AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 29, 2021 If We Are Painstaking If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We 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) pp. 83 - 84 Thought to Ponder We cannot find peace by avoiding life. AA-related 'Alconym' S T E P  =   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 28, 2021 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' C H A O S  =   Can't Han ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 27, 2021 Without Defense The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called willpower becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) p. 24 Thoug ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 26, 2021 No Fight I woke up. This had to be stopped. I saw I could not take so much as one drink. I was through forever. Before then, I had written lots of sweet promises, but my wife happily observed that this time I meant business. And so I did. Shortly afterward I came home drunk. There had been no fight. Where had been my high resolve? I simply didn’t know. It hadn’t even come to mind. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 5 Thought to Ponder The ultimate d ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 25, 2021 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ 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 direction ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 24, 2021 Fearless and Thorough If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 58 Thought to Ponder Sobriety without action is fantasy. AA-related ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 23, 2021 Excuses Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count. How true this is, few realize. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution) p. 23 Thought to Ponder Alcohol — cunning, baffling, powerf ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 22, 2021 The Touchstone Someone who knew what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) pp. 93 - 94 Thought to Ponder Pain is the measure of our resistance to change. AA-related 'Alconym' H O P E  =   Hold On ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 21, 2021 Ceased Fighting And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. - Alcoholics ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 20, 2021 Honesty Somehow, being alone with God doesn't seem as embarrassing as facing up to another person. Until we actually sit down and talk aloud about what we have so long hidden, our willingness to clean house is still largely theoretical. When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Five) p. 60 Thought to Ponder Honesty is the absence of the intent to dec ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 19, 2021 Real Purpose At the moment we are trying to put our lives in order. But this is not an end in itself. Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 77 Thought to Ponder Trust God. Clean house. Help others. AA-related 'Alconym' H O L D  =   Helping Others Live Daily. Thanks to all of you for sharing so generously of your experience, strength and hope in carr ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 18, 2021 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Change in Attitude During this process of learning more about humility, the most profound result of all was the change in our attitude toward God. And this was true whether we had been believers or unbelievers. We began to get over the idea that the Higher Power was a sort of bush-league pinch hitter, to be called upon only in an emergency. The notion that we would still live our own lives, God helping a little now and then, began ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 17, 2021 Improve Contact We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms. Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) pp. 104 - 105 Thought to Ponder The Three "P's" -- Paus ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 16, 2021 A Subtle Foe It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done." - Alcoholics A ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 15, 2021 Actual Experience He gave me information about the subject of alcoholism which was undoubtedly helpful. Of far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language. He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them up in his reading. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Doctor Bob's Nightmar ...Continue Reading