John 21:19
This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Habakkuk 3:19
The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Read more Bible http://www.bookbindery.c
My Prayer for the Day
"Heavenly Father-Today I awoke from dreams of chaos-drinking and intense drama filled scenarios that reminded me of my normal daily life before you saved me from me. THANK YOU GOD that I never have to go back to that! Thank You Father-I will Follow You!!!! In Jesus name-Amen!"
Today’s action
- Today I will thank God that I am not overwhelmed by guilt and shame because of what I did or said the night before
- Today I will get on my knees a Thank Him for removing me from my self imposed hell
- Today I will remember that the the harvest is great (many people need help) but the people willing to labor, are few....I will put myself aside and labor in the fields and a agent for God.
Luke 10:2
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
10th STEP Prayer
God remove the Selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear that has cropped up in my life right now. Help me to discuss this with someone immediately and make amends quickly if I have harmed anyone. Help me to cease fighting anything and anyone. Show me where I may be helpful to someone else. Help me react sanely; not cocky or afraid. How can I best serve You - Your will, not mine be done. AMEN(p. 84-5 BB)
I Am Responsible
I Am Responsible Prayer
"I am responsible. When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there. And for that I am responsible."
By Larry K.
If I move past all of the early lessons in my sobriety and the work that turned my life around, a few things become clear. One of them is that the fellowship of AA is a place where I can draw upon wisdom and strength. It is where I find respite in days of dreary doings (when they feel like that) and community when I need to have contact with the world to get me outside of my own head.
I have always been drawn to the Responsibility Declaration because it inspires me to think outside of my own existence. I have held hands with the hopeless and shed tears with the broken and laughed away the pain of desperation with men and women that have found their way into the rooms of our “family”. Some have lived and grown in amazing ways. Some have not. Some have died. None of those folks would have had any of those moments were it not for our fellowship. While with us, each and every one of them had a chance.
My father followed me into AA. He didn’t come in because I talked the talk… I didn’t preach. I didn’t nag. I didn’t do anything other than show up to visit on a normal and regular basis the way I always almost did… and I didn’t drink. I continued to “not drink” in front of his face for four years. My life improved and he could tell. He finally asked how I did it. He took my advice and got sober in AA and stayed sober for the rest of his life.
Knowing the power of example first hand and having seen lost lives recovered, I keep walking the walk and going to meetings to make sure that they stay “open for business”. What moves me about this is far more selfish. I have three daughters. They are, indeed, their father’s kids. They know the meetings. They know where I am. They know where help can be found. That is the hope of my contribution. To ensure that at least one meeting will still be open if they need one.
I hope it is all a waste of time on my part. I hope they never need to go through the hell I felt I went through.
“I am responsible…” This declaration is a credo for me. It is the marker between the hell I found myself in and who I am today, both inside and outside of the rooms of AA.
More AA prayers http://silkworth.net/pages/aa/
Podcast of he Day
Pat R. 5th Session Fall 2017 Step Series
Listen to more AA Podcast:
12 x 12 on Step 5
"Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another
human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.”
"ALL OF A.A.'s Twelve Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural desires . . . they all deflate our egos. When it comes to ego deflation, few Steps are harder to take than Five. But scarcely any Step is more necessary to long term sobriety and peace of mind than this one. A.A. experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them. If we have swept the searchlight of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has revealed in stark relief those experiences we'd rather not remember, if we have come to know how wrong thinking and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday
gets more urgent than ever. We have to talk to somebody about them.
So intense, though, is our fear and reluctance to do this, that many A.A.'s at first try to bypass Step Five. We search for an easier way—which usually consists of the general and fairly painless admission that when drinking we were sometimes bad actors. Then, for good measure, we add dramatic
descriptions of that part of our drinking behavior which our friends probably know about anyhow. But of the things which really bother and burn us, we
say nothing. Certain distressing or humiliating memories, we tell ourselves, ought not be shared with anyone. These will remain our secret. Not a soul must ever know. We hope they'll go to the grave with us.
