AA Thoughts For Today - September

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AA Thought for the Day

September 4

Avoidance
We also clutch at another wonderful excuse for avoiding an inventory.
Our present anxieties and troubles, we cry, are caused by the behavior
of other people—people who really need a moral inventory.
We firmly believe that if only they'd treat us better, we'd be all right.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 45

Thought to Ponder . . .
Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F E A R = Fighting Ego Against Reality.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Unity
"Moved by the spirit of anonymity,
we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction
as AA members both among fellow alcoholics
and before the general public.
As we lay aside these very human aspirations,
we believe that each of us takes part
in the weaving of a protective mantle
which covers our whole Society and under which
we may grow and work in unity.
We are sure that humility, expressed by anonymity,
is the greatest safeguard that Alcoholics Anonymous
can ever have."
1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 187

Thought to Consider . . .
To help each other, is to help ourselves.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A A's - R - U S = Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery Unity Service

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Conditional Recovery
From: "Steering clear of emotional entanglements"
Another caution: Tying our sobriety to someone we are emotionally involved with proves flatly disastrous. "I'll stay sober if so-and-so does this or that" puts an unhealthy condition on our recovery. We have to stay sober for ourselves, no matter what other people do or fail to do.
We should remember, too, that intense dislike also is an emotional entanglement, often a reversal of past love. We need to cool any overboard feeling, lest it flip us back into the drink.
1998, AAWS, Inc., Living Sober, pages 61-62

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"AA is spiritual, is the eye of the hurricane, is my refuge and my comfort."
Oklahoma City, Okla., December 1992
"Eye of the Hurricane"
Spiritual Awakenings

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"I knew from that moment that I had an alcoholic mind. I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots. I had never been able to understand people who said that a problem had them hopelessly defeated. I knew then. It was a crushing blow."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, pg. 42~

“If you have a resentment that you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or thing that you resent, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness and you will be free. Even when you don’t really want it for them and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it, and to want it for them and you will realize where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate, understanding and love” ~Alcoholics Anonymous page 552

"As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done."
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 87

“”Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.” “Shoemaker, stick to thy last!” …better do one thing supremely well than many badly. That is the central theme of this Tradition. Around it our Society gathers in unity. The very life of our Fellowship requires the preservation of this principle.”
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 150

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

'Since open-mindedness and experimentation are supposed to be the indispensable attributes of our 'scientific' civilization, it seems strange that so many scientists are reluctant to try out personally the hypothesis that God came first and man afterward. They prefer to believe that man is the chance product of evolution; that God, the Creator, does not exist.
'I can only report that I have experimented with both concepts and that, in my case, the God concept has proved to be a better basis for living than the man-centered one.
'Nevertheless, I would be the first to defend your right to think as you will. I simply ask this question: 'in your own life, have you ever really tried to think and act as though there might be a God? Have you experimented?'

Prayer for the Day: God, thank you for helping me be honest enough to see this truth about myself and now that you have shown me the truth about my fears, please remove these fears from me. Lord, please help me outgrow my fears and direct my attention to what you would have me be. Father, demonstrate through me and help me become that which you would have me be. Help me do thy will always, Amen.