*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 23, 2014* *Pride* *We alcoholics return to drink far more often because of petty difficulties than because of life's serious setbacks and tragedies. The big problems seem to bring out our virtues, petty ones our faults. For God to remove our shortcomings, we need to identify the defect for what it is. . . And certainly the most difficult fault to see in ourselves is pride, aptly termed the first deadly sin.* /- The Best of the Grapevine/ [Vol. 3], p. 208 *Th ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 22, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Happy, Joyous, and Free We are sure God wants us to be happy, joyous, and free. We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it is clear that we made our own misery.  God didn't do it. Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.* /- Alcoholics An ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 21, 2014* *A New Meaning* *Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends -- this is an experience you must not miss.  We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 89 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober h ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 21, 2014* *A New Meaning* *Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends -- this is an experience you must not miss.  We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 89 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober h ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 20, 2014* *Willingness* *My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea.  He said, /"Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"/ That statement hit me hard.  It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.  /It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning./* /- Al ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 19, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A Prayer for All Seasons God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference.* - ©1950, The AA Grapevine, Inc. *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Courage is faith that has said its prayers.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **K I S S** = **K**eep **I**t **S**erenely **S**imple. ** *A Member Shares: Hi, I'm David, an alcoholic.  My life is ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 18, 2014* *Hangovers* *When a drunk has a terrific hangover because he drank heavily yesterday, he cannot live well today. But there is another kind of hangover which we all experience whether we are drinking or not. That is the emotional hangover, the direct result of yesterday's and sometimes today's excesses of negative emotion -- anger, fear, jealousy, and the like. If we would live serenely today and tomorrow, we certainly need to eliminate these hangove ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 17, 2014* *Burdens* *But how often do we begin to fill our newly emptied backpacks anew under fresh loads. It is as if we had to become accustomed to carrying all that junk around, almost as if we had grown fond of the burden. So we need to take an occasional look (every day?) into our backpacks to see if we haven't tossed in a stone every now and then. And when we discover some load of guilt or shame, some wrong we may have committed, we can toss it out. Oth ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 16, 2014* *Emotional Roller Coaster* *Sobriety is nothing like I thought it would be. At first it was one big emotional roller coaster, full of sharp highs and deep lows. My emotions were new, untested, and I wasn't entirely certain I wanted to deal with them. I cried when I should have been laughing.  I laughed when I should have cried. Events I thought were the end of the world turned out to be gifts. It was all very confusing.  Slowly things bega ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 15, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ AA Preamble Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, pol ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 14, 2014* *True Love* *The spiritual growth we enjoy in AA is a product of the never-ending school for living which our Fellowship provides. The subject in that school that opened my eyes most quickly and filled my heart most fully was love. I never knew true love until I began my recovery in AA.  My schooling in that emotion began early and led me to the conclusion that love is what creates in a sober AA member the outer show of an inner glow.* /- The B ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 13, 2014* *Prayer* *How can anybody expect God to acquiesce in the half-baked prayers that a lot of us send up to Him. He would have the world in a worse chaos than it is now in five minutes. Real prayer is not telling God what /we/ want. It is putting ourselves at His disposal so that He can tell us what He wants. . . That's why it is so important for us to /listen/ as well as /talk/ when we pray.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age,/ p. 265 *Thought to P ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 12, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Vulnerable Mistakes are made in any form of human endeavor.  Some of them are grievous or catastrophic. Alcoholism can be arrested -- not cured. . . . There is no guaranteed preventive against the first drink and any dry alcoholic whose thinking becomes muddled can be vulnerable. ... and when we take the first constructive step toward self-forgiveness, the healing has begun. When one comes to end -- one can also come t ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 11, 2014* *The Gift* *By accepting this sobriety gratefully, as a gift, and using it willingly, I have become aware of other gifts available to me as a human being. To get the benefits, I need only to ask and then use. This is the crux of the program and the crux of living: acceptance and action.* /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 4 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Sobriety is a gift.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *G I F T S* = **G**etting **I**t **F**rom **T**he **S ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 10, 2014* *Communication* *From the beginning, communication in AA has been no ordinary transmission of helpful ideas and attitudes. It has been unusual and sometimes unique.  Because of our kinship in suffering, and because our common means of deliverance are effective only when constantly carried to others, our channels of contact have always been charged with /the language of the heart./* /- The Language Of The Heart,/ p. 243 *Thought to Ponder . . . ...Continue Reading