Feb. 6, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.

— Han Suyin

It may take a while to learn to be gentle with ourselves. We have long-standing patterns of abusing and shaming ourselves. Maybe we became this way because we were victims. Now it’s easier to attack ourselves for mistakes we’ve made than to be accountable and make amends. We think we deserve to be rejected if we let our friends know our deepest secrets. In the midst of stress, we fly to self-doubt and self-abusing thoughts. We withdraw emotionally, we pout, we expect rejection rather than gentleness.

For today, let us pledge to be gentle with ourselves. Gentleness isn’t dishonest; it isn’t arrogant or self-centered. It is taking reality – with whatever pain that includes – and treating ourselves as worthwhile people. We will be stronger and less self-centered when we accept this gentleness. We will be as loyal to ourselves as we are to our best friends. Each day with this new attitude will build strength of character and wisdom.

Today, may I treat myself with gentleness and learn the strength it has to teach me.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 6, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

Today, ACCEPTANCE of the things I CAN change and those I cannot. In accepting what I can change, I need both humility and courage to make changes even if they are not what I want but know I need. Above all, I must accept that I am powerless over alcohol. recovery has quenched any desire to challenge that fact. With that knowledge, then, I can have faith that my Higher Power will give me the desire, strength and courage to change what I can and leave alone what I cannot change. Today, acceptance is my focus. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2023

Feb. 6, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

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 gay 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

Feb. 6, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

Reflection for the Day

I used to be an expert at unrealistic self-appraisal. At certain times, I would look only at that part of my life which seemed good. Then I would magnify whatever real or imagined virtues I had attained. Next, I would pat myself on the back for the fantastic job I was doing in The Program. Naturally, this generated a craving for still more “accomplishments” and still greater approval. Wasn’t that the pattern of my days during active addiction? The difference now, though, is that I can use the best alibi known – the spiritual alibi.

Do I sometimes rationalize willful actions and nonsensical behavior in the name of “spiritual objectives?”

Today I Pray

God help me to know if I still crave attention and approval to the point of inflating my own virtues and magnifying my accomplishments in The Program or anywhere. May I keep a realistic perspective about my good points, even as I learn to respect myself.

Today I Will Remember

Learn to control inflation.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 6, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

We alcoholics were saved from unnumbered deaths in our drinking days and preserved for a purpose that only we could accomplish. God has His way of doing things and He selects people to be the instrumentality through which He works. If you fail to fulfill your appointed function, then just that much of God’s work goes undone until He finds another instrument through which to work. You were not dragged from the gutter so that you might be able to enter your home and lounge before an open fire in ease. God saved you because He had work for you to do. Go do it.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 6, 2023 – Good morning and get flexed for another Monday and new week

 

Good morning and don’t be discouraged by another Monday and new week and, instead, be determined to show both who’s running the show — including people who think they can take us down

Feb. 5, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

— Ralph Hodgson

In recovery, we learn to trust. We trust that our Higher Power is on our side. Maybe we can’t see our Higher Power, but once we start trusting, things change. Step Two says, “Came to believe … “ Once we come to believe, we start to see our Higher Power working in many ways. We make new program friends. We find new peace. Our family and friends trust us again.

Life won’t always be fair. We won’t get all we want. But we’ll find the love and care we need. If we’re open to believing in love, the easy times will be easier and the harder times a bit softer.

Do I believe in love?

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me believe, especially when times are hard. Help me not blame You for the hard times.

Action for the Day

I will write what I believe the program and my Higher Power want for me.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 5, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Today, remembering my drinking days, I was my own judge, jury and executioner. In giving my all to whiskey, I judged myself to be unworthy of anything better, of feeling anything good. I deemed myself deserving of all which active alcoholism inflicted on me – emptiness, loneliness, self-destruction, anger, selfishness, desperation, fear, self-pity. And I executed the judgment that I should die as I lived. But a lifeline was thrown my way, and it led me to recovery. Now, as a recovering alcoholic, I’ve surrendered the roles of judge, jury and executioner to the only authority that can impose judgment. And because I respect that authority, this day I will not play with my recovery by yielding it to anyone or anything. Today, I am worthy of more by the grace of God and recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2023

Feb. 5, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

AA Thought for the Day

One thing we learn in AA is to take a long view of drinking instead of a short view. When we were drinking, we thought more about the pleasure or release that a drink would give us than we did about the consequences which would result from our taking that drink. Liquor looks good from the short view. When we look in a package store window, we see liquor dressed up in its best wrappings, with fancy labels and decorations. They look swell.

