Thoughts For The Day~*~Discipline ^*^*^ October 23
TransitionsDaily
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Discipline
"Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles . . . Great suffering and great love are A.A.'s disciplinarians; we need no others."
c.1952 AAWS
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 174
Thought to Consider . . .
"We alcoholics are undisciplined.
So we let God discipline us . . ."
*~*AACRONYMS*~*
C A R D S =
Ask for help from your Higher Power
Read the Big Book
Do the Twelve Steps
Stay active in your group
*~*^Just For Today!^*~*
In later years, the A.A. ward opened into the gallery of the chapel, which patients could visit at any time in hospital attire. "What could be more conducive to the regeneration of the whole person spiritually, mentally, and morally than five to seven days spent in an institution where the spiritual atmosphere prevails?" Sister Ignatia said.
She naturally put more emphasis on the spiritual
than many others. However, she felt that Dr. Bob shared her views on this
emphasis. "There was one thing that always irritated Doctor," she said. "Some
people who were on the program for a length of time would come up to him and
say, 'I don't get the spiritual angle.' I heard him say time and again, 'There is
no spiritual angle. It's a spiritual program.'"
1980 AAWS Inc.
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, page
194
*^Daily Reflections^*
WHAT WE KNOW BEST
"Shoemaker, stick to thy last!" . . . better do one thing
supremely well than many badly. That is the central theme of this Tradition
[Five]. Around it our Society gathers in unity. The very life of our
Fellowship requires the preservation of this principle.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.
150
The survival of
A.A. depends upon unity. What would happen if a group decided to become an
employment agency, a treatment center or a social service agency? Too much
specialization leads to no specialization, to frittering of efforts and,
finally, to decline. I have the qualifications to share my sufferings and
my way of recovery with the newcomer. Conformity to A.A.'s primary purpose
insures the safety of the wonderful gift of sobriety, so my responsibility is
enormous. The life of millions of alcoholics is closely tied to my
competence in "carrying the message to the still-suffering
alcoholic."
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
WORLD SERVICES, INC.
*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*
Daily Inventory
"Often, as we review each day, only the closest
scrutiny will reveal what our true motives were. There are cases where our
ancient enemy, rationalization, has stepped in and has justified conduct which was
really wrong. The temptation here is to imagine that we had good motives and
reasons when we really hadn't. We 'constructively criticized' someone who
needed it, when our real motive was to win a useless argument. Or, the person
concerned not being present, we thought we were helping others to understand
him, when in actuality our true motive was to feel superior by pulling him
down. We hurt those we loved because they needed to be 'taught a lesson,' but
we really wanted to punish. We were depressed and complained we felt bad, when
in fact we were mainly asking for sympathy and
attention."
TWELVE AND TWELVE, p.
94
*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*
". . . the actual or potential
alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop
drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize
and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been
revealed to us out of bitter experience."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition
More About Alcoholism,
pg. 39
*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
Third, I have learned how to be
honest. What a relief! No more ducking or dodging. No more tall tales. No more
pretending to be what I am not. My cards are on the table for all the world to
see. "I am what I am," as Popeye used to say in the comics. I have had an
unsavory past. I am sorry, yet. But it cannot be changed now. All that is
yesterday and is done. But now my life is an open book. Come and look at it, if
you want to. I'm trying to do the best I can. I will fail often, but I won't
make excuses. I will face things as they are and not run away. Am I really
honest?
Meditation for the Day
Though it may seem
a paradox, we must believe in spiritual forces which we cannot see more than in
material things which we can see, if we are going to truly live. In the last
analysis, the universe consists more of thought or mathematical formulas than it
does of matter as we understand it. Between one human being and another only
spiritual forces will suffice to keep them in harmony. These spiritual forces we
know, because we can see their results although we cannot see them. A changed
life - a new personality - results from the power of unseen spiritual forces working
in us and through us.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may believe in the Unseen. I pray that I may be convinced
by the results of the Unseen which I do see.
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55012
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