Sept. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?

-- William Shakespeare

We're now part of a fellowship we call the program. Let's also remember that we're part of a larger fellowship called the human race. We all hurt the same. We all love the same. We all bleed the same. We all need understanding and care.

Yet in other ways, we are not all the same. Let's remember to understand and find value in the differences among people. If not, we'll be afraid of anyone who's not like us. And that behavior isn't acting in line with what the Steps encourage.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me to love all people. Help me be open to others who are different from me. Help me love my neighbor.

Action for the Day

Do I think I'm better than others? If that's true, I'll pray that my Higher Power will remove this shortcoming of mine.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

Today, accept that I need a Higher Power for a quality sobriety and recovery. To those in the Program who might say a Higher Power is a myth or does not exist, look back on our experiences as drinking alcoholics when we conducted ourselves without regard to the needs or feelings of others, when we made decisions based only on our wants. I didn’t do such a great job of running my life on my own, and it was only when I sought and found a Power stronger and wiser than myself that I began my journey to a spiritual awakening. And the Higher Power that the Program suggests is not the god of organized religion or even God with a capital “G.” That Higher Power can be nothing more than a development of a moral conscience that guides our lives and choices. Today, I ask if I need a Higher Power. Yes. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

When alcoholics are offered a life of sobriety by following the AA program, they will look at the prospect of living without alcohol and they will ask: “Am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some of the righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?”

Have I found a more than sufficient substitute for drinking?

Meditation for the Day

In God’s strength you conquer life. Your conquering power is the grace of God. There can be no complete failure with God. Do you want to make the best of life? Then live as near as possible to God, the Master and Giver of all life. Your reward for depending on God’s strength will be sure. Sometimes the reward will be renewed power to face life, sometimes wrong thinking overcome, sometimes people brought to a new way of living. Whatever success comes will not be all your own doing, but largely the working out of the grace of God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may try to rely more fully on the grace of God. I pray that I may live a victorious life.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

Reflection for the Day

The longer I’m in The Program and the longer I try to practice its principles in all my affairs, the less frequently I become morose and depressed. Perhaps, too, there’s something to that cynical old saying, “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed, but instead will be delighted daily by new and fresh evidence of the love of God and the friendliness of men and women.”

Does someone, somewhere, need me today? Will I look for that person and try to share what I’ve been given in The Program?

Today I Pray

May I be utterly grateful to God for lifting my depression. May I know that my depression will always lighten if I do not expect too much. May I know that the warmth of friends can fill the cold hollow of despair. May I give my warmth to someone else.

Today I Will Remember

To look for someone to share with.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

There can be no improvement in the world without the improvement of the people who constitute it. There can be no improvement in people unless it is in improved actions motivated by improved thinking and a higher morality code.

Aside from the immediate benefits derived by the alcoholics and their families from the AA program, it has done much to raise the character of a large segment of society.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 9, 2024 - God morning and let's take on another Monday and new week with confidence and determination

 

Good morning with hopes of a magnificent 

Monday and new week for everyone and the confidence that we can take whatever they've got in store

Sept. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundaiton

 

Sunday Sept. 8, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.

-- Winston Churchill

A rolled-up ball of yarn does not take up much space -- it sits, ready to be used when needed. It gets unrolled a little bit at a time -- just as much as is needed and no more. But a ball of yarn that gets unraveled can be strewn across an entire room. It becomes a jumbled mess, entangled and confusing.

When we live our lives a day at a time, we are like that rolled-up ball of yarn. Our thoughts, feelings and skills are ready to be used as they are needed. But when we worry, our spirit becomes a jumbled mass of yarn. We get ahead of and behind ourselves -- our thoughts are scattered and often our feelings are confused. Worry adds clutter and confusion to life.

What is most helpful is to put the worry away -- to roll up the ball of yarn and bring ourselves into the present moment. ln this way, we stand ready for each new stitch -- and we will never be given more than we are able to handle.

Do I have worries that are cluttering my life today?

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 8, 2024 - Readings in Rcovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024

Today, choose to live in the solution of sobriety instead of the problem of alcoholism. Alcoholism isn’t a problem unless we feed it, and the Program strengthens us with the choice not to drink by guiding us through a thorough and honest inventory of ourselves with the purpose of deciding if drinking is worth the consequences it entails. I am an alcoholic. It’s not a problem as long as I choose not to drink, though. And I choose not to whine that I cannot drink responsibly or moderately because, as an alcoholic, I do not have the luxury of responsible and moderate drinking anymore. Today, I can choose not to drink and live in the solution of being sober instead of the problem of fighting not to drink. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
Another of the mottoes of AA is, “But for the Grace of God.” Once we have fully accepted the program we become humble about our achievement. We do not take too much credit for our sobriety. When we see another suffering alcoholic in the throes of alcoholism, we say to ourselves: “But for the grace of God, there go I.” We do not forget the kind of people we were. And we are very grateful to the grace of God which has given us another chance.

