obsession so subtly powerful that no amount of human willpower could break it.
There was, they said, no such thing as the personal conquest of this compulsion
by the unaided will. The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over
us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking,
and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy
ourselves in the process. Few indeed were those who, so assailed, had ever won
through in single-handed combat."
1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed
2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg.
22
*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*
AN UNSUSPECTED INNER RESOURCE
With few
exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource
which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than
themselves.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp.
569-70
From my
first days in A.A., as I struggled for sobriety, I found hope in these words
from our founders. I often pondered the phrase: "they have tapped an
unsuspected inner resource." How, I asked myself, can I find the Power
within myself, since I am so powerless? In time, as the founders promised,
it came to me: I have always had the choice between goodness and evil, between
unselfishness and selfishness, between serenity and fear. That Power
greater than myself is an original gift that I did not recognize until I
achieved daily sobriety through living A.A.'s Twelve Steps.
Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES,
INC.
*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*
Eternal Values
Many people will have no truck at all with absolute
spiritual values. Perfectionists, they say, are either full of conceit because
they fancy they have reached some impossible goal, or else they are swamped in
self-condemnation because they have not done so. Yet I think that we should
not hold this view. It is not the fault of great ideals that they are sometimes
misused and so become shallow excuses for guilt, rebellion, and pride. On the
contrary, we cannot grow very much unless we constantly try to envision what the
eternal spiritual values are.
<<<>>>
"Day by
day, we try to move a little toward God's perfection. So we need not be consumed
by maudlin guilt for failure to achieve His likeness and image by Thursday next.
Progress is our aim, and His perfection is the beacon, light-years away, that
draws us on."
1. GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961 - 2.
LETTER, 1966
*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*
"Some day we hope that
Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the
gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our
attitude is one of bitterness or hostility. Drinkers will not stand for
it. After all, our problems were of our own making. Bottles were only
a symbol. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We have
to!"
~Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg.
103~
~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~
A.A. Thought for the Day
The A.A. program is a way of
life. It's a way of living and we have to learn to live the program if we're
going to stay sober. The twelve steps in the book are like guide-posts. They
point the direction in which we have to go. But all members of the group have to
find their own best way to live the program. We don't all do it exactly alike.
Whether by quiet times in the morning, meetings, working with others, or
spreading the word, we have to learn to live the program. Has the A.A. way
become my regular, natural way of living?
Meditation for the Day
I will relax and
not get tense. I will have no fear, because everything will work out in the end.
I will learn soul-balance and poise in a vacillating, changing world. I will
claim God's power and use it because if I do not use it, it will be withdrawn.
As long as I get back to God and replenish my strength after each task, no work
can be too much.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that
I may relax and that God's strength will be given to me. I pray that I may
subject my will to God's will and be free from all
tenseness.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN
55012
You can now receive Transitions Daily 3 ways
Devotions are posted Daily to both Facebook and Twitter.
Remember on Facebook you are anonymous, on Twitter you are not!