March 3, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Each of my days are miracles. I won’t waste my day; I won’t throw away a miracle.

 — Kelley Vickstrom

It’s so easy to forget to be grateful for our many blessings. We may take our freedom from the compulsion to drink or use for granted. Having learned to monitor our behavior and change it when necessary, we seldom treasure this skill as an asset.

The rut of complacency claims all of us at one time or another. And our complacency can lead us to the stinking thinking that’s only a step away from drinking or using or some other compulsive behavior. Having sponsors point out our complacency may irritate us, but it may also save our lives.

Practicing gratitude will keep us aware of the small and large miracles that we have experienced on this recovery journey: We remember where we were last night (thanks to the clear vision of abstinence). We have reconciled with family members.

In fact, we are walking miracles, and God has a plan for the rest of our lives. Let’s be ready for it.

I will try to be attentive to every moment of today, knowing that each experience is part of the miracle of my life.

You are reading from the book:

A Woman’s Spirit by Karen Casey

A Woman’s Spirit by Karen Casey. © 1994 by Hazelden Foundation

March 3, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, March 3, 2018

Today, understand that taking care of myself does not have to mean I am selfish and not placing everyone and everything after me. If I am Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired - HALT- my program suggests that I bolster myself so that I have something to share as an effective and meaningful 12th-stepper. We as alcoholics are predictable only in unpredictability and extremities - all or nothing with little or no middle ground. Tending first to our physical, emotional and spiritual health is the middle ground between active alcoholism and being in service to others, and we have little to pass on if we have neglected ourselves. The eventual outcome, if not a relapse, will be an alcoholic who is little more than a dry drunk - or a dead drunk. Today, if I feel the physical, emotional and spiritual need to seek and meditate with my Higher Power, let me not feel guilty or selfish because, in the end, I have nothing to offer to others if I have nothing to offer myself. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2018

March 3, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, March 3, 2018

AA Thought for the Day

After we've made a surrender, the drink problem is out of our hands and in the hands of God. The thing we have to do is to be sure that we never reach out and take the problem back into our own hands. Leave it in God's hands. Whenever I'm tempted to take a drink, I must say to myself: "I can't do that. I've made a bargain with God not to drink. I know God doesn't want me to drink, and so I won't do it." At the same time, I say a little prayer to God for the strength needed to keep the bargain with Him.

Am I going to keep my bargain with God?

Meditation for the Day

I will try to grow in this new life. I will think of spiritual things often and unconsciously. I will grow. The nearer I get to the new life, the more I will see my unfitness. My sense of failure is a sure sign that I am growing in the new life. It is only struggle that hurts. In sloth - physical, mental or spiritual - there is no sense of failure or discomfort. With struggle and effort, I am conscious not of strength but of weakness until I am really living the new life. But in the struggle, I can always rely on the power of God to help me.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may see signs of my growth in the new life. I pray that I may always keep trying to grow.

Hazelden Foundation

March 3, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Reflection for the Day

I've begun to better understand myself since I've come to the Program. One of the most important things I've learned is that opinions aren't facts. Just because I feel that a thing is so doesn't necessarily make it so. "Men are not worried by things," wrote the Greek philosopher Epictetus, "but by their ideas about things. When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us not blame others, but rather ourselves. That is: our ideas about things."

Do I believe that I can never entirely lose what I have learned during my recovery?

Today I Pray

May I learn to sort out realities from my ideas about those realities. May I understand that situations, things - even people - take on the colors and dimensions of my attitudes about them.

Today I Will Remember

To sort the real from the unreal.

Hazelden Foundation

March 3, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Saturday, March 3, 2018

In AA, no man is the official mouthpiece of the Movement. No one person represents AA officially. Here you find a God of your own understanding; when you talk, you give only your own opinions, you give your own interpretations of the Twelve Steps and practice them as you think they should be practiced.

If you use your method and stay sober, we will admit your way is good for you. But we admit no authority on your part to tell us how to work them. Because it worked for you is no sign it might not be poison for someone else.

