Aug. 22, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
“Those who do not recover are people who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault. They seem to be born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover, if they have the capacity to be honest.”

Am I completely honest with myself and with other people?

Meditation for the Day
You can make use of your mistakes, failures, losses and sufferings. It is not what happens to you so much as what use you make of it. Take your sufferings, difficulties and hardships and make use of them to help some unfortunate soul who is faced with the same troubles. Then something good will come out of your suffering and the world will be a better place because of it. The good you do each day will live on, after the trouble and distress have gone, after the difficulty and the pain have passed away.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may make good use of my mistakes and failures. I pray that some good may result from my painful experiences.

Hazelden Foundation

March 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, March 8, 2024

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

God insists that we ask, not because He needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking.

— Catherine Marshall

An omniscient God must know what we desire before we ask. God knows that what we really need most is reliance on God. And how do we develop reliance? Like most other things, by practicing.

If it weren’t for the need to remind ourselves daily or hourly that all power flows from our Creator, we could just say a quick prayer at the beginning of each week, or each year, and be done with it. Surely God could fill our requests a year ahead of time. But getting our wishes granted isn’t the purpose of prayer. Getting to know God is the purpose.

I need to be in touch with my Creator every hour of the day.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

We learn the magical lesson that making the most of what we have turns it into more.

— Codependent No More

Say thank you, until you mean it. Thank God, life, and the universe for everyone and everything sent your way.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Gratitude makes things right. Gratitude turns negative energy into positive energy. There is no situation or circumstance so small or large that it is not susceptible to gratitude’s power. We can start with who we are and what we have today, apply gratitude, then let it work its magic. Say thank you, until you mean it. If you say it long enough, you will believe it.

Today, I will shine the transforming light of gratitude on all the circumstances of my life.

Hazelden Foundation

June 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.

— Marian Anderson

Because of our resentments, we sometimes get tense. We say we aren’t going to have contact with our parents until they do something we expect of them. Or we hold out on a friend because we want an apology for an injury or injustice.

Sadly, we become tenser, more limited in our own joy, by holding someone else to our expectations. Our lives can be much richer and more fulfilled when we let go of these expectations. We can let go of manipulating or drawing forth the responses we want. Our manipulations and pouting make life too boring and limited. No one else need stand in the way of our pleasure of being adult men.

Today, I will let go of my claims on others so I can be free to soar.

Hazelden Foundation

March 19, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, March 19, 2023

AA Thought for the Day

When we were drinking, we used to be ashamed of the past. Remorse is terrible mental punishment: ashamed of ourselves for the things we’ve said and done, afraid to face people because of what they might think of us, afraid of the consequences of what we did when we were drunk. In AA, we forget about the past.

Do I believe that God has forgiven me for everything I’ve done in the past, no matter how black it was, provided I’m honestly trying to do the right thing today?

Meditation for the Day

God’s spirit is all about you all day long. You have no thoughts, no plans, no impulses, no emotions, that He does not know about. You can hide nothing from Him. Do not make your conduct conform only to that of the world and do not depend on the approval or disapproval of others. God sees in secret, but He rewards openly. If you are in harmony with the Divine Spirit, doing your best to live the way you believe God wants you to live, you will be at peace.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may always feel God’s presence. I pray that I may realize this Presence constantly all through the day.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 22, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, Oct. 22, 2021

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Some observers see human beings as grounded in our love of play, and view all of the natural world as the creative activity of the divine — a Higher Power who is sportive, frolicsome, and joyful.

It is part of our higher nature to marry raw, uninhibited energy with emerging skills, to bring forward a spark of our unique creative passion. Playful artistry dances between the conscious and unconscious, calling forth deep memories within us. When we cook a good meal, dance spontaneously around the living room, make love under the stars, or allow music to bring us to tears, we are immersed in the language of sacred play — the parlance of lila, which is a Sanskrit word that depicts cosmic vitality and the free play of the gods in creative expression.

The business of recovery is serious business, and there are so many goals to move toward as we make up for years lost in addictive haze. Our innate craving to reach beyond ourselves and playfully explore, even as we work hard in recovery, is often obscured by the demands of our new “adult” life as recovering individuals. Yet we must remember how exquisite it is to be swept away by creative amusement and passionate living.

I welcome the magnificent sense of play that still flows within me as I do the serious work of recovery.

Hazelden Foundation