Daily Readings
Daily Reflections
April 24
LEARNING TO LOVE OURSELVES
Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded by people who loved us. We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by being dependent upon others. We still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence.
-AS BILL SEES IT, p. 252
When I did my personal inventory I found that I had unhealthy relationships with most people in my life- my friends and family, for example. I always felt isolated and lonely. I drank to dull emotional pain. It was through staying sober, having a good sponsor and working the Twelve Steps that I was able to build up my low self-esteem. First the Twelve Steps taught me to become my own best friend, and then, when I was able to love myself, I could reach out and love others.
Twenty-Four Hours
A Day
April 24
A.A. Thought For The Day
It’s been proved that we alcoholics can’t get sober by our willpower. We’ve failed again and again. Therefore I believe there must be a Higher Power which helps me. I think of that power as the grace of God. And I pray to God every morning for the strength to stay sober today. I know that power is there because it never fails to help me. Do I believe that AA. works through the grace of God?
Meditation For The Day
Once I am “born of the spirit,” that is my life’s breath. Within me is the life of life, so that I can never perish. The life that down the ages has kept God’s children through peril, adversity, and sorrow. I must try never to doubt or worry, but follow where the life of the spirit leads. How often, when little I know it, God goes before me to prepare the way, to soften a heart, or to overrule a resentment. As the life of the spirit grows, natural wants become less important.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in self. I pray that my will may be directed toward doing His will.
As Bill Sees It
Essence of Growth, p. 115
Let us never fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in A.A. as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way.
The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.
Grapevine, July 1965
AA Grapevine Daily Quote
I would love to tell you that I have been sober ever since, but that is not the case. I didn’t want to drink that day, but I took no action to insure against it. You see, I believe that we get more than one “moment of grace” from God—but it is up to us to seize the moment by taking action. But I heeded the voice that said, “You may as well drink. You know you’re going to.”
Thought For The Day: Treat yourself as well as you treat others.
Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book) In Short
Takes
PART 3
They Lost Nearly All
Empty On The Inside
She grew up around A.A. and had all the answers—except when it came to her own life.
Near the end, I was living in an attic apartment; the money was long gone. It was November, cold and gray. When I woke up at 5:30, it was gray outside. Was it 5:30 a.m. or 5:30 p.m.? I couldn’t tell. I looked out the window, watching people. Were they going to work? Or coming home? I went back to sleep. When I woke again, it would either be light or dark. Opening my eyes, after what seemed like hours, it was only 5:45. And gray. I was twenty-eight years old.
The Literature Committee of the Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Office is studying the possibility of updating the writings of the the A.A. founders. Toward that end, they are asking A.A. members to express their opinions on the matter in a survey. To participate, click here. You will be taken to the survey on the A.A. District 20 Area 11 website.
Credits.
Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book), The Daily Reflections and As Bill Sees It are published by The General Services Office (GSO) of Alcoholics Anonymous. These and other A.A. literature can be purchased here.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day is Published by Hazelton Publishing. It and other Hazelton literature can be purchase here.
The AA Grapevine is published by The AA Grapevine, Inc. You can subscribe here.
