Thoughts for the Day – Coping

By | January 4, 2023
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A.A. Thoughts for the Day

Coping

God willing, we members of A.A. may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day. How do we do it? By learning – through practicing the Twelve Steps and through sharing at meetings – how  to cope with the problems that we looked to booze to solve, back in our drinking days . . . We learn how to level out  the emotional swings that got us into trouble both when we were up and when we were down.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 558-559

Thought to Consider…
The peaks and valleys of my life have become gentle rolling hills.

AACRONYMS

C A R D S
Call your sponsor
Ask for help from your Higher Power
Read the Big Book
Do the Twelve Steps
Stay active in your group

Just for Today

Duty
From “Reason or Conscience”:

When, in all humility, I try to pass our message on to other less fortunate alcoholics, I know that the plan of the Higher Power comes to us through the medium of people. To us alcoholics, this does not mean common or garden people, but special people, such as other alcoholics. And I am guided to include among the people from whom I might receive guidance, and to whom I must demonstrate the life of my conscience or Higher Power, those who married me, loved me, befriended me, and stuck by me, as others stuck by other alcoholics.”
Bulawayo, Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]
1973 AAWS, Inc.
Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, p. 82

Daily Reflections

BEGIN WHERE YOU ARE

We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before US in our respective homes, occupations and affairs.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 19

It’s usually pretty easy for me to be pleasant to the people in an A.A. setting. While I’m working to stay sober, I’m celebrating with my fellow A.A.’s our common release from the hell of drinking. It’s often not so hard to spread glad tidings to my old and new friends in the program. At home or at work, though, it can be a different story. It is in situations arising in both of those areas that the little day-to-day frustrations are most evident, and where it can be tough to smile or reach out with a kind word or an attentive ear. It’s outside of the A.A. rooms that I face the real test of the effectiveness of my walk through A.A.’s Twelve Steps.
Copyright 1990
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.

As Bill Sees It

Can We Choose?

“We must never be blinded by the futile philosophy that we are just the hapless victims of our inheritance, of our life experience, and of our surroundings – that these are the sole forces that make our decisions for us. This is not the road to freedom. We have to believe that we can really choose.”

As active alcoholics, we lost our ability to choose whether we would drink. We were the victims of a compulsion which seemed to decree that we must go on with our own destruction. Yet we finally did make choices that brought about our recovery. We came to believe that alone we were powerless over alcohol. This was surely a choice, and a most difficult one. We came to believe that a Higher Power could restore us to sanity when we became willing to practice A.A.’s Twelve Steps. ‘In short, we chose to ‘become willing,’ and no better choice did we ever make.'”
1. GRAPEVINE, NOVEMBER 1960
2. LETTER, 1966

Big Book Quote

God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition
A Vision For You, p. 164

Twenty Four Hours a Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

Have I admitted I am an alcoholic? Have I swallowed my pride and admitted I was different from other drinkers?  Have I accepted the fact that I must spend the rest of my life without liquor? Have I any more reservations, any idea in the back of my mind that some day I’ll be able to drink safely? Am I absolutely honest with myself and with other people? Have I taken an inventory of myself and admitted the wrong I have done? Have I come clean with my friends? Have I tried to make it up to them for the way I have treated them?

Meditation for the Day

I will believe that fundamentally all is well. Good things will happen to me. I believe that God cares for me and will  provide for me. I will not try to plan ahead. I know that the way will unfold, step by step. I will leave tomorrow’s burden to God, because He is the great burden-bearer. He only expects me to carry my one-day’s share.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not try to carry the burden of the universe on my shoulders. I pray that I may be satisfied to do my share each day.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

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