~A.A.
Thoughts
For
The Day~
^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~
/)
( \(AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
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Gratitude
"One exercise
that I practice is to try for a full inventory of my blessings and then
for a right acceptance of the many gifts that are mine - both temporal and
spiritual. Here I try to achieve a state of joyful gratitude. When such a
brand of gratitude is repeatedly affirmed and pondered, it can finally
displace the natural tendency to congratulate myself on whatever
progress I may have been enabled to make in certain areas of living. I
try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot
entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat
must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever
know."
Bill W., Box 1980: The AA
Grapevine, March 1962
As Bill Sees It, p. 37
Thought
to Consider . . .
It's a pity we can't forget our
troubles the same way we forget our
blessings.
*~*AACRONYMS*~*
GIFTS = Getting
It From
The Steps
*~*^Just
For
Today!^*~*
Progress
From "Gutter
Bravado":
"Still very impatient, I
wanted the whole deal right away. That's why I related so well to the story
about a wide-eyed new person and an oldtimer. When the newcomer approached the
oldtimer, envying his accomplishments and many years of sobriety, the oldtimer
slapped down his hand like a gavel and said, 'I'll trade you even! My thirty
years to your thirty days right now!' He knew what the newcomer had yet to find
out: that true happiness is found in the journey, not the
destination."
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth
Edition
Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 510-11
*^Daily
Reflections^*
A.A. IS NOT A CURE-ALL
It would be a product of false pride to claim that A.A. is a
cure-all, even for alcoholism.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 285
In my early years of sobriety I was full of pride,
thinking that A.A. was the only source of treatment for a good and happy
life. It certainly was the basic ingredient for my sobriety and even
today, with over twelve years in the program, I am very involved in meetings,
sponsorship and service. During the first four years of my recovery, I
found it necessary to seek professional help, since my emotional health was
extremely poor. There are those folks too, who have found sobriety and
happiness in other organizations. A.A. taught me that I had a choice: to
go to any lengths to enhance my sobriety. A.A. may not be a cure-all for
everything, but it is the center of my sober living.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES,
INC.
*~*^As
Bill
Sees
It^*~*
To Be Fair-Minded
Too often, I think, we have deprecated and even
derided projects of our friends in the field of alcoholism just because we do
not always see eye to eye with them. We should very seriously ask ourselves
how many alcoholics have gone on drinking simply because we have failed to
cooperate in good spirit with these many agencies - whether they be good, bad, or
indifferent. No alcoholic should go mad or die merely because he did not come
straight to A.A. at the beginning.
<<< >>>
Our first
objective will be the development of self-restraint. This carries a top-priority
rating. When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded
and tolerant evaporates on the spot.
1. GRAPEVINE, JULY 1965
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P.
91
*~*^Big
Book
Quote^*~*"Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults
to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past.
Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in
the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as
you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition
A Vision
For You, pg. 164
*^Twenty
Four
Hours A
Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
Men and women keep coming into
A.A., licked by alcohol, often given up by doctors as hopeless cases, they
themselves admitting they're helpless to stop drinking. When I see these men and
women get sober and stay sober over a period of months and years, I know that
A.A. works. The change I see in people who come into A.A. not only convinces me
that A.A. works, but it also convinces me that there must be a Power greater
than ourselves which helps us to make that change. Am I convinced that a Higher
Power can help me to change?
Meditation for the
Day
Cooperation with
God is the great necessity for our lives. All else follows naturally.
Cooperation with God is the result of our consciousness of His presence.
Guidance is bound to come to us as we live more and more with God, as our
consciousness becomes more and more attuned to the great Consciousness of the
universe. We must have many quiet times when we not so much ask to be shown and
led by God, as to feel and realize His presence. New spiritual growth comes
naturally from cooperation with God.
Prayer for the Day
I pray
that God may supply me with strength and show me the direction in which He wants
me to grow. I pray that these things may come naturally from my cooperation with
Him.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012