AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 27, 2022 The Fifth Step When we decide who is to hear our story, we waste no time. We have a written inventory and we are prepared for a long talk. We explain to our partner what we are about to do and why we have to do it. He should realize that we are engaged upon a life-and-death errand. Most people approached in this way will be glad to help; they will be honored by our confidence. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 75 Thought to Ponder There’s no chapter ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 26, 2022 Being Helpful We avoid retaliation or argument. We wouldn’t treat sick people that way. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 67 Thought to Ponder Love and tolerance of others is our code. AA-related 'Alconym' P U T  =   Practice Using Tolerance. Thanks to all of yo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 25, 2022 Let Us Think On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong mot ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 24, 2022 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A Common Solution The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined. The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 23, 2022 Gravely Affected To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have. This is particularly true of women. Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years. Certain drinkers, who would be greatly insulted if called alcoholics, are astonished at their inability to stop. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 33 Thought to Ponder When ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 22, 2022 Exceptions By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people! - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 31 Thought to Ponder I would rather go ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 21, 2022 Complete Defeat Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one, of course. 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. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step One) p. 21 Thought to Ponder Alcoholic drinking's three stages: Impulsive, Compul ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 20, 2022 Truly Open Mind "First, Alcoholics Anonymous does not demand that you believe anything All of its Twelve Steps are but suggestions. Second, to get sober and to stay sober, you don't have to swallow all of Step Two right now. Looking back, I find that I took it piecemeal myself. Third, all you really need is a truly open mind. Just resign from the debating society and quit bothering yourself with such deep questions as whether it was the hen or the egg ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 19, 2022 Lovingly Watched Over The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs. We know that God lovingly watches over us. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) p. 105 Thought to Ponder I want the gift of an untroubled mind. AA-related 'Alc ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 18, 2022 Prayer All of us, without exception, pass through times when we can pray only with the greatest exertion of will. Occasionally we go even further than this. We are seized with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won't pray. When these things happen we should not think too ill of ourselves. We should simply resume prayer as soon as we can, doing what we know to be good for us. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) p. 105 Thought to Ponder ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 17, 2022 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Willingness But now it appears that there are certain things which only the individual can do. All by himself, and in the light of his own circumstances, he needs to develop the quality of willingness. When he acquires willingness, he is the only one who can make the decision to exert himself. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Three) p. 40  Thought to Ponder What have I been given today? Am I willing to reach out an ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 16, 2022 Agitated Or Doubtful As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done." We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) pp. 87 - 88 Thought to Ponder I listen for direction no ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 15, 2022 Amazingly Lifted Up But I soon found that when all other measures failed, work with another alcoholic would save the day. Many times I have gone to my old hospital in despair. On talking to a man there, I would be amazingly lifted up and set on my feet. It is a design for living that works in rough going. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 15 Thought to Ponder Serving God by serving other people. AA-related 'Alconym' T R U S T   ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 14, 2022 Quiet That Disturbance We had to see that when we harbored grudges and planned revenge for such defeats, we were really beating ourselves with the club of anger we had intended to use on others. We learned that if we were seriously disturbed, our first need was to quiet that disturbance, regardless of who or what we thought caused it. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Four) p. 47 Thought to Ponder Reliance on God enables me to match calamity with ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) July 13, 2022 Faith Without Works When ready, we say something like this: "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen."We have then completed Step Seven. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 76 Thought to Ponder I can't; God can; ...Continue Reading