Daily Recovery Readings - April

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April 26

Daily Reflections

HAPPINESS IS NOT THE POINT

I don't think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How
do we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from
them and transmit what we have learned to others, if they
would receive the knowledge?
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 306

In my search "to be happy," I changed jobs, married and
divorced, took geographical cures, and ran myself into
debt--financially, emotionally and spiritually. In A.A.,
I'm learning to grow up. Instead of demanding that people,
places and things make me happy, I can ask God for
self-acceptance. When a problem overwhelms me, A.A.'s
Twelve Steps will help me grow through the pain. The
knowledge I gain can be a gift to others who suffer with
the same problem. As Bill said, "When pain comes, we are
expected to learn from it willingly, and help others to
learn. When happiness comes, we accept it as a gift, and
thank God for it."
(As Bill Sees It, p. 306)

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The A.A. program is one of submission, release, and action.
When we're drinking, we're submitting to a power greater than
ourselves, liquor. Our own wills are no use against the power
of liquor. One drink and we're sunk. In A.A. we stop submitting
to the power of liquor. Instead, we submit to a Power, also
greater than ourselves, which we call God. Have I submitted
myself to that Higher Power?

Meditation For The Day

Ceaseless activity is not God's plan for your life. Times of
withdrawal for renewed strength are always necessary. Wait for
the faintest tremor of fear and stop all work, everything, and
rest before God until you are strong again. Deal in the same way
with all tired feelings. Then you need rest of body and renewal
of spirit force. Saint Paul said: "I can do all things through
Him who strengthens me." This does not mean that you are to do
all things and then rely on God to find strength. it means that
you are to do the things you believe God wants you to do and only
then can you rely on His supply of power.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that God's spirit may be my master always. I pray that
I may learn how to rest and listen, as well as how to work.

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As Bill Sees It

The Sense of Belonging, p. 117

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the
sense of belonging that comes to us. We no longer live in a completely
hostile world. We are no longer lost and frightened and purposeless.

The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we
begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life,
we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the
contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs. We know that God
lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will
be well with us, here and hereafter.

12 & 12, p. 105

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Walk in Dry Places

Never withholding ourselves.
Living Sober.
We may have let ourselves believe that we're supposed to display an attitude that expresses our opinions of others. If a person is crude and boorish, we should be cool and defensive for our self-protection. If a person is warm and friendly, we should respond in warm and friendly ways.
If we have believed these things, then we're actually letting others control our attitudes and behavior. We are letting personalities interfere with the high principles we are learning in AA. We are not living at the best possible level.
In reality, we should always display an attitude that reflects kindness, optimism, friendliness, and concern. There other person's disposition, whether it's sour or sweet, should have nothing to do with our being what we want to be. We should never withhold the fine inner qualities that develop and grow as we continue to live the program.
In time, we begin to learn that this attitude always comes back to us in the form of greater peace and happiness. And what's great about iti s that it's always under our direct control.
As I go about my business today, I will express a kindliness and concern toward everybody. Nobody's behavior can make me adopt a suspicious or defensive attitude.

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Keep It Simple

Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.---Maurice Setter
Silver shines as bright as gold does. So often we forget this. So often we push, push, push. We forget to live for the moment. Trying too hard can be a defect of character. It can be a way we avoid life. Gratitude, being thankful, is key part of recovery. Not just gratitude for getting our self-respect back. Not just gratitude for having a Higher Power. But gratitude for the moment. We're alive again. Let's see each moment as a time to explore life..
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for helping me to enjoy each moment. I have gratitude for being alive.
Action for the Day: I'll list ten gifts of recovery for which I have gratitude.

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Each Day a New Beginning

. . . pain is the root of knowledge. --Simone Weil
We don't want pain in our lives. We dread the situations we anticipate will be painful. We probably even pray to be spared all painful experiences. But they come anyway, at times in profusion. And we not only survive the pain, we profit from it.
It seems that pain stretches us to our limits, generally forcing us to look for guidance from others, and it pushes us to consider new choices in our present situation. Pain is our common denominator as women, as members of the human family. It softens us to one another. It fosters empathy. It helps us to reach out and realize our need for one another.
New knowledge, new awareness, are additional benefits of accepting, rather than denying, the pain that accompanies life. This journey that we're on is moving us further and further along the path of enlightenment. We can consider that each problem, each crisis, is our necessary preparation for moving another step down the road.
I learn out of necessity. And when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience. Overnight, as it were, he is a different man. He becomes a religious enthusiast. He is unable to focus on anything else. As soon as his sobriety begins to be taken as a matter of course, the family may look at their strange new dad with apprehension, then with irritation. There is talk about spiritual matters morning, noon and night. He may demand that the family find God in a hurry, or exhibit amazing indifference to them and say he is above worldly considerations. He may tell mother, who has been religious all her life, that she doesn’t know what it’s all about, and that she had better get his brand of spirituality while there is yet time.

p. 128

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

Another crowd of A.A.'s says: "We were plumb disgusted with religion and all its works. The Bible, we said, was full of nonsense; we could cite it chapter and verse, and we couldn't see the Beatitudes for the `begats.' In spots its morality was impossibly good; in others it seemed impossibly bad. But it was the morality of the religionists themselves that really got us down. We gloated over the hypocrisy, bigotry, and crushing self-righteousness that clung to so many `believers' even in their Sunday best. How we loved to shout the damaging fact that millions of the `good men of religion' were still killing one another off in the name of God. This all meant, of course, that we had substituted negative for positive thinking. After we came to A.A., we had to recognize that this trait had been an ego feeding proposition. In belaboring the sins of some religious people, we could feel superior to all of them. Moreover, we could avoid looking at some of our own shortcomings. Self-righteousness, the very thing that we had contemptuously condemned in others, was our own besetting evil. This phony form of respectability was our undoing, so far as faith was concerned. But finally, driven to A.A., we learned better.

p. 30

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Children are our most valuable natural resource.
--Herbert Hoover

"Forgiving those who hurt us is the key to personal peace."
--G. Weatherly

"Being happy does not mean everything's perfect, It means I've decided to see beyond the imperfections."
--Unknown

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone
can start from now and make a brand new ending."
--Carl Bard

Spending time with God changes the rhythm of our life.
--Cheryle L. Cooper

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

ANSWERS

"If the work of God could be
comprehended by reason, it would
be no longer wonderful, and faith
would have no merit if reason
provided proof."
--Pope Gregory I

Some things happen that I do not understand or comprehend, but I
have faith that they will happen tomorrow: sunsets, night following
day, the song of the bird, the colors of nature, and the joy and
adventure of being alive. Perhaps the biggest mystery for mankind to
grapple with is love - a man will suffer, endure persecution, even be
put to death for that which he loves; the pain and sorrow of love is
mingled into what it is to be a human being.

Reason does not have the answer to life. Faith is the medication for
our existence. We have a belief in tomorrow because of what we have
experienced today. If I can say "no" to alcohol today then I can do it
tomorrow - if I really want to.

Lord, let me not seek for proof but daily seek to grapple with the
problems of life.

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"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
James 4:10

"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:29

"Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
Colossians 3:17

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Daily Inspiration

There are truly no bad days, just different kinds of days. Lord, thank You for today and for Your help through every situation.

Use your difficult times to learn more about God's love and blessings. Lord, may I see Your hand working in every moment of my life and realize that, even in my darkest hour, things are far better than they could be because You are blessing me with what I need to make it through.