Dec. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

When you least expect it is when you are overwhelmed with the generosity of others. — Iris Timberlake

Expectations can be both good and bad. At times positive expectations are appropriate and healthy. For instance, when we prepare for a job interview, it is far better to visualize in great detail a positive experience. This can lessen the anxiety we might feel in the actual interview. In other situations, however, our expectations set us up for major disappointment. Maybe we hope a friend will acknowledge our birthday in a special way, but she forgets it entirely. In this case, expectations have done us an unnecessary injury.

Sometimes having no expectations is best. Then whatever happens can gratify us. At those times we can simply thank our Higher Power for blessing us as the divine plan has called for. It’s these unexpected gifts that help us realize the power of God in our lives. We are being taken care of every moment, even when we are least aware of it.

I will be very conscious of my expectations today. I won’t set myself up for disappointment if I’m aware of my thoughts.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

Today, I awaken without a hangover and with full memory of last night but, if not, this new day offers a chance for another beginning. Grant me the wisdom and courage to seize the opportunity to continue or begin the work toward something better, something I thirst and hunger for – recovery, serenity, peace, calm, a worthy self-image, and a sense of gratitude that I am here and have been given yet another second chance. My best hope for what I seek is AA and its Steps and Principles and, today, may I finally decide that enough is enough of the alcoholic hangover and all the garbage that comes with it. But let me be disciplined enough to understand that what sobriety and recovery offer comes with a price – to be of service to anyone who needs and wants the message. Today, I have a chance for another new beginning. Don’t let the lifeboat go without me on board. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2022

Dec. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

AA Thought for the Day

To the extent that I fail in my responsibilities, AA fails. To the extent that I succeed, AA succeeds. Every failure of mine will set back AA work to that extent. Every success of mine will put AA ahead to that extent. I shall not wait to be drafted for service to others, but I shall volunteer. I shall accept every opportunity to work for AA as a challenge, and I shall do my best to accept every challenge and perform my task as best I can.

Will I accept every challenge gladly?

Meditation for the Day

People are failures in the deepest sense when they seek to live without God’s sustaining power. Many people try to be self-sufficient and seek selfish pleasure and find that it does not work too well. No matter how much material wealth they acquire, no matter how much fame and material power, the time of disillusionment and futility usually comes. Death is ahead, and they cannot take any material thing with them when they go. What matters is if I have gained the whole world, but lost my own soul.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I will not come empty to the end of the my life. I pray that I may so live that I will not be afraid to die.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

Reflection for the Day

My life before coming to The Program was not unlike the lives of so many of us who were cruelly buffeted and tormented by the power of our addictions. For years, I had been sick and tired. When I became sick and tired of being sick and tired, I finally surrendered and came to The Program. Now I realize that I had been helped all along by a Higher Power; it was He, indeed, who allowed me to live so that I could eventually find a new way of life.

Since my awakening, have I found a measure of serenity previously unknown in my life?

Today I Pray

May I realize that my Higher Power has not suddenly come into my life like a stranger opening a door when I knocked. The Power has been there all along, if I will just remember how many brushes with disaster I have survived by a fraction of time or distance. Now that I have come to know my Higher Power better, I realize that I must have been saved for something – for helping others like me.

Today I Will Remember

I am grateful to be alive and recovering.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

If man was created by God in the image of God and did not possess human frailties, he would be God. All men would then be perfect and Heaven would exist here on earth. There would be no logical reason for it to operate simply as a branch of Heaven.

With our limited understanding of God’s purpose, we must suppose that man was intended from the very first to work out his own evolution. The reason this process has required so many centuries has been man’s persistence in the exercise of his puny little will as opposed to the Will of God. That we are less than God is due to our freedom of choice between being one with God and our attempt to play God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2022 – Good morning and let’s go for a rousing but worthwhile and fabulous Friday

 

Good morning with hopes for a terrific and productive Friday for everyone …make it a truly great day, and avoid people and things out to mess it up

Dec. 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Anyone can blame: it takes a specialist to praise. — Konstantin Stanislavski

Are we blamers? We sure were blamers when we were using alcohol and other drugs. Then everything was someone’s fault. Some of us did our blaming out loud. And some of us blamed others silently.

It’s harder to praise than to blame people. Faults stand out like street signs, but the good things about people may be harder to see. We can see the good in people when we slow down, watch, and listen.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me pay attention to people around me. Help me praise them.

Action for the Day

Today I’ll list three people who mean a lot to me. I’ll write what I like about each of them. I’ll talk to them and tell them what I wrote.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

Today, when resolutions for the coming new year are in vogue, I will make none because to do so skirts the Program’s suggestion to take life one day at a time. Further, I have no guarantee that an entire year is promised me, and I cannot live for a day in the future because, in doing that, I am neglecting today. Recovery discourages us from looking too far ahead if today is sacrificed and encourages us to make our resolutions daily. Today, awakening to a new day, my resolution is to adhere to the Steps and Principles of the Program and not drink and, further, to grow in sobriety one day at a time. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2022

Dec. 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

AA Thought for the Day

Participating in the privileges of the movement, I shall share in the responsibilities, taking it upon myself to carry my fair share of the load, not grudgingly but joyfully. I am deeply grateful for the privileges I enjoy because of my membership in this great movement. They put an obligation upon me which I will not shirk. I will gladly carry my fair share of the burdens. Because of the joy of doing them, they will no longer be burdens, but opportunities.

Will I accept every opportunity gladly?

Meditation for the Day

Work and prayer are the two forces which are gradually making a better world. We must work for the betterment of ourselves and other people. Faith without works is dead. But all work with people should be based on prayer. If we say a little prayer before we speak or try to help, it will make us more effective. Prayer is the force behind the work. Prayer is based on faith that God is working with us and through us. We can believe that nothing is impossible in human relationships, if we depend on the help of God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my life may be balanced between prayer and work. I pray that I may not work without prayer or pray without work.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

Reflection for the Day

The success of The Program, I’ve been taught, lies in large measure in the readiness and willingness of its members to go to any lengths to help others tyrannized by their addictions. If my readiness and willingness cools, then I stand in danger of losing all that I’ve gained. I must never become unwilling to give away what I have, for only by so doing will I be privileged to keep it.

Do I take to heart the saying, “Out of self into God into others …?”

Today I Pray

May I never be too busy to answer a fellow addict’s call for help. May I never become so wound up in my pursuits that I forget that my own continuing recovery depends on that helping – a half-hour or so on the telephone, a call in person, a lunch date, whatever the situation calls for. May I know what my priorities must be.

Today I Will Remember

Helping helps me.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

Is someone happier, better or braver because of some act of yours today? If you can answer yes to any or all of them, then you can feel rather confident that you are progressing in the AA way of living.

If you can’t – then you are not giving it the old College try and you are cheating yourself out of a lot of happiness that could have been yours.

Hazelden Foundation