But have I learned that what’s inside those beautiful bottles is just plain poison to me?

Meditation for the Day

I believe that life is a school in which I must learn spiritual things. I must trust in God and He will teach me. I must listen to God and He will speak through my mind. I must commune with Him in spite of all opposition and every obstacle. There will be days when I will hear no voice in my mind and when there will come no intimate heart-to-heart communion. But if I persist, and make a life habit of schooling myself in spiritual things, God will reveal Himself to me in many ways.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may regularly go to school in things of the spirit. I pray that I may grow spiritually by making a practice of these things.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 5, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Reflection for the Day

If I am troubled, worried, exasperated or frustrated, do I tend to rationalize the situation and lay the blame on someone else? When I am in such a state, is my conversation, “He did …,” “She said …,” “They did …?” Or can I honestly admit that perhaps I’m at fault? My peace of mind depends on overcoming my negative attitudes and tendency toward rationalization.

Will I try, day by day, to be rigorously honest with myself?

Today I Pray

May I catch myself as I talk in the third person, “He did …” or “They promised …” or “She said she would …” and listen for the blaming that has become such a pattern for me and preserves delusion. May I do a turnabout and face myself instead.

Today I Will Remember

Honesty is the only policy.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 5, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Created in God’s image, with the breath of God in my nostrils, my body the Temple of the Holy Ghost, called by the Christ a child of God, surely, I could walk with angels if I could only live up to my heritage. Man has fallen short of his goal mostly because he has not thought he could do it. He timidly denies his own divine origin; he fails to credit the existence of God in him. He is like the man who wants to fly but not so high that he can’t keep one foot on the ground. His eyes are fixed on the skies, but his feet are planted solidly on the earth.

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 5, 2023 – A gracious good morning with wishes for a quiet Sunday for everyone

 

Good morning and try to simply kick back and enjoy at least a part of this beautiful Sunday and ignore the people and things who do nothing worthwhile in our lives

Feb. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole …nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it …it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Home is a place of comfort. When we go away and have to adjust to a different bed and someone else’s cooking, we quickly discover how comfortable our own home is. Comfort in a home is more than just a familiar bed and favorite food, it is something we can give to each other. We can make home a place where we can relax and be ourselves without fear of rejection.

Each of us needs a special little place where we can come and seek refuge from the world, our own little “fort.” Children are often busy making “forts,” but all of us in the family need to work at making the place where we live together a fort where we can all gather for rest.

What can I add to our comfort today?

Hazelden Foundation

Feb. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

 Step by Step

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023

Today, motivated by Einstein’s wisdom that individual happiness should be pinned on goals rather than a person or thing, I will build my sobriety and recovery on the goal of attaining grace and redemption. In doing so, I will not gamble by basing my recovery on what another person does or does not do or on a situation that may or may not play out the way I want or fear. I am playing with fire, not to mention using manipulation and abusing AA if I decide I will not continue in recovery if the spouse who left me because of my drinking doesn’t return or if the employer who fired me because of my drinking doesn’t rehire me or if the judge hearing my DUI case doesn’t dismiss charges because “I’m in recovery.” In keeping my recovery goal-oriented, I am not only paying respect to the integrity of AA’s Steps and Traditions, I am also reinforcing the truth that I and I alone am responsible for both my alcoholism and recovery. Neither is because I might have been dealt a bad hand in life. Today, I focus on my sobriety instead of people or events to maintain my sobriety and recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2023

Feb. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023

AA Thought for the Day

Treating others to drinks gave us a kind of satisfaction. We liked to say, “Have a drink on me.” But we were not really doing the other people a favor. We were only helping them to get drunk, especially if they happened to be alcoholic. In AA, we really try to help other alcoholics. We build them up instead of tearing them down. Drinking created a sort of fellowship. But it really was a false fellowship, because it was based on selfishness. We used our drinking companions for our own pleasure. In AA, we have real fellowship, based on unselfishness and a desire to help each other. And we make real friends, not fair weather friends.

With sobriety, have I got everything that drinking’s got, without the headaches?

Meditation for the Day

I know that God cannot teach anyone who is trusting in a crutch. I will throw away the crutch of alcohol and walk in God’s power and spirit. God’s power will so invigorate me that I shall indeed walk on to victory. There is never any limit to God’s power. I will go step by step, one day at a time. God’s will shall be revealed to me as I go forward.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have more and more dependence on God. I pray that I may throw away my alcoholic crutch and let God’s power take its place.

Hazelden Foundation