Thoughts For The Day~*~Housecleaning ^*^*^ March 29
TransitionsDaily
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Housecleaning
"Somehow, being alone with God doesn't seem as embarrassing as facing up to another person. Until we actually sit down and talk aloud about what we have so long hidden, our willingness to clean house is still largely theoretical. When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God."
Bill W., Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 60
Thought to Consider . . .
If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 72
*~*AACRONYMS*~*
Sobriety Loses Its Priority
*~*^Just For Today!^*~*
Selfless
"As this tidal offering of top public approval swept in, we realized that it could do us incalculable good or great harm. Everything would depend upon how it was channeled. We simply could not afford to take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing A.A. before the whole public. The promoter instinct in us might be our undoing. If even one such person publicly got drunk or was lured into using A.A.'s name for his own purposes, the damage might be irreparable. At this altitude (press, radio, films, and television [and the internet]), anonymity - 100 per cent anonymity - was the only possible answer. Here principles would have to come before personalities, without exception.
These experiences taught us
that anonymity is real humility at work. It is an all-pervading spiritual
quality which today keynotes A.A. life everywhere."
2001 AAWS, Inc.
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg.
134
TRUSTED SERVANTS
They are servants. Theirs is the sometimes thankless privilege of doing the group's chores.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 134
In Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis describes an encounter between his principal character and an old man busily at work planting a tree. "What is it you are doing?" Zorba asks. The old man replies: "You can see very well what I'm doing, my son, I'm planting a tree." "But why plant a tree," Zorba asks, "if you won't be able to see it bear fruit?" And the old man answers: "I, my son, live as though I were never going to die." The response brings a faint smile to Zorba's lips and, as he walks away, he exclaims with a note of irony: "How strange - I live as though I were going to die tomorrow!"
As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have found that the Third Legacy is a fertile soil in which to plant the tree of my sobriety. The fruits I harvest are wonderful: peace, security, understanding and twenty-four hours of eternal fulfillment; and with the soundness of mind to listen to the voice of my conscience when, in silence, it gently speaks to me, saying: You must let go in service. There are others who must plant and harvest.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
Will Power and Choice
"We A.A.'s know the futility of trying to break the drinking obsession by will power alone. However, we do know that it takes great willingness to adopt A.A.'s Twelve Steps as a way of life that can restore us to sanity. 'No matter how grievous the alcohol obsession, we happily find that other vital choices can still be made.' For example, we can choose to admit that we are personally powerless over alcohol; that dependence upon a 'higher Power' is a necessity, even if this be simply dependence upon an A.A. group. Then we can choose to try for a life of honesty and humility, of selfless services to our fellows and to 'God as we understand Him.' As we continue to make these choices and so move toward these high aspirations, our sanity returns and the compulsion to drink vanishes."
LETTER, 1966
*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*
"The great fact is
just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual
experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward
our fellows and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is
the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives
in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those
things for us which we could never do by
ourselves."
Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th Edition
There Is A Solution, pg.
25
*^Twenty
Four
Hours A
Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
Before I
met A.A., I was very dishonest. I lied to my spouse constantly about where I had
been and what I'd been doing. I took time off from my work and pretended I'd
been sick or gave some other dishonest excuse. I was dishonest with myself, as
well as with other people. I would never face myself as I really was or admit
when I was wrong. I pretended to myself that I was as good as the next person,
although I suspected I wasn't. Am I now really honest?
Meditation for the Day
I must live in the world and yet
live apart with God. I can go forth from my secret times of communion with God
to the work of the world. To get the spiritual strength I need, my inner life
must be lived apart from the world. I must wear the world as a loose garment.
Nothing in the world should seriously upset me, as long as my inner life is
lived with God. All successful living arises from this inner life.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that
I may live my inner life with God. I pray that nothing shall invade or destroy
that secret place of peace.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN
55012
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