12 Step Recovery quotes readings this week
| Please post today’s or any day this weeks daily quote or spiritual reading in the comment section below. Monday 21th September through to Sunday 27th September. |
| Please post today’s or any day this weeks daily quote or spiritual reading in the comment section below. Monday 21th September through to Sunday 27th September. |
Mary
Good morning from sunny Ireland
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Let us continue with Steps Four, Five, Six, Seven
and Ten. In taking personal inventory of ourselves,
we have to face facts as they really are. We have to
stop running away. We must face reality. We must see
ourselves as we really are. We must admit our faults
openly and try to correct them. We must try to see
where we have been dishonest, impure, selfish, and
unloving. We do not do this once and forget it. We
do it every day of our lives, as long as we live. We
are never done with checking up on ourselves. Am I
taking a daily inventory of myself?
Meditation For The Day
In improving our personal lives, we have Unseen help.
We were not made so that we could see God. That would
be too easy for us and there would be no merit in
obeying Him. It takes an act of faith, a venture of
belief, to realize the Unseen Power. Yet, we have much
evidence of God’s existence in the strength that many
people have received from the act of faith, the venture
of belief. We are in a box of space and time and we can
see neither our souls nor God. God and the human spirit
are both outside the limitations of space and time. Yet
our Unseen help is effective here and now. That has
been proved in thousands of changed lives.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may make the great venture of belief.
I pray that my vision may not be blocked by intellectual pride.
Lukas (Netherlands)
My start to the day, a good coffee and todays reading.
Each Day a New Beginning
Praise and an attitude of gratitude are unbeatable stimulators . . .
we increase whatever we extol. –Sylvia Stitt Edwards
What outlook are we carrying forth into the day ahead? Are we feeling
fearful about the circumstances confronting us? Do we dread a planned
meeting? Are we worried about the welfare of a friend or lover?
Whatever our present outlook, its power over the outcome of our day
is profound. Our attitude in regard to any situation attracting our attention
influences the outcome. Sometimes to our favor, often to our disfavor if
our attitude is negative.
Thankfulness toward life guarantees the rewards we desire, the rewards
we seek too often from an ungrateful stance. The feeling of gratitude is
foreign to many of us. We came to this program feeling worthless,
sometimes rejected, frequently depressed. It seemed life had heaped
problems in our laps, and so it had. The more we lamented what life
“gave us,” the more reasons we were given to lament. We got just
what we expected. We still get just what we expect. The difference is
that the program has offered us the key to higher expectations.
Gratitude for the good in our lives increases the good.
I have the personal power to influence my day; I will make it a good one.
Suzy :) Just for today
Needed this today 🙂 x
NA Just For Today
Prayer
“Prayer takes practice, and we should remind ourselves that skilled people were not born with their skills.”
Basic Text, p.45
Many of us came into recovery with no experience in prayer and worried about not knowing the “right words!” Some of us remembered the words we’d learned in childhood but weren’t sure we believed in those words anymore. Whatever our background, in recovery we struggled to find words that spoke truly from our hearts.
Often the first prayer we attempt Is a simple request to our Higher Power asking for help in staying clean each day. We may ask for guidance and courage or simply pray for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out. If we find ourselves stumbling in our prayers, we may ask other members to share with us about how they learned to pray. No matter whether we pray in need or pray in joy, the important thing is to keep making the effort.
Our prayers will be shaped by our experience with the Twelve Steps and our personal understanding of a Higher Power. As our relationship with that Higher Power develops, we become more comfortable with prayer. In time, prayer becomes a source of strength and comfort. We seek that source often and willingly.
Just for today: I know that prayer can be simple. I will start where I am and practice.
pg. 275
Suzy :) Just for today
Who you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here 🙂
NA Just For Today
Dealing With Gossip
“In accordance with the principles of recovery, we try not to judge, stereotype, or moralize with each other.”
Basic Text, p.11
Let’s face it: In Narcotics Anonymous, we live in a glass house of sorts. Our fellow members know more about our personal lives than anyone has ever known before. They know who we spend our time with, where we work, what step we’re on, how many children we have, and so forth. And what our fellow members don’t know, they will probably imagine.
We may be unhappy when others gossip about us. But if we withdraw from the fellowship and isolate ourselves to avoid gossip, we also rob ourselves of the love, friendship, and unparalleled experience with recovery that our fellow members have to offer. A better way to deal with gossip is to simply accept the way things are and the way we are, and live our lives according to principles. The more secure we become with our personal program, the decisions we make, and the guidance we receive from a loving God, the less the opinions of others will concern us.
Just for today: I am committed to being involved in the NA Fellowship. The opinions of others will not affect my commitment to recovery.
pg. 277
Jaquie xx
Every day is a new beginning 😉
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Who will I be today? The “Cosmopolitan” woman, the little girl, the scholar, the mother? Who will I be to answer the needs of others, and yet answer the needs of me? –Deidra Sarault
We wear many hats. One aspect of our maturity is our ability to balance our roles. It’s often quite difficult to do so; however, the program offers us many tools for balancing our lives.