Hazelden Foundation

March 3, 2018 - Let's make it a beautiful and worry-free Saturday and weekend

March 2, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, March 2, 2018

Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

When we do for other people what they should do for themselves, we both stay stuck

Perhaps it’s human nature to grow and change only when we have to. Unrelenting pain can serve as a motivator. Sometimes ultimatums are effective too. But making excuses for others or taking over their responsibilities, even when it’s for their benefit, never inspires change. We’re learning that the only change we can be certain of is one we make in ourselves.

One of the first changes we can make is to let go of others: their opinions, their behavior, and their responsibilities. Our need for them to fulfill our expectations is related to our insecurity, not theirs. Every time we preach or take on others’ duties, we must recognize that we are preventing much-needed growth, ours and theirs.

Our intentions might always have been good. But the time has come to let others live their own lives. It’s quite enough to take care of ourselves.

I will not do someone else’s task today. Growth comes from each of us being responsible for ourselves.

You are reading from the book:

A Life of My Own by Karen Casey

A Life of My Own by Karen Casey. © 1993 by Hazelden Foundation

March 2, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Friday, March 2, 2018

Today, remember gratitude if I take undue credit for the sobriety I have found through AA. While it is justified to take pride in being sober the last 24 Hours, that pride must be within the boundaries of the program and cannot be stretched to egoism or seeking praise from others. For when pride extends beyond the boundaries to egoism, I risk taking back the surrender to the power that carried me when I passed out or stumbled in my drinking days and even in some difficult sober days. Yes, I was the one who grabbed the lifeline of AA, but someone or something else had to toss it to me first. Gratitude. And our common journey continues. Step by Step. - Chris M., 2018

March 2, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, March 2, 2018

AA Thought for the Day

Over a period of drinking years, we've proved to ourselves and to everybody else that we can't stop drinking by our own willpower. We have been proved helpless before the power of alcohol. So the only way we could stop drinking was by turning to a Power greater than ourselves. We call that Power God. The time that you really get this program is when you get down on your knees and surrender yourself to God, as you understand Him. Surrender means putting your life into God's hands.

Have I made a promise to God that I will try to live the way He wants me to live?

Meditation for the Day

Spirit-power comes from communication with God in prayer and times of quiet meditation. I must constantly seek spirit-communication with God. This is a matter directly between me and God. Those who seek it through the medium of the church do not always get the joy and the wonder of spirit-communication with God. From this communication comes life, joy, peace and healing. Many people do not realize the power that can come to them from direct spirit-communication.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may feel that God's power is mine. I pray that I may be able to face anything through that power.

Hazelden Foundation

March 2, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Friday, March 2, 2018

Reflection for the Day

Why don't I spend part of today thinking about my assets, rather than my liabilities? Why not think about victories instead of defeats - about the ways in which I am gentle and kind? It's always been my tendency to fall into a sort of cynical self-hypnosis, putting derogatory labels on practically everything I've done, said or felt. Just for today, I'll spend a quiet half hour trying to gain a more positive perspective on my life.

Do I have the courage to change the things I can?

Today I Pray

Through quietness and a reassessment of myself, may I develop a more positive attitude. If I am a child of God, created in His image, there must be goodness in me. I will think about that goodness and the ways it manifests itself. I will stop putting myself down, even in my secret thoughts. I will respect what is God's. I will respect myself.

Today I Will Remember

Self-respect is respect for God.

Hazelden Foundation

March 2, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Friday, March 2, 2018

Life is too short even if we live the whole of it to its fullest, but we alcoholics have wasted so many years of our lives that we must now double our efforts if we hope to do any living at all. Truly, for us, it is later than we think.

There is one consolation, however. and that is that it is possible to use a single moment to produce an eternity of benefits for humanity. Much time has been frittered away, but there is still ample time to do good.

Life is not measured by its length but by its width and its depth.

Hazelden Foundation