AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 29, 2021 Persistent Effort We want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires have warped us. We wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and ourselves. By discovering what our emotional deformities are, we can move toward their correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or contentment for us. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) p. 43 Thought to Ponder In order to r ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 28, 2021 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-related ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 27, 2021 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Rationalization Few indeed are the practicing alcoholics who have any idea how irrational they are, or seeing their irrationality, can bear to face it. Some will be willing to term themselves "problem drinkers," but cannot endure the suggestion that they are in fact mentally ill. They are abetted in this blindness by a world which does not understand the difference between sane drinking and alcoholism.  - Twelve Ste ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 26, 2021 Forgiveness We've repeatedly strained the patience of our best friends to a snapping point, and have brought out the very worst in those who didn't think much of us to begin with. In many instances we are really dealing with fellow sufferers, people whose woes we have increased. If we are now about to ask forgiveness for ourselves, why shouldn't we start out by forgiving them, one and all? - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 78 Thought to ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 25, 2021 Continue to Watch Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is o ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 24, 2021 First Attempt We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives. Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means shall we be able to let Him in? Step Three represents our first attempt to do this. In fact, the effectiveness of the whole A.A. program will rest upon how well and earnestly we have tried to come to "a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." - Twelve Steps and Twelve T ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 23, 2021 Control and Manipulation When we habitually try to manipulate others to our own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. Then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate. As we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. - ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 22, 2021 Tradition Three Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Appendices I; The A.A. Tradition) p. 563 Thought to Ponder "You're an A.A. member the m ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 21, 2021 Make a Decision Therefore, we who are alcoholics can consider ourselves fortunate indeed. Each of us has had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to look for something better. So it is by circumstance rather than any virtue that we have been driven to AA, have admitted defeat, have acquired the rudiments of faith, and now want to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to a Highe ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 20, 2021 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Three Pertinent Ideas Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas: (a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. (b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. (c) That God could and would if He were sought.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 60  Thought to Ponder I can't, God ca ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) June 19, 2021 Straighten Out The Past Under no condition do we criticize such a person or argue. Simply we tell him that we will never get over drinking until we have done our utmost to straighten out the past. We are there to sweep off our side of the street, realizing that nothing worth while can be accomplished until we do so, never trying to tell him what he should do. His faults are not discussed. We stick to our own. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) pp. 77 - 7 ...Continue Reading

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