Dec. 21, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019

Reflection for the Day

Each of us in The Program can, in our own time and own way, reach the triumphant spiritual awakening that is described in the Twelfth Step. The spiritual awakening is a deep-down knowledge that we are no longer alone and helpless. It’s also a deep-down awareness that we’ve learned certain truths which we can now transmit to others so that perhaps they, too, can be helped.

Am I keeping myself in constant readiness for the spiritual awakening which is certain to come to me as I practice The Steps and surrender my will to God’s will?

Today I Pray

May I be steady, not expecting that my spiritual awakening will startle me like an alarm clock into sudden awareness of a Higher Power. It may settle on me so quietly that I may not recognize precisely when my moment of awareness comes. The clue may come in my desire to Twelfth-Step others. May I realize, then, that I have accepted the principles of The Program and am at home with the spiritual transformation I feel in myself.

Today I Will Remember

My spiritual awakening is my first private moment with God.

Hazelden Foundation

June 14, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, June 14, 2019

A Thought for the Day
In AA, we have to learn that drink is our greatest enemy. Although we used to think that liquor was our friend, the time came when it turned against us and became our enemy. We don't know just when this happened, but we know that it did because we began to get into trouble - jails and hospitals. We realize now that liquor is our enemy.

Is it still my main business to keep sober?

Meditation for the Day
It is not your circumstances that need altering so much as yourself. After you have changed, conditions will naturally change. Spare no effort to become all that God would have you become. Follow every good leading of your conscience. Take each day with no backward look. Face the day's problems with God, and seek God's help and guidance as to what you should do in every situation that may arise. Never look back. Never leave until tomorrow the thing that you are guided to do today.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that God will help me to become all that He would have me be. I pray that I may face today's problems with good grace.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 15, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017 

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." - Step Three

Today, for the alcoholic stumbling out of the fog of an extended drunk, there could be a problem with the use of the word "God" with a capital "G" and the reference to Him with a capital "H." "God" and "Him" smack of religious connotations, a potential turnoff to the person new to the program. But recovery is a spiritual, not religious process, and the God referenced here could be the "power" evoked in Step Two - and that power stronger than ourselves could be something as simple as our awakening to the reality that we could not sober up on our own. But Step Three requires another action - surrendering to something unseen but which, by sheer faith, is stronger than us. Step Three leads us to the admission that we are powerless over what we cannot control and have come to believe in a power greater than ourselves - and then entrusting ourselves to the care of that stronger power. Today, my decision is to turn my will and my life over to that force that I trust - on sheer faith - will handle me better than I ever could. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

Dec. 27, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016

The average person has so much trouble in finding a satisfactory faith simply because the mind has difficulty visualizing a force so powerful as anything but a very complex thing. He thinks he must understand it in order to acquire it and use it.

When we eat a meal, we believe that we shall digest it and that we will be strengthened and sustained by it. Yet few of us know the mysteries of the digestive functions, but we get just as much sustenance from our meals as those who do.

We, therefore, eat our meals on faith, and we would probably ruin our digestion if we tried to figure it out.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 15, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016

Reflection for the Day
Some people are such worriers that they worry about the fact that they have nothing to worry about. Newcomers in The Program sometimes feel, for example, "This is much too good to last." Most of us, however, have plenty of real things to worry about - old standbys like money, health, death and taxes, to name just a few. But The Program tells us that the proven antidote to worry and fear is confidence - confidence not in ourselves but in our Higher Power.

Will I continue to believe that God can and will avert the calamity that I spend my days and nights dreading? Will I believe that if calamity does strike, God will enable me to see it through?

Today I Pray
May I realize that the worry habit - worry that grows out of broader, often unlabeled fears - will take more than time to conquer. Like many dependent people, I have lived with worry so long that it has become my constant, floor-pacing companion. May my Higher Power teach me that making a chum out of worry is a waste of my energy and fritters away my constructive hours.

Today I Will Remember
Kick the worry habit.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 8, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016

Have you ever noticed those old expressions: "Sit down and cry;" "Prostrate with grief;" "Wallowing in pity;" "Bowed down with troubles," etc?

Truly troubles in all their forms get us "down," so the only antidote would appear to be to "get up and do."

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 27, 2016 - Addiction and Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016

For us alcoholics, the First Step in life was the usual toddle of the infant. The Second Step, we learned to walk erect like a man; the Third Step, we started to run to keep up with the world; the Fourth Step, we were staggering; the Fifth Step was stumbling and falling; and the Twelfth Step found us erect again.

What happened between the Fifth Step when we fell and the Twelfth Step? Don't ask me, I'm an alcoholic, too. I had probably just blacked out. Watch your steps - they take you places.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 7, 2015 - #MarriageEquality third most popular Twitter hashtag of 2015

Dec. 7, 2015 - GayStarNews.com - #MarriageEquality third most popular Twitter hashtag of 2015 - Gay Star News