*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 2, 2015* *Rewards* *Most importantly, I know who I am.  I know my goals, dreams and boundaries, and I know how to protect, nurture, and validate them. Those are the true rewards of sobriety, and they're what I was looking for all along. I am so grateful that my Higher Power stepped in to show me the way to the truth.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 327 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Gratitude is not a word in AA.  It's an action.* *AA-related 'Alconym' ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 1, 2015* *Promises* *We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.  We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.  No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.  That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.  Self-seeki ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 30, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Attitudes After we come into AA, if we go on growing, our attitudes toward security -- emotional security and financial security -- commence to change profoundly.  Our demand for emotional security, for our own way, had constantly thrown us into unworkable relations with other people. Though were sometimes quite unconscious of this, the result always had been the same.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 115 ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 29, 2015* *A New Dimension* *Now I was to plunge into the dark, joining that endless procession of sots who had gone before. I thought of my poor wife.  There had been much happiness after all. What would I give to make amends.  But that was over now. No words can tell of the loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self-pity. Quicksand stretched around me in all directions.  I had been overwhelmed.  Alcohol was my master. ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 28, 2015* *Prayer* *I have had to discard all the thoughts and beliefs that were once there.  I gave them up reluctantly. I didn't want to believe in God, but through AA I got to a point where I had to. Now I believe it to be the strongest force on earth -- if the quietest.  You don't have to be aware of power. It doesn't have to be loud, like a hurricane. . . Before AA, I wanted more than anything else to get sober. That was a positive thought, a ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 27, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Pride If God can solve the age-old riddle of alcoholism, He can solve your problems too. We wives found that, like everybody else, we were afflicted with pride, self-pity, vanity and all the things which go to make up the self-centered person; and we were not above selfishness or dishonesty.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 116 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *False pride became the reverse side that ruinous coin marked "Fea ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 26, 2015* *Anger* *If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.  The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 66 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A**void **A**nger. Thanks to all of you for sharing so generous ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 25, 2015* *A Thankful Heart* *I am grateful not only for sobriety, but for the quality of life my sobriety has brought. God has been gracious enough to give me sober days /and/ a life blessed with peace and contentment, as well as the ability to give and receive love . . .  For all of this, I have "a full and thankful heart."* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 93 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *A full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits.* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 24, 2015* *The Opportunity* *It finally became obvious to me that the God I thought had judged and damned me had done nothing of the sort. He had been listening, and in His own good time His answer came.  His answer was threefold: the opportunity for a life of sobriety; Twelve Steps to practice, in order to attain and maintain that life of sobriety; fellowship within the program, ever ready to sustain and help me each twenty-four-hour day. . . In the u ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 23, 2015* *Cunning, Baffling, Powerful* *Alcoholism is deadly, ugly, and rough.  It is also cunning, baffling, and powerful. It wants me to consider perfection attainable. . . It wants me to believe that self-indulgence is fine, as long as I call it self-forgiveness. . . It wants me to forget that it is a snake in the brain, hoping to catch my eye, watching, waiting. The gritty pain of alcoholism is the traction of recovery. I cannot afford to sell off ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 22, 2015* *A New Family* *In the first few months, I didn't say much, but I listened.  I listened to my sponsors, to some guests from abroad who were old-timers, and to newcomers. I learned mostly from the newcomers, with whom I could easily identify.  It wasn't easy.  I was in my late forties. I had to reconstruct a life out of the ruins.  It took time and it was extremely difficult and complicated. It is a road that nobody can travel a ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 21, 2015* *Warning Bells* *We have learned now not to panic when the thought of a drink comes to mind. . . But the /thought/ of a drink is not necessarily the same thing as the /desire/ for one, and neither need plunge us into gloom or fear. Both can be viewed simply as warning bells to remind us of the perils of alcoholism. The perils are forever, even when we feel so fine that we wonder whether it's really all right for anyone to feel as good as we do, no ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 20, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Dependence 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,/ p. 98 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *I cannot mend if I bend the truth. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *G I F T** = **G**od **I**s **F**orever **T**here. ** *A Member Shares: Hi AA Family, ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 19, 2015* *Making Amends* *Above all, we should try to be absolutely sure that we are not delaying because we are afraid. For the readiness to take the full consequences of our past acts, and to take responsibility for the well-being of others at the same time, is the very spirit of Step Nine.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 87 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Don't mess up an amend with an excuse.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *H O W* = **H**onest, ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 18, 2015* *Right Action* *One of the most important things AA has given me, in addition to freedom from booze, is the ability to take "right action." It says the promises will /always/ materialize if I /work/ for them. Fantasizing about them, debating them, preaching about them, and faking them just won't work. I'll remain a miserable, rationalizing dry drunk. By taking action and working the Twelve Steps in all my affairs, I'll have a life beyond ...Continue Reading