Daily Recovery Readings - April

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April 1

Daily Reflections

LOOKING WITHIN

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 42

Step Four is the vigorous and painstaking effort to discover what the
liabilities in each of us have been, and are. I want to find exactly how,
when, and where my natural desires have warped me. I wish to look
squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and myself. By
discovering what my emotional deformities are, I can move toward
their correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this,
there can be little sobriety or contentment for me.

To resolve ambivalent feelings, I need to feel a strong and helpful
sense of myself. Such an awareness doesn't happen overnight, and no
one's self-awareness is permanent. Everyone has the capacity for
growth, and for self-awareness, through an honest encounter with
reality.
When I don't avoid issues but meet them directly, always trying to
resolve them, they become fewer and fewer.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more
honest? Do I no longer have to lie to my loved ones? Do I try to have
meals on time, and do I try to earn what I make at work? Am I trying
to be honest? Have I faced myself as I really am and have I admitted
to myself that I'm no good by myself, but have to rely on God to help
me do the right thing? Am I beginning to find out what it means to be
alive and to face the world honestly and without fear?

Meditation For The Day

God is all around us. His spirit pervades the universe. And yet we
often do not let His spirit in. We try to get along without His help and
we make a mess of our lives. We can do nothing of any value without
God's help. All our human relationships depend on this. When we let
God's spirit rule our lives, we learn how to get along with others and
how to help them.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may let God run my life. I pray that I will never again
make a mess of my life through trying to run it myself.

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As Bill Sees It

Courage and Prudence, p. 91

When fear persisted, we knew it for what it was, and we became able
to handle it. We began to see each adversity as a God-given
opportunity to develop the kind of courage which is born of humility,
rather than of bravado.

<< << << >> >> >>

Prudence is a workable middle ground, a channel of clear sailing
between the obstacles of fear on the one side and of recklessness on
the other. Prudence in practice creates a definite climate, the only
climate in which harmony, effectiveness, and consistent spiritual
progress can be achieved.

<< << << >> >> >>

"Prudence is rational concern without worry."

1. Grapevine, January 1962
2. Twelve Concepts, p. 62
3. Talk, 1966

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Walk in Dry Places

There are no coincidences
Guidance
Here's an exercise that can strengthen your belief in a Higher Power: Review your life for seemingly insignificant things that were actually major turning points. A chance meeting, for example, may have resulted in an astonishing career opportunity for lifelong romance. Such surprises come to everybody, and people often wonder what their lives would have been like without these "coincidences."
The founding of AA also seemed to be a series of coincidences and chance happenings. The message reached Bill W. by a circular route, and then an unexpected business opportunity took him to Akron, Ohio, where he finally met Dr. Bob. The unusual aspect was that Akron just "Happened" to have stalwart members of the Oxford Group, the same fellowship that had helped Bill W.
People with strong spiritual foundations in AA have come to see these happenings not as coincidences but as the guidance of a Higher power. This Higher Power was…and is… continuously working through inspired people.
We'll find similar chance happenings for good in our own lives. We don't control them except by keeping our own house in order. This assures us that the outcome of any " coincidence" will be favorable.
I'll carry on my activities today without trying to second-guess what my Higher Power has in mind for me. At the same time, I'll know that a superior intelligence is directing my affairs in wonderful ways.

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Keep It Simple

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. --- Step Fourof Alcoholics Anonymous.
We avoid the Fourth Step. We put it off. We're scared of what we will find inside of us. We may find out we're mean, angry, selfish, afraid. We might see how badly we've acted to others, to ourselves. We have all these things inside us. We also have love, trust, faith, and hope. We love art, music, nature, or sports. We have power to heal, and we have used it too. The Fourth Step helps us to know our inner power. As we learn about our own power, we can use it carefully, on purpose, to do good.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me use my power to do Your will. Let your power work through me too.
Action for the Day: Today Ill watch my own actions and words. I'll see how my power affects others. I'll talk about this with my sponsor.

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Each Day a New Beginning

To be wildly enthusiastic, or deadly serious--both are wrong. Both pass. One must keep ever present a sense of humor.
--Katherine Mansfield
How familiar wild enthusiasm and deadly seriousness are to most of us. We experience life within the extremes. The thrill of wild enthusiasm we try to trap, to control. We are exhilarated and feel good. Our serious side traps us, controls us, lowers a pall on all our activities. Both expressions keep us stuck. Neither expression allows the freedom of spontaneity so necessary to a full, healthy life.
Through our addiction--the liquor, the upper, the person, the food--we were searching for a feeling we didn't feel. We were searching for an unnatural state of happiness, even perhaps wild enthusiasm, because we had so little of any enthusiasm for life. Our search failed. Again and again we'd "catch it," only to have it elude us.
We may not have given up the search. But we will come to accept both states of mind as temporary and search instead for the middle ground. A sense of humor will make all of life's loads easier to bear. A sense of humor will offer us the balance that has been missing for so many years.
Today will offer me a chance to be wildly enthusiastic and a chance to be deadly serious. I'll try to focus on the middle ground and cultivate my sense of humor.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 8 - TO WIVES

We women carry with us a picture of the ideal man, the sort of chap we would like our husbands to be. It is the most natural thing in the world, once his liquor problem is solved, to feel that he will now measure up to that cherished vision. The chances are he will not for, like yourself, he is just beginning his development. Be patient.

p. 118

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Foreword

Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.'s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.'s First International Convention, held at Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity.

p. 18

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And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin
to climb.
--Kahlil Gibran

God, help me own my power to love and appreciate
myself. Help me give myself validity instead of looking
to others to do that.
--Melody Beattie

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all;
but whatever I have placed in Gods hands, that I still possess."

Fear is everywhere, and many fears lie within us, whether screaming
loudly or sitting dormant. We must cast away fear, as we would the
plague.
--SweetyZee

To help each other, is to help ourselves.

C A R E = Comforting And Reassuring Each other.

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

TIME

"I would I could stand on a busy
corner, hat in hand, and beg
people throw me their wasted
hours."
--Bernard Berenson

I enjoy my sobriety so much that I hate to waste my time. Part of my
spiritual program involves a correct use of time. I will not spend time
with negative or destructive people. I will not spend time in useless
gossip or doing things I do not enjoy to please other people.

I am enjoying life so much I do not wish to waste any of it. Spirituality
involves a creative stewardship of time.

As an alcoholic I wasted so much time. For most of my life I was "out
to lunch"! Today I spend time enjoying my life - and I spend quality
time alone with "self". I enjoy my little conversations with self - the
thoughts I have and need to ponder upon. I need time to rest in the
peace of my life. Time is a precious gift from God that should not be
wasted.

Lord, let me live each day as if it were my last.

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"May you be blessed by the Lord."
Psalm 115:15

Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off
your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full
of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and
attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in
God's likeness--righteous, holy, and true. So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbor
the truth" because we belong to each other. And "don't sin by letting anger gain control
over you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty
foothold to the Devil. If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest
work, and then give generously to others in need. Don't use foul or abusive language. Let
everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to
those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live.
Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be
saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander,
as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:21-32

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Daily Inspiration

It is the little bits of kindness and love that make this world happy. Lord, may I do my part to make today happy for someone.

Have the courage to forgive. Lord, may I bring myself to a place of peace by never holding a grudge.