Daily Recovery Readings - June

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June 30

Daily Reflections

SACRIFICE = UNITY = SURVIVAL

The unity, the effectiveness, and even the survival of A. A.
will always depend upon our continued willingness to give
up some of our personal ambitions and desires for the
common safety and welfare. Just as sacrifice means survival
for the individual alcoholic, so does sacrifice means unity
and survival for the group and for A. A.'s entire Fellowship.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 220

I have learned that I must sacrifice some of my personality
traits for the good of A. A. and, as a result, I have been
rewarded with many gifts. False pride can be inflated through
prestige but, by living Tradition Six, I receive the gift of
humility instead. Cooperation without affiliation is often
deceiving. If I remain unrelated to outside interest, I am
free to keep A. A. autonomous. Then the Fellowship will be
here, healthy and strong for generations to come.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Alcoholics are unable or unwilling, during their addiction
to alcohol, to live in the present. The result is that they
live in a constant state of remorse and fear because of
their unholy past and its morbid attraction, or the uncertain
future and its vague foreboding. So the only real hope for
the alcoholic is to face the present. Now is the time. Now is
ours. The past is beyond recall. The future is as uncertain
as life itself. Only the now belongs to us. Am I living in
the now?

Meditation For The Day

I must forget the past as much as possible. The past is over
and gone forever. Nothing can be done about the past, except
to make what restitution I can. I must not carry the burden of
my past failures. I must go on in faith. The clouds will clear
and the way will lighten. The path will become less stony with
every forward step I take. God has no reproach for anything
that He has healed. I can be made whole and free, even though
I have wrecked my life in the past. Remember the saying:
"Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may not carry the burden of the past. I pray that
I may cast it off and press on in faith.

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As Bill Sees It

Imaginary Perfection, p. 181

When we early A.A.'s got our first glimmer of how spiritually prideful we could be, we
coined this expression: "Don't try to be a saint by Thursday!"

That oldtime admonition may look like another of those handy alibis that can excuse us
from trying for our best. Yet a closer view reveals just the contrary. This is our A.A. way
of warning against pride-blindness, and the imaginary perfections that we do not possess.

<< << << >> >> >>

Only Step One, where we made the 100 per cent admission that we were powerless over
alcohol, can be practiced with absolute perfection. The remaining eleven Steps state
perfect ideals. They are goals toward which we look, and the measuring sticks by which
we estimate our progress.

1. Grapevine, June 1961
2. 12 & 12, p. 68

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Walk In Dry Places

Making all things new
Releasing the Past
A 12 Step program should give us a new way of life, our friends often say. We should have new attitudes, new experiences, new opportunities.
If we're to grasp this new way of life, we must let go of the old habits of the past. No alcoholic can recover, for example, by choosing to remain in the old drinking environment. We must also "recover" from other relationships and patterns that were destructive or kept us from our highest good.
"Behold, I make all things new," is the ancient promise. As our thoughts and beliefs change, the old patterns drop away and the new life reveals itself to us.
Today I'll drop the negative or outworn relics from the past and press on to find the things that are for my greatest good.

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Keep It Simple

If you don't know where you are going, You'll probably end up somewhere else.---
Lawrence J. Peter
The Twelve Steps are our plan of living. We must have a plan. Without one, we waste our energy.
We react instead of think. This is what we did as an addict. We lived our lives as out-of-control people. This caused a lot of pain for us and those around us.
Recovery brings us the Twelve Steps, and each Step gives us direction and wisdom. Each Step builds on the progress we made from the Step before it. Sometimes we follow the plan well. Sometimes we think we can do better on our own. Do I believe the Twelve Steps are a good plan of living?
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You have shown me a new way of life, a plan for living. Thank you for leading me to the Twelve Steps. Help me follow them.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll take time out to read the Twelve Steps. Then I'll list three reasons why the Steps are a good plan for living.

