The Program is a Road

[MajestyJo]

Today's thought is: May 24, 2004

Reflection for the Day

The Program is a road, not a resting place. Before we came to The Program -- and, for some of us, many times afterward -- most of us looked for answers to our living problems in religion, philosophy, psychology, self-help groups, and so on. Invariably, these fields held forth the goals that were precisely what we wanted; they offered freedom, calm, confidence and joy. But there was one major loophole: They never gave us a workable method of getting there. They never told us how to get from where we were to where we were supposed to be. Do I truly believe that I can find everything that I need and really want through the Twelve Steps?

Today I Pray

May I know that, once through the Twelve Steps, I am not on a plane surface. For life is not a flat field, but a slope upward. And those flights of steps must be taken over and over and remembered. May I be sure that once I have made them totally familiar to me, they will take me anywhere I want to go.

Today I Will Remember

The Steps are a road, not a resting place.

Reading from the book:

A Day at a Time (Softcover) by Anonymous

So many people don't seem to realize that once you get to Step "Whatever" the journey isn't over, it is a process. It doesn't stop at Step Twelve. It doesn't stop at Step Three because we don't want to do a Step Four. It doesn't end at Step Four because we don't want to tell a living soul. It doesn't stop at Steps Six because I know my defects, I am suppose to find a willingness and a desire to let them go. I can't stop without doing an amend to myself, my God, my friends and family.

Steps Ten, Eleven and Twelve are maintenance steps. You have to do the others to be able to have something to maintain. They are steps to be worked, just in today. As we get honest, as we heal, as we grow, the process goes on, and the road continues. We may make some detours along the way, but God willing, we will get back on the road and follow a path to recovery.

I get a new perspective, awareness, and a new outlook on my life, past and present. As I grew in recovery, Steps 10, 11, and 12 had new meaning and I was better equipped to work them.

[MajestyJo]

I pray that I may meet the test of waiting for God's guidance. I pray that I will not go off on my own.

24 Hours

Life is just so much better when I remember to pray at the beginning of each day. I love this quote. How often I have started my day without asking for direction and have started out without any knowing thoughts and it is only when I get into a quandry or wonder what the heck I am doing, that I have to stop and restart my day.

Prayer is asking for help. Meditation is listening for the answers.

Sometimes it comes in the form of thought, or a reading, a song, a post on a message board, a phone call, but it will come if I am patient and willing to listen.

When I turn the day over, those little things that turn up makes me know that God is on my side and that I am truly blessed.

God is only a prayer away. If one is good, more is better when it comes to alcohol, it only stand to reason that it works for prayer too.

Each day when I put my life into the care of my God, I have daily reprieve from that first one! I am given a choice. I chose prayer every morning to start my day, a prayer during the day to touch base, and a prayer of thanks every night.

[MajestyJo]

Thanks for sharing. It says in the Big Book, you have to give it away in order to keep my sobriety. If I find something helpful to me, I try to share it with others.