Am I truly grateful for the grace of God?

Meditation for the Day
A consciousness of God’s presence as One who loves you makes all life different. The consciousness of God’s love promotes the opening of your whole being to God. It brings wonderful relief from the cares and worries of our daily lives. Relief brings peace and peace brings contentment. Try to walk in God’s love. You will have that peace which passes all understanding and a contentment that no one can take from you. Feel sure of God’s unfailing love and care for you and for all His children. There is freedom and serenity in those who walk in God’s love, held safe in His loving care.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may walk in God’s love. I pray that, as I go, I may feel the spring of God’s power in my steps and the joy of His love in my heart.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024

Reflection for the Day
We are told in The Program that no situation is hopeless. At first, of course, we find this hard to believe. The opposites — hope and despair — are human emotional attitudes. It is we who are hopeless, not the condition of our lives. When we give up hope and become depressed, it’s because we’re unable, for now, to believe in the possibility of a change for the better.

Can I accept this: “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced …?”

Today I Pray
May I remember that, because I am human and can make choices, I am never “hopeless.” Only the situation I find myself in may seem hopeless, which may reduce me to a state of helpless depression as I see my choices being blocked off. May I remember, too, that even when I see no solution, I can choose to ask God’s help.

Today I Will Remember
I can choose not to be hopeless.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024

In our introduction into AA, we were admonished, “Easy does it,” in order to guard against the evil of trying to swallow more than we could digest. There is so much to AA that there is always the danger of taking an overdose. The wise AA doctor prescribes for alcoholism as a physician would for tuberculosis, very little medicine to be taken internally, but lots of fresh air and sunshine to be absorbed from day to day.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 8, 2024 - Good morning and let's make it a paced but productive and gratifying Sunday

 

Good morning and, on this serene Sunday, let's put our everyday worries and uncertainties on the shelf and  just be grateful for the good in our lives

Sept. 7, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

AA Thought for the Day

On a dark night, the bright lights of the corner tavern look mighty inviting. Inside, there seems to be warmth and good cheer. But we don’t stop to think that if we go in there we’ll probably end up drunk, with our money spent and an awful hangover. A long mahogany bar in the tropical moonlight looks like a very exciting place. But you should see the place the next morning. The chairs are piled on the tables and the place stinks of stale beer and cigarette stubs. And often we are there, too, trying to cure the shakes by gulping down straight whiskey.

Can I look straight through the night before and see the morning after?

Meditation for the Day

God finds, amid the crowd, a few people who follow Him, just to be near Him, just to dwell in His presence. A longing in the Eternal Heart may be satisfied by these few people. I will let God know that I seek just to dwell in His presence, to be near Him, not so much for teaching or a message, as just for Him. It may be that the longing of the human heart to be loved for itself is something caught from the Great Divine Heart.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have a listening ear, so that God may speak to me. I pray that I may have a waiting heart, so that God may come to me.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 7, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024

Today, respect the recovery programs of other members without imposing my own on them. What works for me may not work for another individual, and vice versa. I can look at my own experience through the years and see that what works for me today would not have worked three years ago, and that what works for me today may not work a year from now. For life is an evolving process of change, as it should be. It is not my right to criticize someone else’s recovery program if it is keeping that person clean and sober and on the road to recovery. Today, I respect that the program that works for me may not work for someone else and that another’s program, if it works for him or her, is not “wrong” if it might not work for me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Sept. 7, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
Another of the mottoes of AA is, “Easy Does It.” This means that we just go along in AA doing the best we can and not getting steamed up over problems that arise in AA or outside of it. We alcoholics are emotional people and we have gone to excess in almost everything we have done. We have not been moderate in many things. We have not known how to relax. Faith in a Higher Power can help us to learn to take it easy. We are not running the world. I am only one among many. We are resolved to live normal, regular lives. From our AA experience, we learn that “easy does it.”

Have I learned to take it easy?

Meditation for the Day
“The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Sheltering arms express the loving protection of God’s spirit. Human beings, in their troubles and difficulties, need nothing so much as a refuge, a place to relax where they can lay down their burdens and get relief from cares. Say to yourself: “God is my refuge.” Say it until its truth sinks into your very soul. Say it until you know it and are sure of it. Nothing can seriously upset you or make you afraid, if God is truly your refuge.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may go each day to God as a refuge until fear goes and peace and security come. I pray that I may feel deeply secure in the Haven of His spirit.

Hazelden Foundation