We can look at ourselves and how we reach out and act toward others it is a far cry from where we were before entering this program. And we can measure our due by what we give.Ī major element of our recovery is the focus we place on our behavior, the seriousness with which we tackle our inventories. We can be certain that our best efforts toward others do not go unnoticed. We get from others what we give, if not at this time and place, at another. The kindness we greet others with will ease their relations with us. Our respect for others will result in kind. We do reap, in some measure, at some time, what we sow. “Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.” I’ll ask for help with hard feelings by praying, and by calling my sponsor. I’ll enjoy my good feelings and share them. Help me know what to do with my feelings today.Īction for the Day: Today, I’ll be open to feelings. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I want to be fully alive, but I’m a little scared. With the help of our friends in the program, and our Higher Power, we’re ready for life. We’re getting strong enough to deal with them. Yet, feelings-the good and the bad-keep on coming.Īnd we have to handle them. It’s true-we don’t want sadness and pain at all. Now-we have feelings again! But, even now, in recovery, we’re scared of too much happiness. Then, when we let go of the alcohol and other drugs, we started to come back to life. When we were drinking and drugging, we didn’t have to deal much with feelings. “The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.” I can use those tools effectively as I go through the day. I’ve been given tools for understanding myself and my life. If we’re still looking for people willing to protect us, we need more growth in sobriety. This is not reliance on our own resources rather, it is really a way of relying on our Higher Power, the group, our sponsors, and the higher understanding we’ve found in the program. In sobriety, we must grow into a satisfactory form of self-reliance. We cannot depend on protectors who will eventually betray us or fail us through no fault of their own. Such alliances are usually unhealthy and have no lasting place in society. A protector could even be a person who gave us flattery or companionship when we wanted it. Sometimes the protector wasn’t a very strong person-only someone who was willing to support us in some way. Self-Reliance: Many of us managed to survive while drinking by finding protectors we could lean on. Of course, my conflicts went right on mounting, because I was simply loaded with excuses, refusals, and outright rebellion. So He will have to release me.” At last came the time when I would shout, “This, I positively will not do! I won’t even try.” “These,” I would exclaim, “are really a good man’s faults.” When that pet gadget broke apart, I would think, “Well, if those people would only treat me right, I wouldn’t have to behave the way I do.” Next was this: “God well knows that I do have awful compulsions.

Right away, the search for excuses would become-frantic.

Sometimes I would be forced to look at situations where I was doing badly. I pray that I may live today with faith and hope and love. I pray that I may choose today the way of the spiritual life. On our choice of good or evil depends whether we go upward to true success and victory in life or downward to loss and defeat. But spiritual laws are also made to be obeyed. As far as natural laws are concerned, God makes no distinction between good and bad people. The laws of nature are unchangeable, otherwise we could not depend on them. “He maketh His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends the rain on the just and the unjust.” God does not interfere with the working of natural laws. We have proved by our past lives that we could not live without it.ĭo I think I could live happily without faith? Many are wondering if it has any meaning at all. Many people have lost confidence in any meaning in the universe. But many people can go through life without much of it. It is the way for everybody who wants to really live. The way of faith is of course not confined to A.A. The energy derived from seeing others on a successful path, of sharing with them the joys of the journey, gives to my life a new meaning. Self-examination is yet another reward for an ongoing recovery, as are serenity, peace and contentment. To watch others grow in this wonderful program, to see them improve the quality of their lives, is a priceless reward for my effort to help others. This promise has helped me to avoid self-seeking and self-pity. “Life will take on a new meaning,” as the Big Book says (p. ” … work with other alcoholics … It works when other activities fail.”

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