AA Thought For Today - January

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AA Thought for the Day

January 11

Fear
At heart we had all been abnormally fearful.
It mattered little whether we had sat on the shore of life
drinking ourselves into forgetfulness
or had plunged in recklessly and willfully beyond our depth and ability.
The result was the same -- all of us had nearly perished in a sea of alcohol.
But today, in well-matured AA's, these distorted drives have been restored
to something like their true purpose and direction.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 123-124

Thought to Ponder . . .
Situations I fear are rarely as bad as the fear itself.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F E A R = Forgetting Everything's All Right.

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

Defense
The alcoholic at certain times
has no effective mental defense against the first drink.
Except in a few rare cases,
neither he nor any other human being
can provide such a defense.
His defense must come from a Higher Power.
c. 1976, 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 43

Thought to Consider
Alcohol ... cunning, baffling, powerful!

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
S O B E R = Spirituality Over Booze Equals Recovery

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

Faith
From "The Belief Will Come":
"I remained dry for a number of years, and then, as you may already have guessed, I drank again. It was inevitable. I had
accepted only those parts of the program that fitted into my life without effort on my part. I was still the self-centered
egotist I had always been, still full of all my old hatreds, selfishness, and disbelief just as lacking in maturity as I had
been when I first arrived at A.A.
"This time, when I came to in the hospital, I had absolutely no hope. After all, you had told me that A.A. was the last hope
for the alcoholic, and I had failed there was nothing else. At this very point, my sister chose to send me a clipping from a
Sunday-school paper. No letter, just the clipping: 'Pray with disbelief; but pray with sincerity; and the belief will come.'"
1973 AAWS, Inc.; Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pg. 47

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

"The most important thing AA has given me is the chance to get to know someone I never knew -- myself."
Calgary, Alberta, December 1994
"Getting to Know You -- I Mean Me"
AA Grapevine

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

"'There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which
is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in
everlasting ignorance "that principle is contempt prior to
investigation.'"
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Appendice II, Spiritual Experience, pg. 568~

"If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will
be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new
freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to
shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will
know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will
see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness
and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things
and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our
whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and
of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to
handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize
that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, Page 83~

Most of us begin making certain kinds of direct amends from the day we join Alcoholics Anonymous.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.83

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

About this slip business - I would not be too discouraged. I think you are suffering a great deal from a needless guilt. For
some reason or other, the Lord has laid out tougher paths for some of us, and I guess you are treading one of them.
God is not asking us to be successful. He is only asking us to try to be. That, you surely are doing, and have been doing.
So I would not stay away from A.A. through any feeling of discouragement or shame. It's just the place you should be.
Why don't you try just as a member? You don't have to carry the whole A.A. on your back, you know!
'It is not always the quantity of good things that you do, it is also the quality that counts.
'Above all, take it one day at a time.'

Prayer for the Day: For health and strength and daily food, We praise your name, O God. Amen