AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 19, 2023The Insane IdeaBut there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. Our sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out. Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 37Thought to Ponder . . .One is too many and 100 is not enough.A ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 18, 2023An Answer For YouIf you still think you are strong enough to beat the game alone, that is your affair. But if you really and truly want to quit drinking liquor for good and all, and sincerely feel that you must have some help, we know that we have an answer for you. It never fails, if you go about it with one half the zeal you have been in the habit of showing when you were getting another drink. Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!- Alcoholics Anonymo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 17, 2023Prepare OurselvesThis feeling of being at one with God and man, this emerging from isolation through the open and honest sharing of our terrible burden of guilt, brings us to a resting place where we may prepare ourselves for the following Steps toward a full and meaningful sobriety.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Five) p. 62Thought to Ponder . . .Once we clear a hurdle, it doesn't seem so high.AA-related 'Alconym'C H A N G E D  =   Choosi ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 16, 2023Our Motives and ActionsWhat real harm, therefore, had we done? No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the end result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can only be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 79Thought to Ponder . . .It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for th ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 15, 2023The Deadly BusinessBeginning with Step Four, we commenced to search out the things in ourselves which had brought us to physical, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory. Looking at Step Five, we decided that an inventory, taken alone, wouldn't be enough. We knew we would have to quit the deadly business of living alone with our conflicts, and in honesty confide these to God and another human being.- Twelve Steps and Tw ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 14, 2023Misuse of WillpowerAll of the Twelve Steps require sustained and personal exertion to conform to their principles and so, we trust, to God's will. It is when we try to make our will conform with God's that we begin to use it rightly. To all of us, this was a most wonderful revelation. Our whole trouble had been the misuse of willpower. We had tried to bombard our problems with it instead of attempting to bring it into agreement with God's intention for us.- Twe ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)August 13, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~Are We Ready?If we would gain any real advantage in the use of this Step on problems other than alcohol, we shall need to make a brand new venture into open- mindedness. We shall need to raise our eyes toward perfection, and be ready to walk in that direction. It will seldom matter how haltingly we walk. The only question will be "Are we ready?"- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Six) p. 68Thought to PonderIf I want Go ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 12, 2023Dear Readers, I put the wrong reference in yesterday's Daily Thought.  It should have read that it was from Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action, p. 85).  I'll be more vigilant in making sure the reference is correct in the future.  Keenly RealizedBy this time, at Step Ten, we had begun to get a basis for daily living, and we keenly realized that we would need to continue taking personal inventory, and that when we were in the wrong we ou ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 11, 2023Headed For TroubleIt 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. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done."- Twelve Steps ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 10, 2023Only By ActionLike 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. 34Thought to Ponder . . .Willpower ... our will-ingness to ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 9, 2023True PartnershipBut it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) p. 53Thought to Ponder . . .We're not living just to be sober; we are living to learn, to serve, and to lo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 8, 2023Once An Alcoholic . . .We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 33Thought to Ponder . . .If you want to drink, that's yo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 7, 2023Two AlternativesIf you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.- Alcoholics Anonymous, ( ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)August 6, 2023~ Scroll Down for Share ~Step SevenThe whole emphasis of Step Seven is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) p. 76Thought to PonderI can't. God can. I'll ask Him to. ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)August 5, 2023Willing to BelieveCircumstances made him willing to believe. He humbly offered himself to his Maker—then he knew. Even so has God restored us all to our right minds. To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow into it more slowly. But He has come to all who have honestly sought Him. When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!- Alcoholics Anonymous, (We Agnostics) p. 57Thought to Ponder . . .Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the ...Continue Reading