A Prayer & Some Thoughts - January

[bluidkiti]

January 15


For Courage to Do Justice

Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others
Open my ears that I may hear their cries;
Open my heart so that they need not be without succor**;
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,
Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
And use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears
That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.

~ Alan Paton

**succor --- give assistance or aid to

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Just a Thought

Do I realize that I do not know how much time I have left?

It may be later than I think. Am I going to do the things that I know I should do before my time runs out? By the way, what is my purpose for the rest of my life? Do I realize all I have to make up for in my past wasted life? Do I know that I am living on borrowed time and that I would not have even this much time left without A.A. and the grace of God?

So ............

Am I going to make what time I have left count for A.A.?

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Just a Contemplation

Living In The Present

How easily our minds jump from the present to the failings of the past or our fears about the future. We need to practice, with diligence, returning our minds to whatever the experience is at hand. A truly creative response to any situation can only be made when we are giving it our undivided attention.

All we have of life, all that it can offer us is here, now. If we close our mind to the present, this present, we'll only continue to do so when the tomorrow we dream of now becomes the present. I need to let go of the past and the future. My only reality is here, now.

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Spiritual Beliefs

We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever. We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.

~ Author Unknown

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Just a Quote

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which can not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation." ~ Herbert Spencer