AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 20, 2022 Carefully Reviewing Returning home we find a place where we can be quiet for an hour, carefully reviewing what we have done. We thank God from the bottom of our heart that we know Him better. Taking this book down from our shelf we turn to the page which contains the twelve steps. Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last. - Alcoholics Anonymous, ( ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 19, 2022 Motives and Actions What real harm, therefore, had we done? No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the end result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can only be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 79 Thought to Ponder Life begins at the end of our comfort zone. AA-related 'Alconym' W I S D O M   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 18, 2022 Needs and Wants This great experience that released me from the bondage of hatred and replaced it with love is really just another affirmation of the truth I know: I get everything I need in Alcoholics Anonymous—and everything I need I get. And when I get what I need, I invariably find that it was just what I wanted all the time. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Freedom From Bondage) p. 552 Thought to Ponder Forgiveness entered my life through my heart, not my head ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 17, 2022 Inner Resource What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self-discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Spiritual Experience, Appendix II) p. 567 Thought to Ponder The greatest gift that can come to anyone is a spiritual awakening. AA-rela ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 16, 2022 Deal With Sobriety 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) pp. 558 - 559 Thought to Ponder The Twelve Steps -- a manuscript for rational living. A ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 15, 2022 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Service You will be most successful with alcoholics if you do not exhibit any passion for crusade or reform. Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection. Show him how they worked with you. Offer him friendship and fellowship. Tell him that if he wants to get well you will do anything to help. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 95  ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 14, 2022 Thoroughness 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 rewards than this one. Calm, thoughtful reflection upon personal relations can deepen our insight. We can go far beyond those things which were superficially wrong with us, to see those flaws which were basic, flaws which sometimes were responsible ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 13, 2022 Making the Approach That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured—these are the conditions we have f ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 12, 2022 Defect of Pride For pride, leading to self-justification, and always spurred by conscious or unconscious fears, is the basic breeder of most human difficulties, the chief block to true progress. Pride lures us into making demands upon ourselves or upon others which cannot be met without perverting or misusing our God-given instincts. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) pp.48 - 49 Thought to Ponder Swallowing my pride will not get me drunk. AA ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 11, 2022 Problems Pile Up These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctor's Opinion) p. xxviii Thought to Ponder The Twelve Steps; a manuscript for rational living. AA-related 'Alconym' A A   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 10, 2022 Soul-Sickness Alcoholics especially should be able to see that instinct run wild in themselves is the underlying cause of their destructive drinking. We have drunk to drown feelings of fear, frustration, and depression. We have drunk to escape the guilt of passions, and then have drunk again to make more passions possible. We have drunk for vainglory—that we might the more enjoy foolish dreams of pomp and power. This perverse soul-sickness is not pleasant to ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 9, 2022 Two Alternatives If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. - Alcoholics Anonymo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 8, 2022 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ In His Mind These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) p. 23  Thought to Ponder I want the gift of an untroubled mind.  AA-related 'Alconym' C H A O S  =  Creating Havoc Around OurSe ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 7, 2022 Heartbreaking Obsession The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the great moments of the past. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt—and one more failure. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (A Vision For You) p. 151 Thought to Ponder Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom f ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) May 6, 2022 Lose All Control But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) p. 21 Thought to Ponder When we try to control our drinking, we have already lost control. AA-related 'Alconym' T H I N K  =   Thank Heave ...Continue Reading