| Feel free to post any of this months (August) 12 step readings or spiritual quotes you connect with in the comment section. |
| Feel free to post any of this months (August) 12 step readings or spiritual quotes you connect with in the comment section. |
August 1
Daily Reflections
LIVING IT
The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.
ALCOHOLIC ANONYMOUS , p. 83
When new in the program, I couldn’t comprehend living the spiritual
aspect of the program, but now that I’m sober, I can’t comprehend
living without it. Spirituality was what I had been seeking. God, as I
understand Him, has given me answers to the whys that kept me
drinking for twenty years. By living a spiritual life, by asking God for
help, I have learned to love, care for and feel compassion for all my
fellow men, and to feel joy in a world where, before, I felt only fear.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
“Offer new prospects friendship and fellowship. Tell them that if
they want to get well you will do anything to help. Burn the idea into
the consciousness of new prospects that they can get well,
regardless of anyone else. Job or no job, spouse or no spouse, they
cannot stop drinking as long as they place dependence on other
people ahead of dependence on God. Let no alcoholic say they
cannot recover unless they have their family back. This just isn’t so.
Their recovery is not dependent upon other people. It is dependent
on their own relationship with God.” Can I recognize all excuses
made by a prospect?
Meditation For The Day
The spiritual life depends upon the unseen. To live the spiritual
life you must believe in the unseen. Try not to loose the
consciousness of God’s spirit in you and in others. As a child in its
mother’s arms, stay sheltered in the understanding and love of
God. God will relieve you of the weight of worry and care, misery
and depression, want and woe, faintness and heartache, if you will let
Him. Lift up your eyes from earth’s troubles and view the glory of
the unseen God. Each day try to see more good in people, more of
the unseen in the seen.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may rest and abide in the presence of the unseen God. I
pray that I may leave my burdens in His care.
NA Just For Today
Regular Meeting Attendance
“We have learned from our group experience that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean.”
Basic Text p.9
The NA program gives us a new pattern of living. One of the basic elements of that new pattern is regular meeting attendance. For the newcomer, living clean is a brand new experience. All that once was familiar is changed. The old people, places, and things that served as props on the stage of our lives are gone. New stresses appear, no longer masked or deadened by drugs. That’s why we often suggest that newcomers attend a meeting every day. No matter what comes up, no matter how crazy the day gets, we know that our daily meeting awaits us. There, we can renew contact with other recovering addicts, people who know what we’re going through because they’ve been through it themselves. No day needs to go by without the relief we get only from such fellowship.
As we mature in recovery, we get the same kinds of benefits from regular meeting attendance. Regardless of how long we’ve been clean, we never stop being addicts. True, we probably won’t immediately start using mass quantities of drugs if we miss our meetings for a few days. But the more regularly we attend NA meetings, the more we reinforce our identity as recovering addicts. And each meeting helps put us that much further from becoming using addicts again.
Just for today: I will make a commitment to include regular meeting attendance as a part of my new pattern of living.
pg. 260
NA Just For Today
The Power Of Love
“We begin to see that God’s love has been present all the time, just waiting for us to accept it.”
Basic Text, p.46
God’s love is the transforming power that drives our recovery. With that love, we find freedom from the hopeless, desperate cycle of using, self-hatred, and more using. With that love, we gain a sense of reason and purpose in our once purposeless lives. With that love, we are given the inner direction and strength we need to begin a new way of life: the NA way. With that love, we begin to see things differently, as if with new eyes.
As we examine our lives through the eyes of love, we make what may be a startling discovery: The loving God we’ve so recently come to understand has always been with us and has always loved us. We recall the times when we asked for the aid of a Higher Power and were given it. We even recall times when we didn’t ask for such help, yet were given it anyway. We realize that a loving Higher Power has cared for us all along, preserving our lives till the day when we could accept that love for ourselves.
The Power of love has been with us all along. Today, we are grateful to have survived long enough to become consciously aware of that love’s presence in our world and our lives. Its vitality floods our very being, guiding our recovery and showing us how to live.
Just for today: I accept the love of a Higher Power in my life. I am conscious of that Power’s guidance and strength within me. Today, I claim it for my own.
pg. 231
August 9
Daily Reflections
“. . .OF ALL PERSONS WE HAD HARMED”
“…and became willing to make amends to them all.”
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 77
One of the key words in the Eighth Step is the word all. I am not free
to select a few names for the list and to disregard others. It is a list of
all persons I have harmed. I can see immediately that this Step entails
forgiveness because if I’m not willing to forgive someone, there is little
chance I will place his name on the list. Before I placed the first name
on my list, I said a little prayer: “I forgive anyone and everyone who
has ever harmed me at any time and under any circumstances.”
It is well for me to contemplate a small, but very significant, two-letter
word every time the Lord’s Prayer is said. The word is as. I ask,
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against
us.” In this case, as means, “in the same manner.” I am asking to be
forgiven in the same manner that I forgive others. As I say this portion
of the prayer, if I am harboring hatred or resentment, I am inviting
more resentment, when I should be calling on the spirit of forgiveness.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
“Call on new prospects while they are still jittery. They may be
more receptive when depressed. See them alone if possible. Tell
them enough about your drinking habits and experiences to
encourage them to speak of themselves. If they wish to talk, let
them do so. If they are not communicative, talk about the troubles
liquor has caused you, being careful not to moralize or lecture.
