~A.A.
Thoughts
For
The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~
/)
( \(AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
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Disease
"Some strongly object to the A.A. position that alcoholism
is an illness. This concept, they feel, removes moral responsibility from
alcoholics. As any A.A. knows, this is far from true. We do not use the
concept of sickness to absolve our members from responsibility. On the
contrary, we use the fact of fatal illness to clamp the heaviest kind of
moral obligation onto the sufferer, the obligation to use A.A.'s Twelve
Steps to get well."
Bill W., Talk, 1960 As Bill Sees It, p.
32
Thought to Consider
. . .
The road to recovery is
always under construction.
*~*AACRONYMS*~*
B A T H
Behavior, Attitude, Thinking, and Habits
*~*^Just
For
Today!^*~*
Candor
STEP FIVE:
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs.
"When we
reached A.A., and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed
to understand, the sense of belonging was tremendously exciting. We thought the
isolation problem had been solved. But we soon discovered that while we weren't
alone any more in a social sense we still suffered many of the old pangs of
anxious apartness. Until we had talked with complete candor of our conflicts,
and had listened to someone else do the same thing, we still didn't belong. Step
Five was the answer. It was the beginning of true kinship with man and
God."
1952, AAWS,
Inc.
Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg.
57
*^Daily
Reflections^*
THE EASIER, SOFTER WAY
If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome
drinking.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 72
I certainly didn't leap at the opportunity to face
who I was, especially when the pains of my drinking days hung over me like a
dark cloud. But I soon heard at the meetings about the fellow member who
just didn't want to take Step Five and kept coming back to meetings, trembling
from the horrors of reliving his past. The easier, softer way is to take
these Steps to freedom from our fatal disease, and to put our faith in the
Fellowship and our Higher Power.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES,
INC.
*~*^As
Bill
Sees
It^*~*
Seeking Fool's Gold
"Pride is the basic
breeder of most human difficulties, the chief block to true progress. Pride
lures us into making demands upon ourselves or upon others which cannot be met
without perverting or misusing our God-given instincts. When the satisfaction of
our instincts for sex, security, and a place in society becomes the primary
object of our lives, then pride steps in to justify our
excesses."
<<< >>>
"I may attain 'humility for today' only to the
extent that I am able to avoid the bog of guilt and rebellion on one hand and,
on the other hand, that fair but deceiving land which is strewn with the
fool's-gold coins of pride. This is how I can find and stay on the highroad to
humility, which lies between these extremes. Therefore, a constant inventory
which can reveal when I am off the road is always in
order."
1.TWELVE AND TWELVE, pp. 48-49
2. GRAPEVINE, JUNE
1961
*~*^Big
Book
Quote^*~*
"If you
are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is
no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life
was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which
there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to
go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable
situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. This we
did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the
effort."
Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition
We Agnostics, pg.
46
*^Twenty
Four
Hours A
Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
In A.A. we find fellowship
and release and strength. And having found these things, the real reasons for
our drinking are taken away. Then drinking has no more justification in our
minds. We no longer need to fight against drink. Drink just naturally leaves us.
At first, we are sorry that we can't drink, but we get so that we are glad that
we don't have to drink. Am I glad that I don't have to drink?
Meditation for the Day
Try never to judge. The human mind is so delicate and so
complex that only its Maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different,
actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different circumstances,
influenced by such different sufferings, you cannot know all the influences that
have gone to make up a personality. Therefore, it is impossible for you to judge
wholly that personality. But God knows that person wholly and He can change it.
Leave to God the unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God
to teach you the proper understanding.
Prayer for the
Day
I pray that I may not judge other people. I pray that I may
be certain that God can set right what is wrong in every
personality.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box
176 Center City, MN 55012