AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 16, 2020 Sanity Returned He was on thin ice. Again it was the old, insidious insanity—that first drink. But what about his responsibilities—his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah—yes, those other alcoholics? There must be many such in this town. He would phone a clergyman. His sanity returned and he thanked God. Selecting a church at random from the directory, he stepped into a booth and lifted the receiver. - Alcoho ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 15, 2020 Catapulted Everyone became resigned to the certainty that I would have to be shut up somewhere, or would stumble along to a miserable end. How dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch. I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 14, 2020 Extreme Example So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 62 Thought to Pon ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 13, 2020 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Key to Good Living For it is only by accepting and solving our problems that we can begin to get right with ourselves and with the world about us, and with Him who presides over us all. Understanding is the key to right principles and attitudes, and right action is the key to good living; therefore the joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.  - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 125  ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 12, 2020 Personality Change "It has often been said of A.A. that we are interested only in alcoholism. That is not true. We have to get over drinking in order to stay alive. But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality by firsthand contact knows that no true alky ever stops drinking permanently without undergoing a profound personality change." - As Bill Sees It, (Letter, 1940) p. 1 Thought to Ponder If I don't change, my sobriety date will. AA-rel ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 11, 2020 One More Attempt 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 When we try to control our drinking, we have already los ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 10, 2020 Repair the Damage Now we need more action, without which we find that "Faith without works is dead." Let's look at Steps Eight and Nine. We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We made it when we took inventory. We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal. Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 76 Thought to Ponder It ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 9, 2020 Simple and Personal In spite of the great increase in the size and the span of this Fellowship, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Foreward to Third Edition) p. xxii Thought to Ponder Every recovery from alcoholism begins with one sober hour. AA-related 'Alconym' H O P E  = &nb ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 8, 2020 Third Step Prayer We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!" - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 63 ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 7, 2020 The Old Game Inwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them. He will presently try the old game again, for he isn’t happy about his sobriety. He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (A Vision For You) p. 152 Tho ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 6, 2020 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Willing to Believe Stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 93  Thoug ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 5, 2020 Control 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 When we try to control our drinking, we have already lost control ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 4, 2020 Inventory Beginning with Step Four, we commenced to search out the things in ourselves which had brought us to physical, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory. Looking at Step Five, we decided that an inventory, taken alone, wouldn't be enough. We knew we would have to quit the deadly business of living alone with our conflicts, and in honesty confide these to God and another human being. - Twelve Steps and Twe ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 3, 2020 Faith in a Power Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 55 Thought to Ponder People of faith h ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) December 2, 2020 It's Our Inventory 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 mist ...Continue Reading