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
Thought to Consider . . .
Backsliding begins when knee-bending stops
*~*AACRONYMS*~*
C H A N G E
Can Helping Attract New Gifts and Energy?
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^*
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.
"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."
*~*^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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