Hil's blah
The things that I wanted to "take to the grave" were actually taking me to the grave sooner than need be. The more I came clean with my sponsor and then with Jesus-in the raw...the more I admitted to, coped to, asked for forgiveness for, the freer I became. It can't just "creep up on me" while I am doing the dishes anymore. It can't just disturb me when I am enjoying myself..."it's" power is taken away because I faced it head on. Looked at every gross aspect of myself. Every action, every lie, everything...and said "what muther F*^$@^!! Is that all you got!??!!" It can't take me to guilt and shame and pain anymore because I am no longer trying hide from what I did, though or said. My guts are no longer being eaten away by it. No more ulcers or debilitating fear or nervousness...I admitted it to another drunk and God-I made amends-I don't repeat...That simple....That simplicity allows me to take up my bed and walk, head up, shoulders back...I can look the world in the eye....I am a free women.
Read more 12 X 12 http://www.portlandeyeopener.c
Big Book
More About Alcoholism Continued....
We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse.
Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.
Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!
Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums—we could increase the list ad infinitum.
We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself. Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking. Try to drink and stop abruptly. Try it more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition."
Read more Big Book http://www.portlandeyeopener.c
AA History
LETS ASK BILL W. Q&A NO.4
Question:
How can A.A. best assure its continued existence?
Answer:
"Since the beginning of recorded time, many societies and nations of civilizations have passed in review. In those great ones that have left their mark for good, in contrast with those who have left their mark for evil, there has always been a sense of history, a true and high constant purpose, and there has always been a sense of destiny.
In the societies which failed to leave a bright mark in the annals of the world, there was always a false or boastful sense of history, always a mistaken or inadequate purpose and always the presumption of an infinite, a glorious and an exclusive destiny.
In the societies that left their mark of goodness on time, the sense of history was not a matter for pride or for glory; it was the substance of the learning of the experience of the past. In the purpose of such a society there was always truth and constancy, but never a supposition that the society had apprehended all of the truth - or the superior truth. And in the sense of destiny there was no conceit, no supposition that a society or nation or culture would last forever and go on to greater glories. But there was always a sense of duty to be fulfilled, whatever destiny the society might be assigned by providence for the betterment of the world.
This is the crossroads at which we in A.A. stand. This is a good time to re-examine how well we have looked upon our A.A. history and how much we have profited by it, what false insights or false glories we may have been extracting from history - to our future detriment. It is a moment to examine the purpose of this Society. Indeed, we are very lucky to be able to state as the nucleus of that purpose a single word: sobriety.
Quite early we saw, however, that sobriety in abstinence from alcohol could never be attained unless there was sobriety and more quietude in the false motivation that underlay our drinking.
When the Twelve Steps were cast up - without any real experience and therefore under some Guidance, surely - we were given keys to sobriety in its wider implications. We have been blessed with a concrete definition of purpose but, for all its concreteness, we could still abuse it and misuse it in a very natural way.
Some times we begin to think that perhaps, according to Scriptural promise, the first shall be last and the last - meaning us - shall really be first. That would indeed be a very dangerous presumption and never should we indulge it. If we do, we shall compete in history with other societies who have been ill-advised enough to suppose that they had a monopoly on truth or were in some way superior to other attempts of men to think and to associate in love and in harmony.
We may look out upon our destiny with no violation of our principle that we are to live one day at a time. We mean that, emotionally, each in his personal life is never to repine upon the past glory too much, in the present, or presume upon the future. We shall attend to the day's business but we shall try to apprehend ever more truth from the lessons of our history, not the lessons of our successes but the lessons of our defections, failures and the awful emotions that can set us loose upon us. For these, indeed, are the raw materials that God has used to forge this still rather little instrument called Alcoholics Anonymous. So we may look at destiny and we may ask ourselves about it and speculate upon it a little - if we do not presume to play God." (G.S.C., 1961)