Archive for August 6, 2014

Endigar 504 ~ Driven

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on August 6, 2014 by endigar

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.   (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 62)

My selfishness was the driving force behind my drinking. I drank to celebrate success and I drank to drown my sorrows. Humility is the answer. I learn to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. My sponsor tells me that service keeps me sober. Today I ask myself: Have I sought knowledge of God’s will for me? Have I done service for my A.A. group?

END OF QUOTE

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Rats-in-a-Maze

Another important humility question to ask:  Am I connected and accountable to others who know me and are invested in my highest manifestation?

“Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous.  How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was all too plain that they were sorely mistaken.  Lacking both practice and humility, they had deluded themselves and were able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them.  It is worth noting that people of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God.  Surely, the novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders in this fashion.  While the comment or advice of others may be by no means infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still so inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves.”  (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 60).

 

Endigar 503 ~ Listening Deeply

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on August 6, 2014 by endigar

From Today’s Daily Reflections (August 5th);

How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just how we shall act.   (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 37)

If I accept and act upon the advice of those who have made the program work for themselves, I have a chance to outgrow the limits of the past. Some problems will shrink to nothingness, while others may require patient, well-thought-out action. Listening deeply when others share can develop intuition in handling problems which arise unexpectedly. It is usually best for me to avoid impetuous action. Attending a meeting or calling a fellow A.A. member will usually reduce tension enough to bring relief to a desperate sufferer like me. Sharing problems at meetings with other alcoholics to whom I relate, or privately with my sponsor, can change aspects of the positions in which I find myself. Character defects are identified and I begin to see how they work against me. When I put my faith in the spiritual power of the program, when I trust others to teach me what I need to do to have a better life, I find that I can trust myself to do what is necessary.

END OF QUOTE

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When I take a solitary stand against my alcoholism, I must take a stand against my own mind and body with my own mind and body.  It is a suicide mission.

In the recovery program, I found ways to connect with others and with my Higher Power.  Through the collective conscience of recovery, I find a victory I had never thought would be possible.