Sept. 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday. Sept. 26, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

No human creature can give orders to love. — George Sand

If we’re trying to get others to love us, all we’re really doing is trying to be in control. Trying to control others can be a powerful drug. Remember, we can’t control others. We can’t make others love us. Our Higher Power has control, not us.

So, what do we need to do? Turn things over to our Higher Power and just be ourselves.

Sure, it can scare us to just be ourselves. The truth is, not everyone will love us. But if we’re honest about who we are, others will respect us. We’ll like ourselves better. And we’ll have a better chance of loving others and being loved.

Prayer for the Day

I pray to have my need for control lifted from me. I pray to be rid of self-will.

Action for the Day

Today I’ll list five ways my self-will—my need to control—has gotten me in trouble.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020

"God willing, we members of AA may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day. How do we do it? By learning - through practicing the Twelve Steps and through sharing at meetings - how to cope with the problems that we looked to booze to solve, back in our drinking days." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 13 ("AA Taught Him to Handle Sobriety"), p 560.

Today, my Higher Power's will and the 12 Steps will steer me from dealing with drinking again because my challenge now is not drinking but living sober - living no longer in the problem but being a willing participant in the answer of living sober. In drinking, I experienced the answers that drinking had for me - fear, anger, disgust, regret, loneliness, pain, resentment. In sobriety, the answers aren't as clear because I either have lived too long in alcoholism or lived most of my life without sobriety. The key to living in the answer instead of the problem is, indeed, the 12 Steps. And if they sometimes lead me to uncertain and even scary places because they are not familiar, I know they cannot be as frightening as the certainty of where drinking will take me again. Today, I choose - because now I have a choice - to live in the solution of sobriety and not in the problem of drinking. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

Sept. 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020

AA Thought for the Day
Continuing the consideration of the term "spiritual experience:" "The acquiring of an immediate and over-whelming God-consciousness, resulting in a dramatic transformation, though frequent, is by no means the rule. Most of our spiritual experiences are of the educational variety, and they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of newcomers are aware of the difference long before they are themselves. They finally realize that they have undergone a profound alteration in their reaction to life and that such a change could hardly have been brought about by themselves alone."

Is my outlook on life changing for the better?

Meditation for the Day
Look at the world as your Father's house. Think of all people you meet as guests in your Father's house, to be treated with love and consideration. Look at yourself as a servant in your Father's house, as a servant of all. Think of no work as beneath you. Be ever ready to do all you can for others who need your help. There is gladness in God's service. There is much satisfaction in serving the highest that you know. Express your love for God in service to all who are living with you in your Father's house.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may serve others out of gratitude to God. I pray that my work may be a small repayment for His grace so freely given me.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020

Reflection for the Day
Is freedom from addiction all that we're to expect from a spiritual awakening? Not at all. Freedom from addiction is only the bare beginning; it's only the first gift of our first awakening. Obviously, if more gifts are to come our way, our awakening has to continue. As it does continue, we find that slowly but surely we can scrap the old life - the one that didn't work - for a new life that can and does work under any and all conditions.

Am I willing to continue my awakening through the practice of the Twelve Steps?

Today I Pray
May I remember how it was when my only goal in life was to be free of my addiction. All the words and phrases I used were stoppers - "giving it up," "quitting," "cutting myself off." Once I was free, I began to realize that my freedom had more to do with "beginning" than "stopping." May I now continue to think in terms of starters - "expanding," "awakening," "growing," "learning," "becoming."

Today I Will Remember
My stopping was a starting point.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020

Famous Last Words: "If I had one more drink, I could cut off." "Lord, get me off this one and I'll never touch another drop." "A glass of beer won't hurt me." "I'm sober, ain't I? I don't need the meetings." The list is too long to go on.

We constantly sell ourselves a phony bill of goods and then cry our eyes out when we find we have gypped ourselves, but - it wasn't our fault, understand? If the wife hadn't ---, if the boss hadn't ---, if, if ...

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 26, 2020 - Good morning and let's commit to a relaxing and stress-free Saturday and weekend

 

Good morning and let's go for a groovy and peaceful Saturday and weekend of no stress, worry and fear -- and without the interference of anything and anyone thinking they can screw us up and over

Sept. 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, Sept. 25, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

But don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden. — Beatrix Potter

Since we are members of a family, we are not free to do anything we like. We may not be able to go as far from home as we would like. We may have to get up earlier in the morning than we would like. We may have only limited use of the car. Families set up limits in order to maintain order and happiness. If each of us demanded something different for supper each night, the situation would be unmanageable.

Limits also keep us safe. When Peter Rabbit was told not to go into Mr. McGregor’s garden, it was for his own good. Limits and restrictions are a form of love and protection, and we all have them. When we bump up against one of these limits, we can be assured they serve to point us in another direction, one with freedoms of its own which we may never have explored without being forced to.

What freedom can I discover in a limitation today?

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Friday, Sept. 25, 2020

Today, accept myself first in starting to change the things I can - and must. And to change myself, I need the courage and brute honesty to see myself as I really am and not as I want myself and others to see me. If I can be strong and honest enough to see in myself what must go and what can be kept, I have to accept the good and bad before I know how to begin the work of moving forward. But if the bad out-weighs the good, I can keep the good as a building block to tear away the bad. If, on the other hand, I accept myself with no improvements needed, I've lied to myself. Today, I pray for the courage to change the things I can - me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

Sept. 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, Sept. 25, 2020

AA Thought for the Day
Let us consider the term "spiritual experience" as given in Appendix II of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous: "A spiritual experience is something that brings about a personality change. By surrendering our lives to God as we understand Him, we are changed. The nature of this change is evident in recovered alcoholics. This personality change is not necessarily in the nature of a sudden and spectacular upheaval. We do not need to acquire an immediate and overwhelming God-consciousness, followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook. In most cases, the change is gradual."

Do I see a gradual and continuing change in myself?

Meditation for the Day
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." For rest from the care of life, you can turn to God each day in prayer and communion. Real relaxation and serenity come from a deep sense of the fundamental goodness of the universe. God's everlasting arms are underneath all and will support you. Commune with God, not so much for petitions to be granted as for the rest that comes from relying on His will and His purposes for your life. Be sure of God's strength available to you, be conscious of His support, and wait quietly until that true rest from God fills your being.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be conscious of God's support today. I pray that I may rest safe and sure therein.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, Sept. 25, 2020

Reflection for the Day
At the suggestion of a long-timer in The Program, I began taking "recovery inventories" periodically. The results showed me - clearly and unmistakably - that the promises of The Program have been true for me. I am not the sick person I was in years past; I am no longer bankrupt in all areas; I have a new life and a path to follow, and I'm at peace with myself most of the time. And that's a far way from the time in my life when I dreaded facing each new day. Perhaps we should all write recovery inventories from time to time, showing how The Program is working for each of us.

Just for today, will I try to sow faith where there is fear?

Today I Pray
God, let me compare my new life with the old one - just to see how things have changed for me. May I make progress reports for myself now and then - and for those who are newer to The Program. May these reports be - hearteningly - about "what I am doing" rather than - smugly - about "what I have done."

Today I Will Remember
Has The Program kept its promise? Have I kept mine?

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, Sept. 25, 2020

Everyone is potentially as good as God made him, and the reason that he does not show it is because he has buried the fact beneath a mountain of selfishness.

It has ever been man's misdirected efforts to benefit himself and himself alone that have resulted in his greatest disservice to himself.

The closer man gets to himself, the further away he is from God and the world. The further he is away from God and the world, the further away he is from God's blessings and the world's happiness.

Hazelden Foundation