"No words can tell of the
loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self-pity. Quicksand
stretched around me in all directions. I had met my match. I had been
overwhelmed. Alcohol was my master."
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth
Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 8
*~*^As
Bill
Sees
It^*~*
A Different Swinging Door
When a drunk
shows up among us and says that he doesn't like the A.A. principles, people, or
service management, when he declares that he can do better elsewhere - we are
not worried. We simply say, "Maybe your case really is different. Why don't you
try something else?" If an A.A. member says he doesn't like his own group, we
are not disturbed. We simply say, "Why don't you try another one? Or start one
of your own." To those who wish to secede from A.A. altogether, we extend a
cheerful invitation to do just that. If they can do better by other means, we
are glad. If after a trial they cannot do better, we know they face a choice:
They can go mad or die or they can return to A.A. The decision is wholly theirs.
( As a matter of fact, most of them do come back.
)
TWELVE CONCEPTS, pp. 72 - 73
Copyright 1967
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
*~*^Big Book
Quote^*~*
"We have seen the truth
demonstrated again and again: 'Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.'
Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad
as ever."
Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, pg.
33
*^Twenty
Four
Hours A
Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
After we've made a surrender, the drink
problem is out of our hands and in the hands of God. The thing we have to do is
to be sure that we never reach out and take the problem back into our own hands.
Leave it in God's hands. Whenever I'm tempted to take a drink, I must say to
myself: "I can't do that. I've made a bargain with God not to drink. I know God
doesn't want me to drink and so I won't do it." At the same time I say a little
prayer to God for the strength needed to keep the bargain with Him. Am I going
to keep my bargain with God?
Meditation for the Day
I will try to grow in this new life. I will think
of spiritual things often and unconsciously I will grow. The nearer I get to the
new life, the more I will see my unfitness. My sense of failure is a sure sign
that I am growing in the new life. It is only struggle that hurts. in
sloth---physical, mental, or spiritual---there is no sense of failure or
discomfort. With struggle and effort, I am conscious not of strength but of
weakness until I am really living the new life. But in the struggle, I can
always rely on the power of God to help me.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may see signs of my growth in the
new life. I pray that I may always keep trying to
grow.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN
55012