AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)June 1, 2024MystifiedWhat sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink? Friends who have reasoned with him after a spree which has brought him to the point of divorce or bankruptcy are mystified when he walks directly into a saloon. Why does he? Of what is he thinking?- Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 35Thought to Ponder . . .We are without defense against the first drink.AA-related 'Alconym'I ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 31, 2024A Legitimate ReasonSo our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking,if we have a legitimate reason for being there. . . Go or stay away, whichever seems best. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good. Do not think of what you will get out of the occasion. Think of what you can bring to it. But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!- Alcoholics Anonymous ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 30, 2024Days Into YearsDr. W. W. Bauer, . . . said, in part: “Alcoholics Anonymous are no crusaders; not a temperance society. They know that they must never drink. They help others with similar problems . . . In this atmosphere the alcoholic often overcomes his excessive concentration upon himself. Learning to depend upon a higher power and absorb himself in his work with other alcoholics, he remains sober day by day. The days add up into weeks, the weeks into months and ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 29, 2024Neither Fear Nor FavorHaving so considered our day, not omitting to take due note of things well done, and having searched our hearts with neither fear nor favor, we can truly thank God for the blessings we have received and sleep in good conscience.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) p. 95Thought to Ponder . . .Inventory-taking is not always done in red ink.AA-related 'Alconym'A A  =   Always Aware.To Unsubscribe - Click Here_Subscription R ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 28, 2024Permanent RecoveryBut when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth’s description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no nonalcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was v ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 27, 2024This Lifetime JobSo Step Six—"Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character"—is A.A.'s way of stating the best possible attitude one can take in order to make a beginning on this lifetime job. This does not mean that we expect all our character defects to be lifted out of us as the drive to drink was. A few of them may be, but with most of them we shall have to be content with patient improvement. The key words "entirely read ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 26, 2024We Carry 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 the ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 25, 2024A Priceless GiftWe enjoy moments in which there is something like real peace of mind. To those of us who have hitherto known only excitement, depression, or anxiety—in other words, to all of us—this newfound peace is a priceless gift. Something new indeed has been added. Where humility had formerly stood for a forced feeding on humble pie, it now begins to mean the nourishing ingredient which can give us serenity. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 24, 2024We Trust GodPerhaps there is a better way—we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 68Thought to Ponder . . .Serenity isn't freedom from t ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 23, 2024PrayerTherefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: "…if it be Thy will." We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) p. 102Tho ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 22, 2024RecoveredWe, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Foreward To First Edition) p. xiiiThought to Ponder . . ..Walk softly and carry a Big Book.AA-related ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 21, 2024The Root of Our TroublesSelfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think, are basically ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 20, 2024Freedom From FearWhen, with God’s help, we calmly accepted our lot, then we found we could live at peace with ourselves and show others who still suffered the same fears that they could get over them, too. We found that freedom from fear was more important than freedom from want.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 122Thought to Ponder . . .Situations I fear are rarely as bad as the fear itself.AA-related 'Alconym'F E A R  =   Face Ever ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 19, 2024A.A.'s Simple PrayerWith each passing day of our lives, may every one of us sense more deeply the inner meaning of A.A.'s simple prayer: God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can. And wisdom to know the difference.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 125Thought to Ponder . . .Serenity isn't freedom from the storm; it is peace within the storm.AA-related 'Alconym'P A U S E  =   P ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)May 18, 2024Our ChoiceWhen we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?- Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 53Thought to Ponder . . .No God, no peace --- know God, know peace.AA-related 'Alconym'W I L L I N G  =   When I Live Life, I Need God.To Unsubscribe - Click Here_Su ...Continue Reading