*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 26, 2016* *Generation Gap* *I walked into my first AA meeting a month after my 70th birthday. . .  Half-sober, I got myself to an AA meeting near my home. My first reaction, as I stared at the people in the meeting was to flee.  Unwittingly, I had walked into a young people's meeting. The leader, a girl named Kathy, was fourteen and one-half years old, with six months' sober. Muttering, I turned toward the exit and found myself face to face with a ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 25, 2016* *Complacency* *The truth is, that in the life of each AA member, there still lurks a tyrant.  His name is alcohol. He is cunning, ruthless.  And his weapons are misery, insanity, and death. No matter how long we may be sober, he always stands at each man's elbow, ever watchful of an opportunity to resume his destruction.* /- The Language of the Heart,/ p. 34 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he tak ...Continue Reading

*Dear Gentle Readers, Here is a corrected copy of tomorrow's Daily Thought. Thanks for understanding. Blessings in sobriety, joanna* *AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 24, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Eight* /"Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."/ *What real harm had we done?  No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the result of purposeful forgetting. It is ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 24, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Eight* /"Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."/ *What real harm had we done?  No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions. . . . . .we should nevertheless make an accurate and exhaustive survey of our life as ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 23, 2016* *Rebellion* *A whole lifetime geared to self-centeredness cannot be set in reverse all at once.  Rebellion dogs our every step at first. When we have finally admitted without reservation that we are powerless over alcohol, we are apt to breathe a great sigh of relief, saying, "Well, thank God that's over!  I'll never have to go through /that/ again!" Then we learn, often to our consternation, that this is only the first mileston ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 22, 2016* *Young People* *It is very different to be a sober member of AA when you are young.  If you doubt this, think back to when you were sixteen and try to imagine yourself working the Steps in your life then as you do today. Couple this with other people telling you that you are too young be an alcoholic and you can see how hard it is. I know one thing for certain: no young person ever needs to hear that she has gotten sober before she had to hurt ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 21, 2016* *Results* *I had to admit that AA showed results, prodigious results. I saw that my attitude regarding these had been anything but scientific.  It wasn't AA that had the closed mind, it was me. The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel. . . I can't say upon occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting and practice t ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 20, 2016* *Traditions* *The Twelve Traditions point straight at many of our individual defects. By implication they ask each of us to lay aside pride and resentment.  They ask for personal as well as group sacrifice. They ask us never to use the AA name in any quest for personal power or distinction or money. The Traditions guarantee the equality of all members and independence of all groups. They show how we may best relate ourselves to each other and ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 19, 2016* *Renewal* *I have a new outlook on life. I look forward to each day with happiness because of the real enjoyment it is to me to be sane, sober, and respectable. I was existing really from one drink until the next, with no perception about circumstances, conditions, or even nature's elements. My acquaintance with God -- lost and forgotten when I was a young man -- is renewed. God is all-loving and all-forgiving. The memories of my past are being dim ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 18, 2016* *Emotional Sobriety* *If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency and its consequent unhealthy demand. Let us, with God's help, continually surrender these hobbling demands. Then we can be set free to live and love; we may be able to Twelfth Step ourselves and others into emotional sobriety.* /- The Language of the Heart,/ p. 238 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Sobriety is not a dest ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 17, 2016* *Responsibilities* *Remember, AA is not going to preserve itself automatically. What are we, each one of us, doing with the gift of sobriety, so freely and lovingly given? Will we squander our magnificent inheritance?  Perhaps each one of us should hold on to these thoughts: "Keep me mindful of the responsibilities that accompany the blessings of freedom. The only time that wrong can prevail is when good people do nothing."* /- The H ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 16, 2016* *The Mirror* *One looks in the mirror to powder, shave, or admire.  But the good AA is apt to look deeper. Every morning he gives thanks for a sober countenance, he asks forgiveness for lingering resentment, he hopes for grace to live the coming day well.  At nightfall he takes another look, saying, "Well, my friend, how did we do today?  Thanks be to thee for the privilege of living." Thus the AA's mirror reflects not roug ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 15, 2016* *Decision* *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. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolute ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 14, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Six /"Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."/ It is nowhere evident, at least in this life, that our Creator expects us fully to eliminate our instinctual drives. So far as we know, it is nowhere on the record that God has completely removed from any human being all his natural drives.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 65 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *I want the gift ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 13, 2016* *Values* *In spite of my original bias, AA /was/ teaching me spiritual values -- love and kindness and consideration and humility, attitudes opposite to the resentments, pride, self-centeredness and fear that had previously all but consumed my mind. And it was not until AA had taught me these values, to some extent at least, that my mind was ready for faith to enter.* /- The Best of the Grapevine/ [Vol. 2], pp. 176-177 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *H ...Continue Reading