Today's Thought - January

[bluidkiti]

January 16

It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a person of wisdom.

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Judging ourselves rightly gives us a huge edge in life. When we really know ourselves - our strengths and our weaknesses, our quirks and our beauty - then we are ready to really live.

In Steps Four and Five, we judge ourselves. In Step Four, we dig through all the stuff we carry around - our feelings, thinking, behavior, and skills - and judge what to keep and what to leave behind. In Step Five, we tell another person what we have found and make sure we are judging rightly.

Once we really know what helps and what hurts us, we can make wise choices. Once we know how we help and hurt others, we can make wise choices. Working the rest of the Steps helps us follow through on our choices. As we work Steps Six through Twelve, we become wiser and wiser.
Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, please help me become wise by really knowing myself.
Today's Action

Today I will make myself wiser by working on Step Four or Step Ten. I will write down at least two things I am carrying around, and I will tell them to my sponsor.

Today's reading is from the book God Grant Me: More Daily Meditations from the Authors of Keep It Simple*

[bluidkiti]

January 17

I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.

~Judy Collins

It's been said that the primary task of a parent is to awaken the spirit of the child. Many of us were raised by parents who did anything but that. Indeed, their actions may have broken our spirits.

As parents ourselves, we have another chance. We have a child within us who remembers pain that a child should never have to feel. And we have a child inside who remembers innocence and joy. The view of the joyful, innocent child is the gift we can give our children. We can give them the gentleness, respect, and empathy they deserve. We do not live through our children; they are separate people with lives of their own. But we can awaken their spirits by showing them the unconditional love that we feel for them and that they long to receive from us.

I treat myself well. I’m able to treat my children well. I am learning to give myself and my children the care and understanding needed to nurture our spirits.

Today's reading is from the book Answers in the Heart

[bluidkiti]

January 18

K.I.S.S.

Keep it simple, stupid!

~Anonymous

When we were using, our addicted minds were too clever for their own good. They told us lies. They told us that we knew things we didn't, that we were strong when we weren't. The addicted mind tried to analyze recovery and find its fatal flaws. That way it could return to addiction with all the reasons why the program can't and shouldn't work. But the program doesn't have its foundation in this type of reasoning. Its foundation is faith, and faith defies reason. Reason is complicated. Faith is very simple.

Our addictions are clever, baffling, powerful, and very patient. Our program disciplines this addiction with the simple truth. We fight the addiction with honesty. Our program has revealed to us that truth is not complicated. It is simple. We should not dress the truth up in fancy clothes.

I want to keep it simple, just as it is. I won't use my clever mind to twist the truth. My program tells me that I need to keep it simple, just as I found it.

Today's reading is from the book Easy Does It: A Book of Daily Twelve Step Meditations*