Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Colossians 4:2
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Read more Bible http://www.bookbindery.
My Prayer for the Day
"Heavenly Father-I completely surrender to You are Your will for me. Thank you for ALL you have removed and revealed. Thank You for the warm bed I sleep in. Thank You for the water and the food. Thank You for clothes and shelter. Thank You for giving me purpose. Thank You for the people that you allow me to work with. Thank You for selfless earthbound teachers. Thank You for blessing me with my sisters and Brian."
"I am grateful Father that all my limbs are intact. I am grateful Father that all my organs are functioning. I am grateful that I have all my senses. I am grateful for the personal spiritual gifts you have blessed me with. I am grateful for the personal spiritual gifts of others. I am grateful that I live in such a beautiful area. I am grateful for hikes. I am grateful that I actually enjoy crafting. I am grateful for pine cones that I make cool things from. I am grateful for Your Word. I am grateful for AA. I am grateful that I know what grateful feels like after years of being told how "ungrateful" I was by my mom!! lol! I am grateful to know my Creator and KNOW that He knows me! In Jesus name-Amen"
Today’s action
- Today in prayer. I will communicate my gratitudes-instead of fears
- Today if I slip into fear or morbid reflection, I will quickly refocus on the simplicity of gratitude and Thank God for all that I do have,
- Today I will not personalize other people defects or perceptions. I will accept them and pray "Bless them Father, change me"
- Today I will allow God to teach me discipline, consistancey and quitness. I will allow Him to mold and guide me as he sees fit
More AA prayers http://silkworth.net/pages/aa/
Podcast of he Day
What's the problem?
What's the Solution?
Hil's blah
As many of you know I wasn't given much guidance in regards to sponsorship when God got me sober. It was kind of like..."Go to meetings and check in once in a while" Yeah, that didn't cut it, and that could have killed me if God hadn't kept me close. Meetings and sponsorship via text message was all I thought AA was. I could barely understand the BB. My brain was scattered and unfocused. I need consistency, discipline and direction. I was like a wild animal running a muck and making really bad choices. Using the same mind I used that always got me drunk, just not drinking. My mind needed something to focus on and my body needed something to do. What I was "doing" in early sobriety was creating more drama and pain for myself and others. Why? Because I was a untreated alcoholic.
That's why in the BB they use words like "Launch" "Vigorous" "Action" "Next".....Alcoholics are NOT good thinkers. We are doers. Our minds get us into trouble because that is where our actions begin. The Steps "rewire" our brains in time but first we must have direction and destinations from a spiritually fit sponsor or fellow AAer....They must tell us precisely what's next and how. So about 7 months sober a horrific event in my relationship spun us out. He relapsed (he was 7 years sober, RN-dry drunk) I went full on toward AA. Guided by God and God alone. He put all the right teachers in my path..not in physical form but through podcasts. That lead me to certain websites, which eventually lead me to Joe and Charlie walking me through the book. I did the Steps alone. I did read my 4th to my first sponsor. From there I got a home group. Got a service commitment that lasted 6 months...this kept me accountable. Then I was the secretary for another 6 months. I found a better sponsor and I started sponsoring. All done by the guidance of God disciplining me through my desperation to get well.
The Southern Lawyer alcoholic speaker in these two podcasts, I HIGHLY encourage you all to listen to. It helped me to understand what was wrong with me and what the hell to do about it. He has a gift of communication and teaching that I don't so please, for yourself and your own sobriety and the sobriety that you will help others to obtain-Listen, learn and GROW from these giants in AA that we should thank God for everyday!
All the hell I went through, all the hell you went through will have been for NOTHING if we do not GROW and then TEACH. PERIOD. We are doers...not thinkers. "Pondering" why life sucks or why we are this why or why others are the way there are-leads to nothing. We must apply these principles and then teach others to do them same. You can know all the secrets of the world, all the insights of why you are who you are, think you know what God is...but knowledge is useless unless you use it to help someone. Sitting on knowledge is the most selfish thing you can do. We don't treat our selfish tendencies with more selfishness. This is WHY they put the 12th in place. AA, we are not self help...we are selfish guides and teaches. This gives us purpose. A alcoholic without purpose is doomed for a long road of misery, drunk or not.
Our DNA, at the core, we long to help others-but, we must break through the muck to get to it through and then back to who God intended us to be before the world had its way with us. We did what we had to do to "adapt"..by my adapting to the filth around me and then participating in it, my soul became sicker and sicker. Integrity is not a mental concept. True intrity is a gift from God the the ego can't grasp. The world is about me, me, me...and, more, more, more.....in order to recover we must give. God knew how to reach us. He used Bill as an instrument for good. Bill and the others taught us to to they same.
We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined. But this is not all. There is action and more action. “Faith without works is dead.”(from "Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 86-88)
Listen to more Recovery Radio http://recoveryradionetwork.podcastpeople.com/
12 x 12 on Tradition 12
“Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all
our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities.”
"Spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Subordinating personal aims to the common good is the essence of all Twelve Traditions. Why A.A. could not remain a secret society. Principles come before personalities. One hundred percent anonymity at the public level. Anonymity
is real humility."
Hil's blah
"Anonymity is real humility." Hell yeah it is! Today, do something kind and selfless and not tell anyone about it...Testing our humility with random acts of kindness, and then keeping quiet about it, certainly helps to discipline the consummate attention seeker...aka...alcoholic!
Read more 12 X 12 http://www.portlandeyeopener.
Big Book There is a Solution....Continued
"How true this is, few realize. In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will. The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not arrive. He has lost control. At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected.
The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so- called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.
The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us. If these thoughts occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people. There is a complete failure of the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove.
The alcoholic may say to himself in the most casual way, “It won’t burn me this time, so here’s how!’’ Or perhaps he doesn’t think at all. How often have some of us begun to drink in this nonchalant way, and after the third or fourth, pounded on the bar and said to ourselves, “For God’s sake, how did I ever get started again?’’ Only to have that thought supplanted by “Well, I’ll stop with the sixth drink.’’ Or “What’s the use anyhow?’’
Read more Big Book http://www.portlandeyeopener.
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour"1 Peter 5:8