Prayer

 

Prayer can change us dramatically. It can open our eyes to the intricate beauty in the things and people in our life. Prayer can help us see the people we pray for—whether friend or adversary—with greater clarity and love. Our gratitude for friends is heightened; our resentment toward adversaries lessens. Barriers mysteriously disappear when we look upon our enemies prayerfully.

The Eleventh Step suggests that prayer may be as simple as asking for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out. We therefore seek God’s presence anywhere we are and in anyone we’re with. This is prayer as action, as a commitment to fully invest ourselves in life. When prayer is how we live our life, we are able to honor whatever life gives us by responding with acceptance and hope.

Today I will look upon the people and events in my life prayerfully, and be open to the riches I am afforded.

reading is from the book In God's Care: Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery*

Voices in Our Heads

 

Opinions, reactions, criticisms, regrets—from morning till night, our thoughts spin the fabric of our day. We listen as if powerless as thoughts free or torment us, energize us or weigh us down. They may talk about shame, fear, and resentment—or pride, faith, and gratitude.

Instead of letting ourselves be controlled by the ceaseless voices in our heads, we remind ourselves of our options. We can sit in meditation, noticing the flow of thoughts and gently detaching from them. We can change our negative thinking, deliberately focusing on images of comfort, courage, and healing. We choose to give such positive thoughts our attention, letting them fill us with hope and serenity. We can receive help with releasing negative thoughts by talking with a trusted friend or sponsor or attending a recovery meeting.

Today, I am nourished and supported by positive thoughts. I choose my thoughts as I do my friends, staying with those I find uplifting.

Mistaken Relationship.

Our active addiction took us away from a life connected to our Higher Power, family, friends, community, and spiritual principles. During our active addiction, our primary relationship was with alcohol or drugs. Addiction is an illness of mistaken relationship. We believed we could get emotional needs meet through a relationship with chemicals. We can’t.

Now, in recovery, we get back to living instead of dying. We work to heal the wounds our illness created within our families. We see trust being created. We no longer avoid police officers, for we are respectable citizens again. We regularly pray and meditate. We feel the presence of our Higher Power again in our life.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, you gave me life for a purpose. Help me live that purpose to its fullest. When I want to avoid life, place me back in the middle of it. When I feel like I can’t go on, give me strength.

Today's Action

Today I will do at least one task that I have been avoiding. I will remind myself that avoiding tasks takes more energy than doing them.

from the book God Grant Me: More Daily Meditations

Deciding to recover was our first step. That decision meant we did want to go beyond where we were. We did want something better for ourselves. And at times, in fleeting moments, we have been excited about who we are and our prospects for a better life.

The excitement and the inspiration come and go; they are seldom stationary. We can actively create the excitement and the inspiration. We need not wait for them to come to us. That's one of the choices we have as

OPENING UP TO CHANGE

Self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. With it comes the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. . . . we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life - the one that did not work - for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever. 
                                                        AS BILL SEES IT, pp. 10, 8

I have been given a daily reprieve contingent upon my spiritual condition, provided I seek progress, not perfection.  To become ready for change, I practice willingness, opening myself to possibilities of change. If I realize there are defects that hinder my usefulness in A.A. and toward others, I become ready by meditating and receiving direction.

My Attitude

 

Reflection for the Day

It’s time for me to realize that my attitude—toward the life I’m living and the people in it—can have a tangible, measurable, and profound effect on what happens to me day by day. If I expect good, then good will surely come to me. And if I try each day to base my attitude and point of view on a sound spiritual foundation, I know it will change all the circumstances of my life for the better, too. Do I accept the fact that I have been given only a daily reprieve that is contingent on

Forming new habits

 

We form habits, and then these habits begin to form us. For so long we had such self-destructive ways of being: we were self-centered, angry, and critical people, and so we behaved selfishly, angrily, and judgmentally in the world.

To stay sober we must develop new habits, new patterns of living. We must give up old hangouts, old friends, old attitudes and ideas. It seems this is the only way to form new habits—

Choices

By doing a Fourth Step, we start to see ourselves more clearly. We see how we’ve acted against ourselves. Soon, we hear a little voice inside telling us to stop before we act. “Are you sure you want to say or do that?” the little voice asks. Then we make a choice: we do something the same old way, or we try a new way.

One part of us will always want to do things the old, sick way. This is natural. But we’re getting stronger every day.