When they see you know all about the drinking game, commence to
describe yourself as an alcoholic and tell them how you learned
you were sick.” Am I ready to talk about myself to new prospects?
Meditation For The Day
Try not to give way to criticism, blame, scorn, or judgment of
others, when you are trying to help them. Effectiveness in helping
others depends on controlling yourself. You may be swept away by
a temporary natural urge to criticize or blame, unless you keep a
tight rein on your emotions. You should have a firm foundation of
spiritual living which makes you truly humble, if you are going to
really help other people. Go easy on them and be hard on yourself.
That is the way you can be used most to uplift a despairing spirit.
And seek no personal recognition for what you are used by God to
accomplish.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may try to avoid judgment and criticism. I pray that I
may always try to build up others instead of tearing them down.
NA Just For Today
Doing Good, Feeling Good
“We examine our actions, reactions, and motives. We often find that we’ve been doing better than we’ve been feeling.”
Basic Text p.42
The way we treat others often reveals our own state of being. When we are at peace, we’re most likely to treat others with respect and compassion. However, when we’re feeling off center; we’re likely to respond to others with intolerance and impatience. When we take regular inventory, we’ll probably notice a pattern: We treat others badly when we feel bad about ourselves.
What might not be revealed in an inventory, however, is the other side of the coin. When we treat others well, we feel good about ourselves. When we add this positive truth to the negative facts we find about ourselves in our inventory, we begin to behave differently.
When we feel badly, we can pause to pray for guidance and strength. Then, we make a decision to treat those around us with kindness, gentleness, and the same concern we’d like to be shown. A decision to be kind may nurture and sustain the happiness and peace of mind we all wish for. And the joy we inspire may lift the spirits of those around us, in turn fostering our own spiritual well-being.
Just for today: I will remember that if I change my actions, my thoughts will follow.
pg. 252
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
“People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. There is a
wide variation in the way each one of us approaches and conceives of
the Power greater than ourselves. Whether we agree with a
particular approach or conception seems to make little difference.
There are questions for each of us to settle for ourselves. But in each
case the belief in a Higher Power has accomplished the miraculous, the
humanly impossible. There has come a revolutionary change in their
way of living and thinking.” Has there been a revolutionary change in
me?
Meditation For The Day
Worship is consciousness of God’s divine majesty. As you pause to
worship, God will help you raise your humanity to His divinity. The
earth is a material temple to enclose God’s divinity. God brings to
those who worship Him a divine power, a divine love, and a divine
healing. You only have to open your mind to Him and try to absorb
some of His divine spirit. Pausing quietly in the spirit of worship, turn
your inward thoughts upward and realize that His divine power may be
yours, that you can experience His love and healing.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may worship God by sensing the eternal Spirit. I pray
that I may experience a new power in my life.
August 19
Daily Reflections
A FRAME OF REFERENCE
Referring to our list [inventory] again. Putting out of our minds the
wrongs others had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes.
Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 67
There is a wonderful freedom in not needing constant approval from
colleagues at work or from the people I love. I wish I had known about
this Step before, because once I developed a frame of reference, I felt
able to do the next right thing, knowing that the action fit the situation
and that it was the correct thing to do.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
“When many hundreds of people are able to say that the
consciousness of the presence of God is today the most important fact of
their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.
When we see others solve their problems by simple reliance upon
some Spirit of the universe, we have to stop doubting the power of
God. Our ideas did not work, but the God-idea does. Deep down in
every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God. Faith
in a Power greater than ourselves and miraculous demonstrations of
that power in our lives are facts as old as the human race.” Am I
willing to rely on the Spirit of the universe?
Meditation For The Day
You should not dwell too much on the mistakes, faults, and failures
of the past. Be done with shame and remorse and contempt for
yourself. With God’s help, develop a new self-respect. Unless you
respect yourself, others will not respect you. You ran a race, you
stumbled and fell, you have risen again, and now you press on
toward the goal of a better life. Do not stay to examine the spot
where you fell, only feel sorry for the delay, the shortsightedness
that prevented you from seeing the real goal sooner.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may not look back. I pray that I may keep picking
myself up and making a fresh start each day.
Keep It Simple
True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body.—Humboldt
In recovery, we work at taking better care of ourselves. We care for our mind and our body.
Often, during our drinking and drugging, we ignored our mind and body. We probably ate poorly, and we pushed our body to the limit.
But now, we are to recover. . .totally! We are to care for our mind and body as we care for our spirit. Our illness is an illness of mind, body, and spirit. So let’s care for all three. In recovery, we learn to care for and love all of who we are.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me care for my mind and body as I recover. You love all of me. Help me to respect and care for all of me.
Action for the Day: I will write down how much time I’ve spent caring for my mind and body in the past two weeks. Is it enough?
Keep It Simple
Alcoholism isn’t a spectator sport. Eventually the whole family gets to play.
—Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
One of the biggest lies addicts can tell themselves is, “I’m not hurting
anyone but myself.”
This is just another way we don’t see how important we are to others.
During our using, love was a burden. When anyone showed love for us, we turned away. They hurt. And we hurt.
In recovery, when ready, we try and help our families heal. We listen as
they speak of how our illness has hurt them. We comfort them as they tell their stories. Remember, our illness hurt them. Remember, our recovery will help them heal.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me face the pain my illness has brought to others. Let me know their pain.
Let it help me stay sober.
Action for the Day: I will list all persons my illness has hurt. I will say a prayer for them,
even if they have harmed me.