*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 26, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Acceptance When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away. From that moment on, I have not had a single compulsion to drink. And acceptance is the answer to /all/ my problems today.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 417 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *My serenity is directly proportional to my level of acceptance.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **A A** = **A**cknowledge **A**cceptance. * ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 25, 2014* *Bankruptcy* *Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us. No other kind of bankruptcy is like this one.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 21 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Avoidance is not the key; surrender opens the door.* *AA-related ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 25, 2014* *Divine Mystery* *My memories no longer fill me with shame and remorse. On the contrary, they fill me with gratitude and joy. My whole story is a sort of divine mystery to me. I don't know how an intelligent human being ever could have got into such a mess, and the more firmly established in sanity I become, the more amazed I am that I ever got out of the mess.* /- Came to Believe . . .,/ pp. 98-99 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *I saw, I felt, I believ ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 23, 2014* *Persuasion* *The Twelve Steps of our AA program are not crammed down anybody's throat. They are not sustained by any human authority.  Yet we powerfully unite around them because the truth they contain has saved our lives, has opened the door to a new world. Our experience tells us these universal truths work. The anarchy of the individual yields to their persuasion.* /- The Language of the Heart,/ p. 8 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *A new world ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 22, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ The Big Book In this book you read again and again that faith did for us what we could not do for ourselves. We hope you are convinced now that God can remove whatever self-will has blocked you off from Him. If you have already made a decision, and an inventory of your grosser handicaps, you have made a good beginning. That being so you have swallowed and digested some big chunks of truth about yourself.* /- Alcoholics Anon ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 21, 2014* *Not Afraid* *The First Step and I have always been great friends. I repeated it every five seconds and thanked God each day for my sobriety -- the only grace, maybe, for that day. Gradually, I began to see another part of me emerging -- a grateful me, expecting nothing, but sure that another power was beginning to guide me, counsel me, and direct my ways.  I was not afraid.* /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 45 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Take the ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 20, 2014* *Great Reality* *Deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Higher Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself. . . We found the Great Reality deep down within us.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 55 *Thought to Ponder . . ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 19, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Complacency It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism.  What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 85 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he takes sobriety for gr ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 18, 2014* *Spiritual Growth* *Growth and understanding came slowly, but they came steadily. And finally, I could feel gratitude for my sobriety -- for the saving grace of God. Now I feel totally free, because I know the truth about myself. I learned about /people/ in AA, and this brought me to an understanding about myself. I know that spiritual growth is a great, wide, beautiful thing and that I have only stepped up to the open door.* /- Came To Believe . . ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 17, 2014* *Convincing Evidence* *The most convincing evidence I have today that I'm an alcoholic is not how much or how long I drank, nor how drunk I got; the most convincing evidence I have is that Alcoholics Anonymous is working for me.* /- Thank You For Sharing,/ p. 181 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *I would rather go through life sober, believing I am an alcoholic, than go through life drunk, trying to convince myself that I am not. * *AA-related 'Alconym' ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 15, 2014* *Expectations* *Until I could honestly look at myself and see that I was the problem in many situations and react appropriately inside and out; until I could discard my expectations and understand that my serenity was directly proportional to them, I could not experience serenity and sound sobriety.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 71 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Expectations are resentments 'under construction.'* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *G R A C E* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 15, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Promises We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises?  We think not. They are being fulfilled among us -- sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 84 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Never mistake motion for action.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **W O R K** = **W**hat **O**ur ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 14, 2014* *Obsession* *The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 30 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *H J F* = **H**appy, **J**oyous, **F**ree. Tha ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 13, 2014* *Our Gateway* *None of us can fathom the glories and the uncharted regions of the universe. But we /can/ live on earth and love one another. We can let in the beginnings of /concern, compassion, consideration,/ and watch ourselves grow. With the tools and guideposts of AA, we can learn a little of this precious gift -- our gateway to human spirituality.* /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 120 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The Three "C's" -- /Conc ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 12, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Self-pity I began to understand why, when I first came into AA, the most frequent warnings from some of the old-timers were against self-pity. All those sensations I'd been wallowing in with such enjoyment -- of being aggrieved, of being wronged, of being victimized, of being (for once!) in the right -- added up to the heady brew of self-pity.  And I then comprehended fully why self-pity, leading to isolation, was pres ...Continue Reading