AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) August 4, 2019 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ *We Ask God* In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 86  Thought to Ponder Today I pray over the things that I us ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 3, 2019* *Step Eight* What real harm, therefore, had we done? No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the end result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can only be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions.  - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 79 Thought to Ponder A fear faced is a fear erased. AA-related 'Alconym' *W I S D O M*  =  ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 2, 2019* *Self-Appraisal* Must A.A.'s spend most of their waking hours drearily rehashing their sins of omission or commission? Well, hardly. The emphasis on inventory is heavy only because a great many of us have never really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal. Once this healthy practice has become grooved, it will be so interesting and profitable that the time it takes won't be missed. For these minutes and sometimes hours spent in self-examination ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 1, 2019* *Obsession* When men and women pour so much alcohol into themselves that they destroy their lives, they commit a most unnatural act. Defying their instinctive desire for self-preservation, they seem bent upon self-destruction. They work against their own deepest instinct. As they are humbled by the terrific beating administered by alcohol, the grace of God can enter them and expel their obsession.  - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Six) ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 31, 2019* *Yes, I Believe* If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-two personal stories and think: “Yes, that happened to me”; or, more important, “Yes, I’ve felt like that”; or, most important, “Yes, I believe this program can work for me too.”  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Preface) p. xii Thought to Ponder Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. AA-related 'Alconym' *H O P E*  =  ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 30, 2019* *Spiritual Principles* "Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems.  I have since been brought into a way of living infinitely more satisfying and, I hope, more useful than the life I lived before. My old manner of life was by no means a bad one, but I would not exchange its best moments for the worst I have now. I would not go back to it even if I could."  - Alcoholics Anonymous, ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 29, 2019* *Trust, Reliance, Serenity* Perhaps there is a better way—we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 68 Thought to ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 28, 2019 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ *To Grow* We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 84  Thought to Ponder Spiritual progress isn't what gets us sober, it's what keeps us sober.  AA-related 'Alconym' *A S A P*  =  Always Say A Prayer.  A Member Shares: My na ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 27, 2019* *Seeking Humility* We saw we needn't always be bludgeoned and beaten into humility. It could come quite as much from our voluntary reaching for it as it could from unremitting suffering. A great turning point in our lives came when we sought for humility as something we really wanted, rather than as something we must have.  - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) p. 75 Thought to Ponder Humility is not a station we arrive at; it's a way ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 26, 2019* *Intensive Work* Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail.  - Alcoholics Anonymous (Working With Others) p. 89 Thought to Ponder All of AA's suggestions are free. The ones I d ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 25, 2019* *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 ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 24, 2019* *Demands* The chief activator of our defects has been self-centered fear—primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustration. Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means of reducing these demands.The difference between a demand and a simple request is plain to anyone.  - ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 23, 2019* *Self-Reliance* We could actually have earnest religious beliefs which remained barren because we were still trying to play God ourselves. As long as we placed self-reliance first, a genuine reliance upon a Higher Power was out of the question. That basic ingredient of all humility, a desire to seek and do God's will, was missing.  - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) p. 72 Thought to Ponder Humility is not thinking less of myself, b ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 22, 2019* *Virtually Impossible* Opinions vary considerably as to why the alcoholic reacts differently from normal people. We are not sure why, once a certain point is reached, little can be done for him. We cannot answer the riddle. We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 21, 2019 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ *Acceptance* We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 30  Thought ...Continue Reading