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Each Day a New Beginning

. . . in silence might be the privilege of the strong, but it was certainly a danger to the weak. For the things I was prompted to keep silent about were nearly always the things I was ashamed of, which would have been far better aired . . . --Joanna Field
It has been said, "We are only as sick as the secrets we keep." Our emotional health as recovering women is hindered, perhaps even jeopardized, each time we hold something within that we need to talk over with others.
Sharing our fears, our hurts, our anger, keeps open our channel to God. Secrets clutter our mind, preventing the stillness within where our prayers find answers. Secrets keep us stuck. Our health, emotional and spiritual, depends on our commitment to shared experiences.
Every secret we have and tell someone, frees that person also to be herself and to grow. Sharing experiences relieves us of our shame and invites the forgiveness we must allow ourselves.
Steps Four and Five facilitate the process of sharing those secrets that block our path to God and to one another. Never can we be fully at peace with secrets left untold. Self-revelation cleanses the soul and offers us life.
I will be alert to the opportunities to share myself and cherish the freedom offered.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 10 - To Employers

Perhaps this is a typical attitude. We, who have collectively seen a great deal of business life, at least from the alcoholic angle, had to smile at this gentleman’s sincere opinion. He might be shocked if he knew how much alcoholism is costing his organization a year. That company may harbor many actual or potential alcoholics. We believe that managers of large enterprises often have little idea how prevalent this problem is. Even if you feel your organization has no alcoholic problem, it may pay to take another look down the line. You may make some interesting discoveries.

p. 149

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Five - "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

Another great dividend we may expect from confiding our defects to another human being is humility--a word often misunderstood. To those who have made progress in A.A., it amounts to a clear recognition of what and who we really are, followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be. Therefore, our first practical move toward humility must consist of recognizing our deficiencies. No defect can be corrected unless we clearly see what it is. But we shall have to do more than see. The objective look at ourselves we achieved in Step Four was, after all, only a look. All of us saw, for example, that we lacked honesty and tolerance, that we were beset at times by attacks of self-pity or delusions of personal grandeur. But while this was a humiliating experience, it didn't necessarily mean that we had yet acquired much actual humility. Though now recognized, our defects were still there. Something had to be done about them. And we soon found that we could not wish or will them away by ourselves.

p. 58

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God, help me to lower my defenses today, to be open to the good in
the people around me and to the good that I have to offer them.
--Melody Beattie

If you desire to align yourself with God's love, take an honest
assessment of where love is lacking in your life. Do you embrace the
difficult people in your family, work or neighborhood? Do you hold
grudges or do you forgive those who betray you? The only way to
keep in alignment is to practice choosing love, again and again, even
when it's difficult.
--Mary Manin Morrissey

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
--John Wooden

Forget your old ideas. Forget the lies they told you.
Forget them all, and you will begin to remember.
--Marianne Williamson

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will
ever regret.
--Ambrose Bierce

Our outward behavior is just a reflection of our inner balance or our
out of balance.
--John-Roger

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

HUMOR

"The one serious conviction that
a man should have is that
nothing is to be taken
seriously."
--Nicholas Murray Butler

For years I used to take myself too seriously. I thought that everything
depended upon my thoughts, actions and decisions. Life was a series of
agendas that had to be met; life was too serious to be joked about. I
knew that I was not God, but I took responsibility for the whole
universe. I had opinions on everything and everybody and I was, of
course, always right.

As the years passed it grew painful being so responsible -- my control
produced stress, tension and loneliness. Then a friend said to me, "Let
go and let God." I began to detach and laugh at my insane behavior. I
laughed more as I began to accept my humanness. I discovered
spirituality in the joke. God must have a sense of humor -- after all,
He made me.

Help me to laugh at myself in my search for the Kingdom.

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Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin. Psalms 17:3

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalms 19:14

The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks
what is just.
Psalms 37:30

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Daily Inspiration

Avoid distraction by concentrating on the task in which you are presently involved. Lord, much that bothers me is useless to my well-being. Help me identify when this happens and replace these thoughts with thoughts that treat me kindly.

God will give you strength because He will give of Himself. Lord, thank You for the many gifts of which You always bless me.