Jan. 21, 224 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

To grasp the AA program, we have to think things out. Saint Paul said: “They are transformed by the renewing of their minds.” We have to learn to think straight. We have to change from alcoholic thinking to sober thinking. We must build up a new way of looking at things. Before we came into AA, we wanted an artificial life of excitement and everything that goes with drinking. That kind of a life looked normal to us then. But as we look back now, that life looks the exact opposite of normal. We must re-educated our minds.

Am I changing from an abnormal thinker to a normal thinker?

Meditation for the Day

I will take the most crowded day without fear. I believe that God is with me and controlling all. I will let confidence be the motif running through all the crowded day. I will not get worried, because I know that God is my helper. Underneath are the everlasting arms. I will rest in them, even though the day be full of things crowding in upon me.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be calm and let nothing upset me. I pray that I may not let material things control me and choke out spiritual things.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 20, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, Dec. 20, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is: 

Too many activities, and people, and things. Too many worthy activities, valuable things and interesting people. For it is not merely the trivial which clutters our lives but the important as well. — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

We need interaction with others, and we need activities. We have many gifts to offer those who cross our paths, and we need the many gifts they have to offer us. But we soon have little to share, to give to others, if we neglect the special times, the empty spaces needed for nurturing the soul.

Some time away from people, activities, and things, some time away to commune with God, to seek guidance, to seek security in the fullest sense, will prepare us to better give our gifts to others. That time alone will also ready us to accept others’ gifts to us.

It is true we find God’s message in others. But the time alone with God lowers the barriers that too often prevent us from hearing another of God’s messages as expressed through the friends and even foes who cross our paths.

My gift to myself is some time alone. I deserve that gift today and every day.

Hazelden Foundation

July 16, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Saturday, July 16, 2016
 
Reflection for the Day
Long experience has proven that The Program and Twelve Steps will work for any person who approaches it with an open mind. We have to remember that we can't expect miracles overnight; after all, it took years to create the situation in which we find ourselves today. I'll try to be receptive and to listen. I'll try to be less hasty in drawing judgmental conclusions. I'll hang on to the expectation that The Program can change my entire life as long as I give it a chance.

Have I begun to realize that my ultimate contentment doesn't depend on having things work out my way?

Today I Pray
I pray for a more receptive attitude; for a little more patience; a little less haste and more humility in my judgments. May I always understand that change will come - it will all happen - if I will listen for God's will. God grant me perseverance, for sometimes I must wait a while for The Program's Steps to take effect.

Today I Will Remember
Patience.

Hazelden Foundation

July 16, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

The Serenity Prayer

A Day at a Time
Thursday, July 16, 2015
 
Reflection for the Day
Long experience has proven that The Program and Twelve Steps will work for any person who approaches it with an open mind. We have to remember that we can't expect miracles overnight; after all, it took years to create the situation in which we find ourselves today. I'll try to be receptive and to listen. I'll try to be less hasty in drawing judgmental conclusions. I'll hang on to the expectation that The Program can change my entire life as long as I give it a chance.

Have I begun to realize that my ultimate contentment doesn't depend on having things work out my way?

Today I Pray
I pray for a more receptive attitude; for a little more patience; a little less haste and more humility in my judgments. May I always understand that change will come - it will all happen - if I will listen for God's will. God grant me perseverance, for sometimes I must wait a while for The Program's Steps to take effect.

Today I Will Remember
Patience.

Hazelden Foundation

Aug. 24, 2014 - A Day at a Time

The Serenity Prayer

A Day at a Time
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014

Reflection for the Day
Some of us, after we've taken the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and then the Seventh Step, sit back and simply wait for our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings. The program's teachings remind us of the story of St. Francis working in a beautiful garden. A passerby said, "You must have prayed very hard, to get such beautiful plants to grow." The good saint answered, "Yes, I did. But every time I started to pray, I reached for the hoe." As soon as our "wait" is changed to "dig," the promise of the Seventh Step begins to become reality.

Do I expect my Higher Power to do it all?

Today I Pray
May I not just pray and wait - for my Higher Power to do everything. Instead may I pray as I reach for the tools The Program gives me. May I ask now for guidance on how I can best use these precious tools.

Today I Will Remember
Pray and act.

Hazelden Foundation

Aug. 6, 2014 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

The Serenity Prayer

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014

AA Thought for the Day
Psychologists are turning to religion because just knowing about ourselves is not enough. We need the added dynamic of faith in a power outside of ourselves on which we can rely. Books on psychology and psychiatric treatments are not enough without the strength that comes from faith in God. And clergymen and rabbis are turning to psychology because faith is an act of the mind and will. Religion must be presented in psychological terms to some extent in order to satisfy the modern person. Faith must be built largely on our own psychological experience.

