A Prayer & Some Thoughts - February

[bluidkiti]

February 28


Thankful Prayer

Lord,
I thank you for the direction and guidance you’ve provided me in my life, and for increasing my wisdom as the years pass.
I pray that I’ll continually see you as the source of all wisdom and that I will continue to turn to You for help in understanding myself and the world around me.
Amen

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Just a Thought

Alcoholics carry an awful load around with them.

What a load lying puts on your shoulders! Drinking makes liars out of all of us alcoholics. In order to get the liquor we want, we have to lie all the time. We have to lie about where we've been and what we've been doing. When you are lying you are only half alive because of the fear of being found out. When you come into A.A., and get honest with yourself and with other people, that terrible load of lying falls off your shoulders.

So ............

Have I got rid of that load of lying?

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Just a Contemplation

Overcritical

Being overcritical and irritable has been common to many of us. Some of us go around with controlled smiles while underneath we are grumbling. Others blast everyone around them. Some of us save our most critical reactions for those we love while staying sweet and friendly with the outside world. In any case, we are caught in a blinding trap. We may know we feel trapped but do not see that our problem is mainly with ourselves.

We need to look at our relationships. Have we been falling into a pattern where no one seems to measure up? Are we also being too critical or demanding of ourselves? Perhaps we don't need to lower our standards so much as to hold them less tightly. If we can be friends to ourselves and give ourselves a little more leeway, we can be more easygoing with others.

I can be less judgmental of others and myself.

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Priorities

I was also able to realize that this bonfire of resentment and rage was beckoning me to pick up a drink and plunge into my death. Then I realized that I had to separate my sobriety from everything else that was going on in my life. No matter what happened or didn't happen, I couldn't drink. In fact, none of these things that I was going through had anything to do with my sobriety; the tides of life flow endlessly for better or worse, both good and bad, and I cannot allow my sobriety to become dependent on these ups and downs of living. Sobriety must live a life of its own.

Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition Pages 450-451

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Just a Quote

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”~ William Arthur Ward