AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 27, 2025  A Mysterious WayAlmost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does "move in ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)January 26, 2025~ Scroll Down for Share ~  No Effective Mental DefenseOnce more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) pp. 60 - 61  Thought to PonderI can't. He can. I'll ask Him to.  AA-related 'Alconym'F R O G  =  Fully Rely On G ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 25, 2025  A Faith That WorksPracticing Step Three is like the opening of a door which to all appearances is still closed and locked. All we need is a key, and the decision to swing the door open. There is only one key, and it is called willingness. Once unlocked by willingness, the door opens almost of itself, and looking through it, we shall see a pathway beside which is an inscription. It reads: "This is the way to a faith that works."- Twelve Steps a ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 24, 2025  This MovementIf any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctor' ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 23, 2025  ElusiveMen and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctor's Opinion) p. xxviii  Thought to Ponder . . .Don't believe everything you think.  AA-related 'Alconym'D E N I A L  =   Don't ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 22, 2025  To Make ProgressIf we ask, God will certainly forgive our derelictions. But in no case does He render us white as snow and keep us that way without our cooperation. That is something we are supposed to be willing to work toward ourselves. He asks only that we try as best we know how to make progress in the building of character.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Six) p. 65  Thought to Ponder . . .When I let go of what I am, I become what I ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 21, 2025  Fear, Faith, CourageThe verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 68  Thought to Ponder . . .Courage is fear in action.  AA-related 'Alc ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 20, 2025  A.A.'s MessageTo watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives—these things are the substance of what we receive as we carry A.A.'s message to th ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 19, 2025  Change ProfoundlyAfter we come into A.A., if we go on growing, our attitudes and actions 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 we were sometimes quite unconscious of this, the result always had been the same. Either we had tried to play God and dominate those about us, or we h ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 18, 2025  Unable to StopBut the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 39  Thought to Ponder . . .Pride in my intelligence blinded me to how much I did not know.   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 17, 2025  Group of PrinciplesA.A.’s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Foreward) p. 15  Thought to Ponder . . .A.A. is not something we join; it's a way of life.  AA-related 'Alconym'S T E P S  =   Solutions Through Each Powerful Step.  To ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 16, 2025  Step ThreeLike all the remaining Steps, Step Three calls for affirmative action, for it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God—or, if you like, a Higher Power—into our lives. Faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Three) p. 34  Thought to Ponder . . .Willpower ... our will- ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 15, 2025  Instincts In CollisionWe might next ask ourselves what we mean when we say that we have "harmed" other people. What kinds of "harm" do people do one another, anyway? To define the word "harm" in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 80  Thought to Ponder . . .The ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 14, 2025  FaithFaith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend’s simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 16  Thought to Ponder . . .It is when you act on faith that you actually have it.  AA-related 'Alconym'F A I ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)January 13, 2025  Safe GuidanceThe persistent use of meditation and prayer, we found, did open the channel so that where there had been a trickle, there now was a river which led to sure power and safe guidance from God as we were increasingly better able to understand Him.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 109  Thought to Ponder . . .Praying is asking God for help, meditating is listening for God's answer.  AA-related 'Alconym'A S A P   ...Continue Reading