AA Thoughts For Today - September

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AA Thought for the Day

September 26

Diagnosis
We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself.
Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking. Try to drink and stop abruptly.
Try it more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it.
It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 31 - 32

Thought to Ponder
I would rather go through life sober, believing I am an alcoholic,
than go through life drunk, trying to convince myself that I am not.

AA-related 'Alconym'
B U T = Being Unconvinced Totally.

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

Help
"If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were,
we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution.
We were in a position where life was becoming impossible,
and if we had passed into the region
from which there is no return through human aid,
we had but two alternatives:
One was to go on to the bitter end,
blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation
as best we could;
and the other, to accept spiritual help.
This we did because we honestly wanted to,
and were willing to make the effort."
c. 1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 25-6

Thought to Consider . . .
The spiritual life is not a theory.
We have to live it.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
H E L P = Hope, Encouragement, Love, Patience

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

Suspend Our Own Argument
From: "Being Grateful"
For some reason, we spent a lot of time thinking or noting or talking about how wrong or mistaken so many other people persistently were. (Whether they really were or not is irrelevant to the welcome change in our own feelings now.) For some, the change begins with a tentative willingness to wait and see, to accept for a moment the hypothesis that the other person just possibly might be right. Before rushing to judgment, we suspend our own argument, listen carefully, and watch for the outcome.

1998, AAWS, Inc., Living Sober, pages 48-49

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

"The beauty of sobriety is that sometimes I am the one supported, and other times the one supporting. One act helps destroy my ego, the other my self-centeredness. I need to practice both actions if I want to survive"
Los Angeles, Calif., July 2007
"Self-Support"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

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

"Perhaps there is a better way--we think so. For we are now on a
different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We
trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the
world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as
we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us
to match calamity with serenity."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 68~

Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion , say , for jay-walking . He gets a thrill out of skipping in front of fast-moving vehicles . He enjoys himself for a few years in spite of friendly warnings . Up to this point you would label him as a foolish chap having queer ideals of fun . Luck then deserts him and he is slightly injured several times in succession . You would expect him , if he were normal , to cut it out . Presently he is hit again and this time has a fractured skull . Within a week after leaving the hospital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm . He tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good , but in a few weeks he breaks both legs .
Alcoholics Anonymous Pages 37-38

...this book you read again and again that faith did for us what we could not do...
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 70

It is hoped that this volume will afford all who read it a close-up view of the principles and forces which have made Alcoholics Anonymous what it is.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 18

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

'You must remember that every A.A. group starts, as it should, through the efforts of a single man and his friends - a founder and his hierarchy. There is no other way.
'But when infancy is over, the original leaders always have to make way for that democracy which springs up through the grass roots and will eventually sweep aside the self-chosen leadership of the past.'
Letter to Dr. Bob: 'Everywhere the A.A. groups have taken their service affairs into their own hands. Local founders and their friends are now on the side lines. Why so many people forget that, when thinking of the future of our world services, I shall never understand.
'The groups will eventually take over, and maybe they will squander their inheritance when they get it. It is probable, however, that they won't. Anyhow, they really have grown up; A.A. is theirs; let's give it to them.

Prayer for the Day: Humility Prayer - Lord, I am far too much influenced by what people think of me; Which means that I am always pretending to be either richer or smarter than I am. Please prevent me from trying to attract attention. Don't let me gloat over praise on the one hand and be discouraged by criticism on the other, nor let me waste time weaving the most imaginary situations in which the heroic, charming, witty person present is myself. Show me how to be humble of heart.