Daily Readings
Daily Reflections
March 25
A FULL AND THANKFUL HEART
I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain certain conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know.
–AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37
I believe that we in Alcoholics Anonymous are fortunate in that we are constantly reminded of the need to be grateful and of how important gratitude is in our sobriety. I am truly grateful for the sobriety God has given me through the A.A. program and am glad I can give back what was given to me freely. I am grateful not only for sobriety, but for the quality of life my sobriety has brought. God has been gracious enough to give me sober days and a life blessed with peace and contentment, as well as the ability to give and receive love, and the opportunity to serve others — in our Fellowship, my family and community. For all of this, I have “a full and thankful heart.”
Twenty-Four Hours
A Day
March 25
A.A. Thought For The Day
Strength comes from coming to believe in a Higher Power that can help you. You can’t define this Higher Power, but you can see how it helps other alcoholics. You hear them talk about it and you begin to get the idea yourself. You try praying in a quiet time each morning and you begin to feel stronger, as though your prayers were heard. So you gradually come to believe there must be a Power in the world outside of yourself, which is stronger than you and which you can turn to for help. Am I receiving strength from my faith in a Higher Power?
Meditation For The Day
Spiritual development is achieved by daily persistence in living the way you believe God wants you to live. Like the wearing away of a stone by steady drops of water, so will your daily persistence wear away all the difficulties and gain spiritual success for you. Never falter in this daily, steady persistence. Go forward boldly and unafraid. God will help and strengthen you, as long as you are trying to do His will.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may persist day by day in gaining spiritual experience. I pray that I may make this a lifetime work.
As Bill Sees It
Benefits of Responsibility, p. 84
“Happily, A.A.’s per capita expenses are very low. For us to fail to meet them would be to evade a responsibility beneficial for us.
“Most alcoholics have said they had no troubles that money would not cure. We are a group that, when drinking, always held out a hand for funds. So when we commence to pay our own service bills, this is a healthy change.”
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“Because of drinking, my friend Henry had lost a high-salaried job. There remained a fine house–with a budget three times his reduced earnings.
“He could have rented the house for enough to carry it. But no! Henry said he knew that God wanted him to live there, and He would see that the costs were paid. So Henry went on running up bills and glowing with faith. Not surprisingly, his creditors finally took over the place.
“Henry can laugh about it now, having learned that God more often helps those who are willing to help themselves.”
1. Letter, 1960
2. Letter, 1966
AA Grapevine Daily Quote
“For so long as we speak and try to perfect the language of love -- for just so long may we count upon making whatever rendezvous with destiny that God would have us.”
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., June 1961, “Humility for Today,” The Language of the Heart
Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book) In Short
Takes
PART 2
They Stopped In Time
It Might Have Been Worse
Alcohol was a looming cloud in this banker’s bright sky. With rare foresight he realized it could become a tornado.
My wife and I had always encouraged our children to bring their friends home at any time, but after a few experiences with a drunken father, they eliminated home as a place to entertain friends. At the time this didn’t mean much to me. I was too busy devising excuses to be out with drinking pals.
It seemed to me my wife was becoming more intolerant and narrow-minded all the time. Whenever we went out, she appeared to go out of her way to keep me from having more than one drink. What alcoholic can be satisfied with one drink? After every cocktail party or dinner party she would say she couldn’t understand how I could get in such a drunken stupor on one drink. She of course didn’t realize how cunning an alcoholic can be and the lengths to which he will go in finding ways to satisfy the compulsion for more and more drinks after having had the first one. Neither did I.
Finally our invitations became fewer and fewer as friends had more experience with my drinking pattern.
