*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 15, 2020* *Design for Living* We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, "a design for living" that really works. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (There Is A Solution,) p. 28 Thought to Ponder The Twelve Steps—a manuscript for rational living. AA-related 'Alconym' *F A I T H*  ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 14, 2020* By the Grace of God Now that we're in A.A. and sober, and winning back the esteem of our friends and business associates, we find that we still need to exercise special vigilance. As an insurance against “big-shot-ism” we can often check ourselves by remembering that we are today sober only by the grace of God and that any success we may be having is far more His success than ours. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) p. 92 Thought to P ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 13, 2020* *Hit Bottom* Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step One) p. 24 Thought to Ponder Sobriety without action is fantasy. AA ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 12, 2020* *A Priceless Gift* We enjoy moments in which there is something like real peace of mind. To those of us who have hitherto known only excitement, depression, or anxiety—in other words, to all of us—this newfound peace is a priceless gift. Something new indeed has been added. Where humility had formerly stood for a forced feeding on humble pie, it now begins to mean the nourishing ingredient which can give us serenity. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Tradit ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 11, 2020* *Spiritual Experience* Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the "educational variety" because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is himself. He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. - Alcoholics Anony ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 10, 2020* *Take the Lead* Yes, there is a long period of reconstruction ahead. We must take the lead. A remorseful mumbling that we are sorry won’t fill the bill at all. We ought to sit down with the family and frankly analyze the past as we now see it, being very careful not to criticize them. Their defects may be glaring, but the chances are that our own actions are partly responsible. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 83 Thought to Ponder The spiri ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) February 9, 2020 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ *Thoroughly Followed* RARELY HAVE we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not, completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 58  Thought to Ponder The Three A's .. Awareness, Acceptance, Action.  AA-re ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 8, 2020* *Inspiration* Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 87 Thought to Ponder Today, my brain has cleared ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 7, 2020* *Strangely Insane* However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane. It’s strong language—but isn’t it true? - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 38 Thought to Ponder Insanity: doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. AA-related 'Alconym' *F E A R*  =  *F*ighting *E*go *A*gainst *R*eality. Thanks to all of you for sharing so ge ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 6, 2020* *Dependence on God* He clamors for this or that, claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for. Nonsense. 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. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 98 Thought to Ponder In AA we don't carry the alcoholic; we carry the mes ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 5, 2020* *Open Minded* Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 48 Thought to Ponder Minds are like parachutes -- they won't wo ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 4, 2020* *This Kind of Giving* And then he discovers that by the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether his brother has yet received anything or not. His own character may still be gravely defective, but he somehow knows that God has enabled him to make a mighty beginning, and he senses that he stands at the edge of new mysteries, joys, and experiences of which he had never even dreamed. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 3, 2020* *Suffering From an Illness* If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 44 Thought to Ponder The ultimate defense against the first drink is a spiritual one. AA-related 'Alconym' *A B ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) February 2, 2020 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ *The Great Fact* Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (A Vision For You) p. 164  ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 1, 2020* *Gossip* In a perverse way we can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us, for it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority. Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination, has its satisfactions for us, too. Here we are not trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own righteousness. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Six) p. 67 Thought to Ponder One of th ...Continue Reading