AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 18, 2021 Acquire Willingness But now it appears that there are certain things which only the individual can do. All by himself, and in the light of his own circumstances, he needs to develop the quality of willingness. When he acquires willingness, he is the only one who can make the decision to exert himself. Trying to do this is an act of his own will. All of the Twelve Steps require sustained and personal exertion to conform to their principles and so, we trust, ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 17, 2021 Flaws If the owner of the business is to be successful, he cannot fool himself about values. We did exactly the same thing with our lives. We took stock honestly. First, we searched out the flaws in our make-up which caused our failure. Being convinced that self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered its common manifestations. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 64 Thought to Ponder Each day, I can ask God to remove the ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 16, 2021 No Control, No Choice He has lost control. At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected. The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) pp. 23 - 24 Thought to ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 15, 2021 Newfound Knowledge Steps Eight and Nine are concerned with personal relationships. First, we take a look backward and try to discover where we have been at fault; next we make a vigorous attempt to repair the damage we have done; and third, having thus cleaned away the debris of the past, we consider how, with our newfound knowledge of ourselves, we may develop the best possible relations with every human being we know. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 14, 2021 Alibis Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic’s drinking bout creates. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) p. 23 Thought to Ponder Today, my brain has clear ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 13, 2021 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Deal With Sobriety Alcoholics can stop drinking in many places and many ways—but Alcoholics Anonymous offers us a way to stay sober. 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 drinkin ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 12, 2021 The Alcoholic He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 11, 2021 Building an Arch 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, (In ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 10, 2021 Problems Like most people, we have found that we can take our big lumps as they come. But also like others, we often discover a greater challenge in the lesser and more continuous problems of life. Our answer is in still more spiritual development. Only by this means can we improve our chances for really happy and useful living. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 114 Thought to Ponder Life is a steady drizzle of small things -- carry an ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 9, 2021 The Only Condition Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job—wife or no wife—we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God. Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 98 Thought to Pon ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 8, 2021 Simple Request We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out. As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: "Thy will, not mine, be done." - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) pp. 102 - 103 Thought to Ponder I can't do His will my way. ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 7, 2021 Deadly Earnestness There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 16 Thought to Ponder It is when you act on faith that you ac ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 6, 2021 Over and Over After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctor's Opinion) p. xxix Thought to Ponder Take the first ste ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 5, 2021 Step Six We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all—every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 76 Thought to Ponder Get a grip on letting go. AA-related 'Alconym' L E T   G O  =  Leave Everything To God, Okay? Tha ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 4, 2021 Give and Receive To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives—these things are the substance of what we receive as we carry A.A.'s message to the ...Continue Reading