Fulfilling some of the needs of significant others in our lives brings us joy. Our own needs must be given priority, though. We cannot give away what we don’t have, and we have nothing unless we give sincere attention and love to ourselves.
In years gone by, we may have taken too little care of others, or we overdid it. In either case, we probably neglected ourselves. Most of us starved ourselves spiritually, many of us emotionally, a few physically. We were all too often “all-or-nothing” women.
Today we’re aware of our choices. We’ve been making a number of good ones lately: We’re abstinent. We’re living the Steps. And we’re choosing how to spend our time, and what to do with our lives. But no choice will turn out very well if we haven’t taken care of ourselves.
I will center on myself. I will nurture the maturing woman within and then reach out.
Macy
Daily Reflections
“I WAS AN EXCEPTION”
He [Bill W.] said to me, gently and simply, “Do you
think that you are one of us?”
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 413
During my drinking life I was convinced I was an exception.
I thought I was beyond petty requirements and had the right
to be excused. I never realized that the dark counterbalance
of my attitude was the constant feeling that I did not
“belong.” At first, in A.A., I identified with others only
as an alcoholic. What a wonderful awakening for me it has
been to realize that, if human beings were doing the best
they could, then so was I! All of the pains, confusions and
joys they feel are not exceptional, but part of my life,
just as much as anybody’s.
California Colin :)
NA Just For Today
Dealing With Gossip
“In accordance with the principles of recovery, we try not to judge, stereotype, or moralize with each other.”
Basic Text, p.11
Let’s face it: In Narcotics Anonymous, we live in a glass house of sorts. Our fellow members know more about our personal lives than anyone has ever known before. They know who we spend our time with, where we work, what step we’re on, how many children we have, and so forth. And what our fellow members don’t know, they will probably imagine.
We may be unhappy when others gossip about us. But if we withdraw from the fellowship and isolate ourselves to avoid gossip, we also rob ourselves of the love, friendship, and unparalleled experience with recovery that our fellow members have to offer. A better way to deal with gossip is to simply accept the way things are and the way we are, and live our lives according to principles. The more secure we become with our personal program, the decisions we make, and the guidance we receive from a loving God, the less the opinions of others will concern us.
Just for today: I am committed to being involved in the NA Fellowship. The opinions of others will not affect my commitment to recovery.
pg. 277
Charlie :)
Keep It Simple
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.— Will Durant
Sometimes we say bad things about others. When we do this, it makes us look
bad too.
Our friends worry what we might say about them behind their backs. They’re
afraid to trust us. We become known as gossips.
The things we say about other people tell a lot about us. We are kind or unkind.
We gossip or we don’t. This doesn’t mean we have to say everyone is wonderful
all the time. As we work our program to see ourselves better, we begin to see other
people more clearly too. We see their strong points and their weak points. But we
can know these things without gossiping about them.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see others clearly, and in their best
light. Let me bring out the good in others.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list the people I’m closest to at work, school, and
home. I’ll think of how I talk about them to others. Am I kind?
Sheila
September 26
Daily Reflections
OUR CHILDREN
The alcoholic may find it hard to re-establish friendly
relations with his children. . . . In time they will see
that he is a new man and in their own way they will let
him know it. . . . From that point on, progress will be
rapid. Marvelous results often follow such a reunion.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 134
While on the road to recovery I received a gift that
could not be purchased. It was a card from my son in
college, saying, “Dad, you can’t imagine how glad I
am that everything is okay. Happy Birthday, I love you.”
My son had told me that he loved me before. It had been
during the previous Christmas holidays, when he had said
to me, while crying, “Dad, I love you! Can’t you see what
you’re doing to yourself?” I couldn’t. Choked with emotion,
I had cried, but this time, when I received my son’s card,
my tears were tears of joy, not desperation.
Suzy :) Just for today
NA Just For Today
Seeing Ourselves In Others
“It will not make us better people to judge the faults of another.”
Basic Text, p.37
How easy it is to point out the faults of others! There’s a reason for this: The defects we identify most easily in others are often the defects we are most familiar with in our own characters. We may notice our best friend’s tendency to spend too much money, but if we examine our own spending habits we’ll probably find the same compulsiveness. We may decide our sponsor is much too involved in service, but find that we haven’t spent a single weekend with our families in the past three months because of one service commitment or another.
What we dislike in our fellows are often those things we dislike most in ourselves. We can turn this observation to our spiritual advantage. When we are stricken with the impulse to judge someone else, we can redirect the impulse in such a way as to recognize our own defects more clearly. What we see will guide our actions toward recovery and help us become emotionally healthy and happy individuals.
Just for today: I will look beyond the character defects of others and recognize my own.
pg. 280