AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 13, 2022 Liberation and Strength No other kind of bankruptcy is like this one. Alcohol, now become the rapacious creditor, bleeds us of all self-sufficiency and all will to resist its demands. Once this stark fact is accepted, our bankruptcy as going human concerns is complete. But upon entering AA we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and stre ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 12, 2022 Faith Means Courage We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The 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. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 68 Thought to Ponder Fear is not ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 11, 2022 Self-Knowledge But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 39 Thought to Ponder Pride in my intelligence blinded me to how much I did not know. AA-related 'A ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 10, 2022 Resentments We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish them away any more than alcohol. This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) pp. 66 - 67 Thought to Ponder Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other perso ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 9, 2022 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A Revolutionary Change They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking. In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of directi ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 8, 2022 Great Obsession The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death. We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 30 Thought to Ponder When we try to control ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 7, 2022 Our Mistakes 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? Though a situation had not been entirely our fault, we tried to disregard the other person involved entirely. Where were we to blame? The inventory was ours, not the other man’s. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 67 Thought to Ponder The first step in overcoming mistakes is ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 6, 2022 No Respecter How can a person with a fine family, an attractive home, an excellent position, and high standing in an important city become an alcoholic? As I later found out through Alcoholics Anonymous, alcohol is no respecter of economic status, social and business standing, or intelligence. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (It Might Have Been Worse) p. 348 Thought to Ponder I would rather go through life sober, believing I am an alcoholic, than go through life ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 5, 2022 Futility and Unhappiness It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 66 Thought to Ponder We a ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 4, 2022 It Really Worked There is a solution. Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pi ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 3, 2022 Self-Destruction When men and women pour so much alcohol into themselves that they destroy their lives, they commit a most unnatural act. Defying their instinctive desire for self-preservation, they seem bent upon self-destruction. They work against their own deepest instinct. As they are humbled by the terrific beating administered by alcohol, the grace of God can enter them and expel their obsession. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Six) p. 6 ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 2, 2022 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Prayer and Meditation Of course we finally did experiment, and when unexpected results followed, we felt different; in fact we knew different; and so we were sold on meditation and prayer. And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that "almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough." - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) January 1, 2022 Sobriety Every Day God willing, we members of A.A. may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day. How do we do it? By learning—through practicing the Twelve Steps and through sharing at meetings—how to cope with the problems that we looked to booze to solve, back in our drinking days. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (To Handle Sobriety) p. 559 Thought to Ponder Sobriety is not a destination, but an everlasting journey. ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 31, 2021 A Double-Edged Sword The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the process. Few indeed were those who, so assailed, had ever won through in singlehanded combat. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step One) p. 22 Thought to Ponder It's hard to fight an enemy who has outpo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 30, 2021 Constructive Imagination There's nothing the matter with constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first envisions a plan for it. Well, meditation is like that, too; it helps to envision our spiritual objective before we try to move toward it. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) p. 100 Thought to Ponder Meditation is our step out into the sun. AA-related 'Alconym' T ...Continue Reading