Have I taken what I need from both psychology and religion when I live the AA way?

Meditation for the Day
Refilling with the spirit is something you need every day. For this refilling with the spirit, you need these times of quiet communion, away, alone, without noise, without activity. You need this dwelling apart, this shutting yourself away in the very secret place of your being, away alone with your Maker. From these times of communion you come forth with new power. This refilling is the best preparation for effective work. When you are spiritually filled, there is no work too hard for you.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be daily refilled with the right spirit. I pray that I may be full of the joy of true living.

Hazelden Foundation

April 27, 2014 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, April 27, 2014
 
AA Thought for the Day
By submitting to God, we're released from the power of liquor. It has no more hold on us. We're also released from the things that were holding us down: pride, selfishness, and fear. And we're free to grow into a new life, which is so much better than the old life that there's no comparison. This release gives us serenity and peace with the world.

Have I been released from the power of alcohol?

Meditation for the Day
We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us. We feel His presence. Contact with God is not made by the senses. Spirit-consciousness replaces sight. Since we cannot see God, we have to perceive Him by spiritual perception. God has to span the physical and the spiritual with the gift to us of spiritual vision. Many persons, though they cannot see God, have had a clear spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside a box of space and time, but we know there must be something outside of that box - limitless space, eternity of time, and God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I pray that God will give me spiritual vision.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 11, 2014 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

The gift of love means this: I want to share with you whatever I have that is good.
 -- John Powell, S.J.
How loving are we, really? Do we keep score when we do favors for a friend, keeping in mind that we're owed one? Do we hoard rather than share a favorite treat, hoping to prolong our own feast? And the good mood, when it's ours, do we use it to help another raise her spirits or do we secretly gloat because we're "in a better place"?

The opportunity to respond with love visits us throughout each day. A smile, a kind gesture, including someone in a conversation, noticing a job well done, are acts of love, acts that connect our hearts, at least for a moment.

When someone has shared love with us in some form, we notice it and are moved.

From the book:

Worthy of Love by Karen Casey

Worthy of Love by Karen Casey. © 1985 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013

It is very often easier to identify an alcoholic by his hang-over than by his drinking pattern. Alcoholics, for the most part, resemble the non-alcoholics when they have a load aboard, but in the morning, when the sweats and the shakes set in, then the alcoholic can be identified by the degree of his suffering. The alcoholic's hang-over cannot be gotten rid of by 10:30 simply with aspirin or Bromos.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 28, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Over the years, my brothers and sisters have brought out the best and the worst in me.
 -- Sam Friend

It sometimes seems that our parents love our brothers and sisters more than they love us. Being jealous of a brother or sister is often a confusing kind of jealousy. One minute we hate them and the next we love them.

Forgiving seems impossible at times. We wonder how Mom and Dad can be so nice to them. We think our parents don't see their true sides. We may feel like we get blamed for everything in the family while our brothers and sisters are praised.

Resentment is often hard to let go of. It is easier if we remember that we are the only ones hurt by hanging on to them.

Today let me be willing to let go of one resentment so I can benefit from a more comfortable sobriety.

From the book:

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast. © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, Dec. 27, 2013

AA Thought for the Day
I need the AA principles for the development of the buried life within me, that good life which I had misplaced but which I found again in this fellowship. This life within me is developing slowly but surely, with many setbacks, many mistakes, many failures, but still developing. As long as I stick close to AA, my life will go on developing, and I cannot yet know what it will be, but I know that it will be good. That's all I want to know. It will be good.

Am I thanking God for AA?

Meditation for the Day
Build your life on the firm foundation of true gratitude to God for all His blessings and true humility because of your unworthiness of these blessings. Build the frame of your life out of self-discipline; never let yourself get selfish or lazy or contented with yourself. Build the walls of your life out of service to others, helping them to find the way to live. Build the roof of your life out of prayer and quiet times, waiting for God's guidance from above. Build a garden around your life out of peace of mind and serenity and a sure faith.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may build my life on AA principles. I pray that it may be a good building when my work is finished.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Friday, Dec. 27, 2013

Reflection for the Day
"The central characteristic of the spiritual experience," wrote AA co-founder Bill W., "is that it gives the recipient a new and better motivation out of all proportion to any process or discipline, belief or faith. These experiences cannot make us whole at once; they are a rebirth to a fresh and certain opportunity."

Do I see my assets as God's gifts, which have been in part matched by an increasing willingness on my part to find and do His will for me?

