"You can, if you wish, make
A.A. itself your 'higher power.' Here's a very large group of people who have
solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater
than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith
in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough. You will find many members
who have crossed the threshold just this way. All of them will tell you that,
once across, their faith broadened and deepened. Relieved of the alcohol
obsession, their lives unaccountably transformed, they came to believe in a
Higher Power, and most of them began to talk of God."
1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed
2005
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pgs.
27-28
"We realized that the people
who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we did not like their
symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too.
We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that
we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to
ourselves, 'This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from
being angry. Thy will be done.'"
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition
How It Works, pg.
66
*^Twenty
Four
Hours A
Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
As we look back on all those
troubles we used to have when we were drinking, the hospitals, the jails, we
wonder how we could have wanted that kind of a life. As we look back on it now,
we see our drinking life as it really was and we're glad we're out of it. So
after a few months in A.A., we find that we can honestly say that we want
something else more than drinking. We've learned by experience that a sober life
is really enjoyable and we wouldn't go back to the old drunken way of living for
anything in the world. Do I want to keep sober a lot more than I want to get
drunk?
Meditation for the Day
My spiritual life depends on an inner
consciousness of God. I must be led in all things by my consciousness of God and
I must trust Him in all things. My consciousness of God will always bring peace
to me. I will have no fear, because a good future lies before me as long as I
keep my consciousness of God. If in every single happening, event, and plan I am
conscious of God, then no matter what happens, I will be safe in God's hands.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that
I may always have this consciousness of God. I pray for a new and better life
through this God consciousness.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN
55012