PROGRESSIVE GRATITUDE

Smile and remember how blessed you really are!



PROGRESSIVE GRATITUDE

Gratitude should go forward, rather than backward. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 29

I am very grateful that my Higher Power has given me a second chance to live a worthwhile life. Through Alcoholics Anonymous, I have been restored to sanity. The promises are being fulfilled in my life. I am grateful to be free from the slavery of alcohol. I am grateful for peace of mind and the opportunity to grow, but my gratitude should go forward rather than backward. I cannot stay sober on yesterday's meetings or past Twelfth-Step calls; I need to put my gratitude into action today. Our co-founder said our gratitude can best be shown by carrying the message to others. Without action, my gratitude is just a pleasant emotion. I need to put it into action by working Step Twelve, by carrying the message and practicing the principles in all my affairs. I am grateful for the chance to carry the message today!
from the book Daily Reflections

TWELVE CONCEPTS FOR WORLD SERVICE

I
The final responsibility and the ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.

II
When, in 1955, the A.A. groups confirmed the permanent charter for their General Service Conference, they thereby delegated to the Conference complete authority for the active maintenance of our world services and thereby made the Conference -- excepting for any change in the Twelve Traditions or in Article 12 of the Conference Charter -- the actual voice and the effective conscience for our whole Society.

III
As a traditional means of creating and maintaining a clearly defined working relation between the groups, the Conference, the A.A. General Service Board and its several service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives, and of thus insuring their effective leadership, it is here suggested that we endow each of these elements of world service with a traditional "Right of Decision."

What is Alcoholics Anonymous?

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS is a fellowship designed and administered by a bunch of ex-drunks whose only qualifications for membership are that they can't hold their liquor and have decided they don't want to learn how. Not that they could anyway, they never could, and it's highly unlikely that they ever would. It has no rules, dues or fees, nor anything else that any sensible organization seems to require.

At meetings, the speaker starts on one subject, winds up talking about something entirely different, and concludes by saying he doesn't know anything about the program except that it works. The groups are always broke, yet always seem to have money to carry on. They are always losing members but seem to grow. They claim AA is a selfish program but they always seem to be trying to give it away and to do something for others.

Slogans from around the rooms

90 meetings in 90 days

A. A. also stands for: "Attitude Adjustment."

An Attitude of Gratitude.

A slip begins long before the first drink.

AA is not for those who need it, it's for those who want it.

Act as if.

Action not distraction

“Bill W.,” Documentary

http://www.page124.com/press/

Working With Others ( share)

Step Twelve Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

This chapter, which is called "Working With Others", gives us the part of Step Twelve that deals only with ways to carrying this message to other alcoholics. When WE work with others, OUR lives change. we don't help another alcoholic because THEIR sick, we help another alcoholic because WE are sick, and part of our program of recovery is that we need to be helping others.

God please help me

God please help me to not live in denial today. Help me to see myself and my actions as they truly are. Help me to see these shortcomings as a starting point to becoming better. Help me to be willing to be let go of these things that keep me from wanting to let go. Help me to remember that I would rather be happy than right. Help me to let go of this fear of what people may think of me, of not being good enough. Help me to remember that I am here to serve you not self and this world and in that everything is okay. Help me to be better today than I was yesterday. Thank You 

~~~~~~

God please help me to remember that other people may be spiritually sick. Help me to remember that I may act the exact same way in their situation. Help me to be accepting of them. Please help me to not be judgmental, to remember we are all human. God, thank you for this day and the many opportunities that lie inherent within in it. Give me wisdom and strength to embrace these opportunities. Thank you for a life that is far better than what I imagined for myself. Thank You 

~~~~~~

God-guided life

A.A. Thought for the Day 

In A.A. we have three things: fellowship, faith, and service.
Fellowship is wonderful, but its wonder lasts just so long.
Then some gossip, disillusionment, and boredom may come in.
Worry and fear come back at times and we find that fellowship
is not the whole story. Then we need faith. When we're alone,
with no- body to pat us on the back, we must turn to God for
help. Can I say "Thy will be done" - and mean it?

Meditation for the Day 

12 Years

I am so truly blessed!!!!! I celebrated 12 years of sobriety on Jan. 30th. 2011.. It is only through God's grace that I am here today. He saved me from the gripping chains of alcoholism and then in 2005 I gave my life totally to Jesus! (2 Corinthians 5:17) (Psalm 16:9) What brought me to finally totally surrendering was ,even though I was sober for 6 years, I wasn't changing much. I was still sinning in some ways and I was not happy with where I was at.