Today I Pray
I pray for the wholeness of purpose that can only come through spiritual experience. No amount of intellectual theory, pep-talking to myself, disciplined deprivation, "doing it for" somebody else can accomplish the same results. May I pray for spiritual enlightenment, not only in order to recover, but for itself.

Today I Will Remember
Total motivation through spiritual wholeness.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Friday, Dec. 27, 2013

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. 27, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Friday, Dec. 27, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Taking the first step helps bridge the gulf between our dreams and our accomplishments.
Whether the project is cleaning the garage, building a cathedral, or recovering from an addiction, plans must be translated into action. In order to arrive at our destination, we must begin the trip. We can read hundreds of college catalogs, but it's when we register for a course, buy a textbook, and begin to study that we are on our way to a degree.

Two factors inhibit our beginning a project. The first is lack of clear motivation, and the second is fear of failure. If we don't really want to do something, it's hard to get started. So, if motivation is a problem, we may need to reconsider our choice of projects.

As for fear of failure, this may be something that we step over and around as we move forward. It is not a good reason for aborting a dream. If, in spite of fear of failure, we make a beginning, we will find that the fear shrinks with every step we take. Action is the catalyst. We learn how to do something by doing it.

I will take the first step toward accomplishing a dream today by getting started.

From the book:

Inner Harvest by Elisabeth L.

Inner Harvest by Elisabeth L. © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013

AA Thought for the Day
I am glad to be a part of AA, of that great fellowship that is spreading over the United States and all over the world. I am only one of the many AAs, but I am one. I am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help AA to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and so find it again.

Am I grateful to be an AA?

Meditation for the Day
These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of service to other people in a small way, at least. And we can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power. We can go along through life doing the best we can, but without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same time depend deeply on God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may give my life to the worthwhile cause. I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from good work well done.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013

Reflection for the Day
None of us can claim to know God in all His fullness. None of us can really claim to understand our Higher Power to any extent. But this I do know: there is a Power beyond my human will which can do wonderful, loving things for me that I can't do for myself. I see this glorious power at work in my own being, and I see the miraculous results of this same power in the lives of thousands upon thousands of other recovering people who are my friends in The Program.

Do I need the grace of God and the loving understanding of my friends in The Program any less now than when I began my recovery?

Today I Pray
May I never forget that my spiritual needs are as great today as they were when I came into The Program. It is so easy to look at others, newer to the recovery process, and regard them as the needy ones. As I think of myself as increasingly independent, may I never overlook my dependence on my Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember
I will never outgrow my need for God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013

As we alcoholics are selfish by nature, it is but right and proper that we should be more severe in our judgments of ourselves than of others. As we are our own best friend or our worst enemy, depending upon our treatment of ourselves, and as we are the one person in the world from whom we cannot escape, it is therefore essential that we do not allow ourselves to get away with anything in our treatment of ourselves. When we forgive ourselves, we are rationalizing. But to forgive others is divine.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:
Fear No More
I will not fear those who have hurt me,
For You have given me power.
I shall sleep without nightmares;
You have given me peace.
I shall awaken with a clear and rested mind;
You have given me clarity.
I shall start my day happy, joyous, and free;
You have given me my recovery;
You have given me a new life.
For Your grace,
I will demonstrate my gratitude
In useful and positive action
Throughout this day.

From the book:

The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 by Bill P. and Lisa D.

The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 by Bill P. and Lisa D. © 2007 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 25, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013

AA Thought for the Day
Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good Christmas for me." They will be looking back over past Christmases which were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their new found life. They will be thinking about how their lives were changed when they came into AA. They will be thinking that perhaps God let them live through all the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were perhaps often close to death, in order that they might be used by Him in the great work of AA.

Is this a happy Christmas for me?

Meditation for the Day
The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the sinners, the repentant. "And they presented unto him gifts - gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Bring your gifts of gold - your money and material possessions. Bring your frankincense - the consecration of your life to a worthy cause. Bring your myrrh - your sympathy and understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet of God and let Him have full use of them.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas Day. I pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 25, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013

Reflection for the Day
Today is a special day in more ways than one. It's a day that God has made, and I'm alive in God's world. I know that all things in my life this day are an expression of God's love - the fact that I'm alive, that I'm recovering and that I'm able to feel the way I feel at this very instant. For me, this will be a day of gratitude.

Am I deeply thankful for being a part of this special day, and for all my blessings?

Today I Pray
On this day of remembering God's gift, may I understand that giving and receiving are the same. Each is part of each. If I give, I receive the happiness of giving. If I receive, I give someone else that same happiness of giving. I pray that I may give my self - my love and my strengths - generously. May I also receive graciously the love and strengths of others' selves. May God be our example.

Today I Will Remember
The magnitude of God's giving.

Hazelden Foundation