September 3
Humility Expressed By Anonymity

“Humility is a by-product that allows us to grow and develop in an atmosphere of freedom and removes the fear of becoming known by our employers, families, or friends as addicts.”
Basic Text p.72-23

Many of us may not have understood the idea that “anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions.” We wondered how this could be. What does anonymity have to do with our spiritual life?

The answer is, plenty! By guarding and cherishing our anonymity, we earn spiritual rewards beyond comprehension. There is great virtue in doing something nice for someone and not telling anyone about it. By the same token, resisting the impulse to proudly announce our membership in NA to the world – in effect, asking everyone to acknowledge how wonderful we are – makes us value our recovery all the more.

Recovery is a gift that we’ve received from a Power greater than ourselves. Boasting about our recovery, as if it were our own doing, leads to prideful feelings and grandiosity. But keeping our anonymity leads to humility and feelings of gratitude. Recovery is its own reward; public acclaim can’t make it any more valuable than it already is.

Just for today: Recovery is its own reward; I don’t need to have mine approved of publicly. I will maintain and cherish my anonymity.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day
September 03
A.A. Thought For The Day

“Offer new prospects friendship and fellowship. Tell them that if they want to get well you will do anything to help. Burn the idea into the consciousness of new prospects that they can get well, regardless of anyone else. Job or no job, spouse or no spouse, they cannot stop drinking as long as they place dependence on other people ahead of dependence on God. Let no alcoholic say they cannot recover unless they have their family back. This just isn’t so.
Their recovery is not dependent upon other people. It is dependent on their own relationship with God.” Can I recognize all excuses made by a prospect?

Meditation For The Day

The spiritual life depends upon the unseen. To live the spiritual life you must believe in the unseen. Try not to loose the consciousness of God’s spirit in you and in others. As a child in its mother’s arms, stay sheltered in the understanding and love of God. God will relieve you of the weight of worry and care, misery and depression, want and woe, faintness and heartache, if you will let Him. Lift up your eyes from earth’s troubles and view the glory of
the unseen God. Each day try to see more good in people, more of the unseen in the seen.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may rest and abide in the presence of the unseen God. I pray that I may leave my burdens in His care.

Daily Reflections
September 03
BUILDING A NEW LIFE, p.255

Quote
We feel a man is unthinking when he says sobriety is enough.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p.82

When I reflect on Step Nine, I see that physical sobriety must be enough for me. I need to remember the hopelessness I felt before I found sobriety, and how I was willing to go to any lengths for it. Physical sobriety is not enough for those around me, however, since I must see that God’s gift is used to build a new life for my family and loved ones. Just as importantly, I must be available to help others who want the A.A. way of life. I ask God to help me share the gift of sobriety so that its benefit may be shown to those I know and love.

As Bill Sees It
September 03
Singlehanded Combat, p.245

Few indeed are those who, assailed by the tyrant alcohol, have ever won through in singlehanded combat. It is a statistical fact that alcoholics almost never recover on their personal resources alone.

********************************

‘Way up toward Point Barrow in Alaska, a couple of prospectors got themselves a cabin and a case of Scotch. The weather turned bitter, fifty below, and they got so drunk they let the fire go out. Barely escaping death by freezing, one of them woke up in time to rekindle the fire. He was prowling around outside for fuel, and he looked into an empty oil drum filled with frozen water. Down in the ice cake he saw a reddish-yellow object. When thawed out, it was seen to be an A.A. book. One of the pair read the book and sobered up. Legend has it that he became the founder of one of our farthest north groups.

1. 12 & 12, p.22
2. A.A. Comes Of Age, pp. 82-83

Walk In Dry Places
September 03
What is Possible?
Spiritual Power.

With God, all things are possible, goes an old saying. Yet most of us haven’t seen any evidence of doing the impossible.

But through our program, we have truly accomplished things that we had considered nearly impossible at one time. No human power could have relieved our alcoholism, we read in the AA Big Book. How many more conditions are we accepting because no human power ….. particularly ours… can relieve them?

As we grow in sobriety, we should continuously reinforce our belief that God is living and working in our lives. The impossible problems we’ll need to work on will have roots in our own habits and feelings, but even if one of these deeply rooted problems has gone on for years, we need not despair of finding an answer.

If we persist in prayer and in turning the problem over to our Higher power, an answer must come. It is never too late to find the changes we need and deserve.

Even if I haven’t solved all my problems, I’ll take the position today that correct solutions exist in the mind of God. I’ll be open to signs that changes are coming.

September 03
Keep It Simple

You will not regret the past nor wish ti shut the door on it. . . — Alcoholics Anonymous
As we work the Steps, we fix our broken life. Many things in our new life have been painful. Our addiction to alcohol or drugs made it all worse. But if things hadn’t gotten so bad we might not have gotten into recovery.
We have changed so much! We have learned so much about life, our Higher Power, and ourselves in order to fix our lives. We can’t act like nothing in the past matters. It does matter, because it brought us to this new life. And is better already!
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me face my past and heal the wounds—my wounds and others’ wounds.
Action for the Day :  Today, I’ll three things I’m ashamed of. How can I make amends for them when I work Step Nine? I will call my sponsor if I need help.

Thursday, September 2, 2010
Deliver yourself

You will succeed not because you’re allowed to, but because you decide to. You will prosper not because of the hand you’ve been dealt, but because of what you do with it.

You can allow yourself to be held back by what is, or you can choose to create what can be. Whatever comes your way is insignificant when compared to what you make of it.

Though others may have impressive wealth and other advantages going for them, remember this. You have you going for you.

You have a solid, authentic purpose, and the determination to fulfill that purpose. You have a unique perspective, and the ability to leverage that perspective into real, lasting value.

That’s more than enough to take you wherever you choose to go, no matter what your starting point may be. Whether circumstances favor you or not, your commitment and your actions can always be working in your favor.

Don’t waste your time obsessing over what’s unfair or unfortunate about your situation. Put all your energy into what you can do, into the positive steps you can take, and deliver yourself to wherever you wish to be.

– Ralph Marston

©2010 Ralph S. Marston Jr. Visit The Daily Motivator® website for an archive of more than 3,000 previous daily messages, inspiring video presentations, books, DVDs, CDs and more.

September 02
Higher Powered

“Daily practice of our Twelve Step program enables us to change from what we were to people guided by a Higher Power”
Basic Text p.83

Who have we been, and who have we become? There are a couple of ways to answer this question. One is very simple:

We came to Narcotics Anonymous as addicts, our addiction killing us. In NA, we’ve been freed from our obsession with drugs and our compulsion to use. And our lives have changed.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Who have we really been? In the past, we were people without power or direction. We felt like we had no purpose, no reason for living. Our lives didn’t make any more sense to us than they did to our families, our friends, or our neighbors.

Who are we really becoming? Today, we are not merely clean addicts, but people with a sense of direction, a purpose, and a Power greater than ourselves. Through daily practice of the Twelve Steps, we’ve begun to understand how our addiction warped our feelings, motivations, and behavior. Gradually, the destructive force of our disease has been replaced by the life-giving force of our Higher Power.

Recovery means more than cleaning up-it means powering up. We have done more than shed some bad habits; we are becoming new people, guided by a Higher Power.

Just for today: The guidance I need to become a new person is ready at hand. Today, I will draw further away from my old and closer to my Higher Power.

Keep It Simple
September 2
… except when to do so would injure them or others.

—Second half of Step Nine

We have to be careful when we make amends. We must think about people’s well being. Can we help heal by being direct with them? Or would it hurt them again? At times, this means not making direct amends. Sometimes, it’s better to make some other kind of amend. If you’re not sure how to make amends to someone, ask for advice from your sponsor and your group. And pray. Over time, you’ll know if making direct amends is the right thing to do. Remember, Step Nine means we’re responsible for our actions. In recovery, our actions can be healing. Healing takes place when we love ourselves and others. And love is what heals us.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I’ve hurt people in the past. Please use me now to help those people heal. Give me good judgment, courage, and good timing.

Action for the Day: I will never be able to make direct amends to some people. I will think of amends I can make to them. I can pray daily for their healing.

Walk In Dry Places
September 2
Going with the Flow
Problem solving.

It’s surprising how many problems solve themselves when we’re willing to turn them over to our Higher Power. This isn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy brought about by suspicious beliefs we can actually find proof of this seemingly providential activity in our lives.

We don’t have to convince anybody except ourselves that this process works. What we can prove is that some of our best opportunities come about by what we would call chance or coincidence. Indeed, the first meeting of two AA founders could be called such a chance event.
We need to believe that our Higher Power is working ceaselessly for the upward development of the human race, and Twelve Step programs can be essential forces in this upward development. In our own lives, we can go with this flow of ever-increasing good, as we continue to feel ourselves a part of it.

I will not wrestle with every problem today. Some problems will be dealt with later and some will seem to solve themselves. I will know that I am part of an upward development that is continuing.