Traditions

"The Twelve Traditions point straight at many of our individual defects. By implication they ask each of us to lay aside pride and resentments. They ask for personal as well as group sacrifice. They ask us never to use the AA name in any quest for personal power or distinction or money. The Traditions guarantee the equality of all members and the independence of all groups. They show how we may best relate ourselves to each other and to the world outside."
Bill W., 1967AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 96

Prayers

in Big Book & 12 & 12

MORNING PRAYER 
God direct my thinking today so that it be divorced of self pity, dishonesty, self-will, self-seeking and fear. God inspire my thinking, decisions and intuitions. Help me to relax and take it easy. Free me from doubt and indecision. Guide me through this day and show me my next step. God give me what I need to take care of any problems. I ask all these things that I may be of maximum service to you and my fellow man in the name of the Steps I pray. AMEN
(p. 86 BB)

Things To Always Remember...and One Thing To Never Forget

Your presence is a present to the world.

You're unique and one of a kind.

Your life can be what you want it to be.

Take the days just one at a time.

Count your blessings, not your troubles.

You'll make it through whatever comes along.

Within you are so many answers.

Understand, have courage, be strong.

Chapter 11 - "A Vision for You"-Share

click to read

Donna S grateful alcoholic from NJ

Grateful for another day and the big book and those who have gone before me to help me in my journey

For me this chapter reviews the experience strength & hope of how it works.
Coming in I was so hopeless, broken and desperate to stop drinking.  I lost my values ,my zest for life & my spirituality.

Topics ,"Finding who we are with out drinking", & "Complacency"

Hello everyone Donna S alcoholic here in NJ

"Finding who we are with out drinking" , for me took time...I am slow.
I didn't know how to live or for that matter who i was.
I been drinking since i was 9. I do know I am a better person.
Who am I with out a drink....Alot of things once the fog clears,and I stop fighting everything and I let go let God.
I am a responsible person.
I am faithful wife today.
I am a better mother, sister, daughter, & friend.
I am honest, kind, giving and loving.
I found out that if I dont pick up a drink, my world can be amazing.

I am your disease

Hello,

Just in case you forgot me, I am your disease:

I Hate meetings...I Hate higher powers...I Hate anyone who has a program. To all who come in contact with me, I wish you death and I wish you suffering.

Allow me to introduce myself, I am the disease of addiction. I Am cunning, baffling, and powerful. That's Me. I have killed millions and I am pleased.

When the 12 Steps are applied – and practiced,

They will:

Remove the mental obsession with alcohol.

Eliminate the emotional compulsion to drink

Produce a personality change – necessary for recovery

Produce a new attitude and outlook on life

Step 6 & 7--share

 Donna S grateful recovering alcoholic from NJ

These 2 steps  are the shortest steps in the big book.
When I first did step work I hadn't a clue what charactor defects were. How could I ? no one ever told me about them , they just said I was selfish, self-centered, dishonest, etc.  I  just thought I was drinking to much, that the people in my life just wanted to me to stop drinking  OK  i did that when i came back in the rooms in 1999 . I was fortunate that the desire to drink left me pretty quick but then my sponsor said i needed to stop acting out. Hmm,  well define that please....but see I didn't ask questions i went to meetings and listend as best i could in the early days, that's about all i was capable of doing.  As as time went on  and my second sponsor took me threw the steps,  she told me what my

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

--Henry Ford

To be a friend involves risk. Friends confront each other when it's needed, but they do it out of love and with compassion. All of us need a friend who will tell us when we are acting out of line, when we are "not able to see the forest for the trees." Friends are there for us in the struggles – rooting us on, maybe teasing us a bit, helping us get past the difficulties and eventually helping us find the gift embedded in them. Friends risk upsetting us, if it means we may become better people.

2 Years

Hi my name is Donna and I am an alcoholic and addict.
 I have 2 years this month ( 1/30) and the journey has been wonderful !! so far. Only by the Grace of a Loving God have I managed to survive One Day at a Time. I can't get enough!! Coming from me that says a lot. This is NOT my first time in the rooms. I came in the program in 1987, only to go back out in 1993.
 I shared at a meeting the other day how this time 2 years means so much to me. As I found in my draw my first 2 year coin, and I don't remember even getting it. I did not!! want to be clean and sober the first time in. I came in for all the wrong reasons. I was not drinking or using for 6 years, but I was NOT ready.

LITTLE THINGS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

There was a man taking his morning walk on the beach. He saw that along with the morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded,
they were left behind and with the suns’ morning rays, they would die.
The tide was fresh and the starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly.