April 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

We must be willing to forgive without limit even as God forgives; otherwise we cannot be forgiven. — Nels F. S. Ferré

Few of us find it easy to forgive a genuinely felt offense. We may be too protective of our ego. Our grievances are too deeply embedded. So in trying to forgive, we often give offense. As a consequence, the effort to forgive becomes an opportunity for us to act as judge and jury, to see someone’s error and, magnanimously, not hold it against him or her. Or to make sure the offender sees how long-suffering and tolerant we are. Or to bargain: if the offender will only do such-and-such, we’ll forgive.

In such grudging hands, real forgiveness hardly stands a chance. Better that we ask our Higher Power to do it for us. We can help best by asking God to take over. To truly appreciate the healing force of forgiveness, we must be willing to extend it all the way.

I will ask nothing in exchange for my forgiveness.

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Saturday, April 3, 2021

Today, I will not let selfishness, any problems I have and lack of empathy to blind me to someone else's needs and problems. Human nature, and especially that of the recovering alcoholic, is to retreat into self and fret over our own problems - sometimes out of a misplaced intention not to unload on others. But by withdrawing we may lose someone's helpful advice or, if nothing more, give voice to what we fear. But, sometimes unintentionally, we risk alienation of others who interpret our lack of interaction as apathy to them and their own problems. Today, I break down my self-erected boundaries to understand that, with others, there can be sharing without dumping and there can be something I might be able to offer them in their own recoveries. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2021

April 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, April 3, 2021

AA Thought for the Day

When I was drinking, I was absolutely selfish. I thought of myself first, last and always. The universe revolved around me at the center. When I woke up in the morning with a hangover, my only thought was how terrible I felt and about what I could do to make myself feel better. And the only thing I could think of was more liquor. To quit was impossible. I couldn't see beyond myself and my own need for another drink.

Can I now look out and beyond my own selfishness?

Meditation for the Day

Remember that the first quality of greatness is service. In a way, God is the greatest servant of all because He is always waiting for us to call on Him to help us in all good endeavor. His strength is always available to us, but we must ask it of Him through our own free will. It is a free gift, but we must sincerely seek for it. A life of service is the finest life we can live. We are here on earth to serve others. That is the beginning and the end of our real worth.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may cooperate with God in all good things. I pray that I may serve God and others and so lead a useful and happy life.

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Reflection for the Day

In almost every instance, the returned slipper says, "I stopped going to meetings," or, "I got fed up with the same old faces," or, "My outside commitments were such that I had to cut down on meetings,"  or, "I felt I'd received the optimum benefits from meetings, so I sought further help from more meaningful activities."  In short, they simply stopped going to meetings. A saying I've heard in The Program hits the nail on the head: "Them which stops going to meetings are not present at meetings to hear about what happens to them what stops going to meetings."

Am I going to enough meetings for me?

Today I Pray

God keep me on the track of The Program. May I never be too tired, too busy, too complacent, too bored to go to meetings. Almost always those complaints are reversed at a meeting if I will just get myself there. My weariness dissipates in serenity. My busyness is reduced to its rightful proportion. My complacency gives way to vigilance again. And how can I be bored in a place where there is so much fellowship and joy?

Today I Will Remember

Attend the meetings.

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Saturday, April 3, 2021

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and all things therein contained. There is nothing on earth that God didn't put here.

True, we have manufactured things by changing sizes, shapes or chemical combinations, but all things made by man can be reduced to those elements that God originally put here on earth. All things, therefore, are God's, and He put them here for our use. He did not intend that we should hoard up surpluses and thus deprive others of their use.

Our responsibility begins in our use of these surpluses. It's God's, not ours, remember? And some of God's loved ones are in want.

Hazelden Foundation

April 3, 2021 - Good morning to here-at-last Saturday and weekend with a commitment to kick back and just breathe

 

Good morning to a much needed Saturday and weekend and take some time to lay back and simply relax ...have a truly great but productive and safe day, and don't bother taking on anything and anyone that can screw it up

April 3, 2021 - To all the faithful, a blessed and complentive Holy Saturday as we wait in prayer for the Glorious Resurrection

 

Good morning to this blessed Holy Saturday and, to all the faithful, let us devote today in prayerful anticipation of the Resurrection

April 2, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, April 2, 2021

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Intellectualizing

Don’t intellectualize, utilize. — Anonymous

Many times we waste our minds by using them too much. A mind out of control can waste a life. Our mind can tell us we are better or less than another. It can tell us we need things we don’t, and that we should fear situations we needn’t. The power of the mind to intellectualize a life into a mess is amazing.

Our program should be utilized not intellectualized. We do not need to waste time debating points about the program. We will not resolve with other intellectuals whether or not alcoholism and drug addiction are physical diseases or bad habits. The point, for us addicts, is that we will waste our life, die, or go insane if we do not stay in recovery. All we have to do is look around a meeting room to see whether or not it works.

The Steps tell me HOW the program works. The Traditions tell me WHY it works. My sponsor and fellow members show me THAT it works.

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Friday, April 2, 2021

Today, I will not carry the pattern of compulsive and habitual behavior I perfected in my drinking days to other areas of my life. As a drinking alcoholic, I established the pattern of feeling and taking everything to an unhealthy and inappropriate extreme - all or nothing. That pattern is not necessarily in remission simply because my active alcoholism is. To shift the habitual and compulsive nature of my drinking to work, play, service or any other activity can be almost as self-defeating. And it is through the Steps of character rehabilitation that I need to tame unhealthy behavioral patterns. Today, I will seek a balance between giving everything, taking all and retain what I need for myself by seeking the guidance of my Higher Power and reciting the Program's mottoes: "A Day at a Time," "First Things First," "Keep It Simple" and "Easy Does It." And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2021

April 2, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, April 2, 2021

AA Thought for the Day

Since I've been in AA, have I made a start towards becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I feel that the friends I've found in AA are real friends? Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and do I want to help them if I can?

Do I really care now about other people?

Meditation for the Day

Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle-working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace, you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time, you throw that one aside for yet a finer one. And so from character to character, you are gradually transformed.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person.

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, April 2, 2021

Reflection for the Day

What causes slips? What happens to a person who apparently seems to understand and live the way of The Program, yet decides to go out again? What can I do to keep this from happening to me? Is there any consistency among those who slip, any common denominators that seem to apply? We can each draw our own conclusions, but we learn in The Program that certain inactions will all but guarantee an eventual slip.

When a person who has slipped is fortunate enough to return to The Program, do I listen carefully to what he or she says about the slip?

Today I Pray

May my Higher Power - if I listen to Him - show me if I am setting myself up to get high again. May I glean from the experiences of others that the reasons for such a lapse of resolve or such an accident will most often stem from what I have not done rather than from what I have done. May I "keep coming back" to meetings.

Today I Will Remember

Keep coming back.

Hazelden Foundation