AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 19, 2026  DefenseOnce more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 43  Thought to Ponder . . .The ultimate defense against the first drink is a spiritual one.  AA-related 'Alconym'G I F T  =   God Is Forever Ther ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 18, 2026  Cheerfulness and LaughterSo we think cheerfulness and laughter make for usefulness. Outsiders are sometimes shocked when we burst into merriment over a seemingly tragic experience out of the past. But why shouldn’t we laugh? We have recovered, and have been given the power to help others.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Family Afterward) p. 132  Thought to Ponder . . ."Don't take yourself too damn seriously."  AA-related 'Alconym'H J F & ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 17, 2026  DividendsJoy at our release from a lifetime of frustration knew no bounds. Father feels he has struck something better than gold. For a time he may try to hug the new treasure to himself. He may not see at once that he has barely scratched a limitless lode which will pay dividends only if he mines it for the rest of his life and insists on giving away the entire product.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Family Afterward) pp. 128-129  Thought to Ponder . ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 16, 2026  EgomaniaBut it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. Our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. Either we insist upon dominating the people we know, or we depend upon them far too much.- Twelve Steps and Twe ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 15, 2026  ConditionsWe thought "conditions" drove us to drink, and when we tried to correct these conditions and found that we couldn't to our entire satisfaction, our drinking went out of hand and we became alcoholics. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet conditions, whatever they were.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) p. 47  Thought to Ponder . . .Acceptance is the soil where change can actually take ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 14, 2026  Give Without DemandsWe would have to develop the sense of being in partnership or brotherhood with all those around us. We saw that we would need to give constantly of ourselves without demands for repayment. When we persistently did this we gradually found that people were attracted to us as never before. And even if they failed us, we could be understanding and not too seriously affected.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 116   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 13, 2026  Deprived OurselvesThe notion that we would still live our own lives, God helping a little now and then, began to evaporate. Many of us who had thought ourselves religious awoke to the limitations of this attitude. Refusing to place God first, we had deprived ourselves of His help. But now the words “Of myself I am nothing, the Father doeth the works” began to carry bright promise and meaning.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) p. 75   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 12, 2026  Harm to OthersWe might next ask ourselves what we mean when we say that we have "harmed" other people. What kinds of "harm" do people do one another, anyway? To define the word "harm" in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 80  Thought to Ponder . . .It is the h ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 11, 2026~ Scroll Down for Share ~  SerenityWe are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 84  Thought to PonderWe cannot find peace by avoiding life.  AA-related 'Alconym'S T E P  =  Something That Enhances Peace.  A Member Shares:Hi everyone. Dennis, grateful alcoholic. ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 10, 2026  ImpossibleThis lack of anchorage to any permanent values, this blindness to the true purpose of our lives, produced another bad result. For just so long as we were convinced that we could live exclusively by our own individual strength and intelligence, for just that long was a working faith in a Higher Power impossible. This was true even when we believed that God existed.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) p. 77  Thought to Ponder ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 9, 2026  Outgrow FearThe verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 68  Thought to Ponder . . .Courage is not the absence of fear, but taking action in ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 8, 2026  Tradition FourThis meant, of course, that we had been given the courage to declare each A.A. group an individual entity, strictly reliant on its own conscience as a guide to action. In charting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found it necessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought not do anything which would greatly injure A.A. as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Tra ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 7, 2026  Receive This GiftHe finds himself in possession of a degree of honesty, tolerance, unselfishness, peace of mind, and love of which he had thought himself quite incapable. What he has received is a free gift, and yet usually, at least in some small part, he has made himself ready to receive it. A.A.'s manner of making ready to receive this gift lies in the practice of the Twelve Steps in our program.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 1 ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 6, 2026  Camaraderie, Joyousness and DemocracyWe are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain’s table. Unlike the feelings of the ship’s passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) p. 17  Thought to Ponder . . .Together we can do what we c ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 5, 2026  Defective RelationsWhile the purpose of making restitution to others is paramount, it is equally necessary that we extricate from an examination of our personal relations every bit of information about ourselves and our fundamental difficulties that we can. Since defective relations with other human beings have nearly always been the immediate cause of our woes, including our alcoholism, no field of investigation could yield more satisfying and valuable ...Continue Reading