But there is another kind of hangover which we all experience whether we are drinking or not. When a drunk has a terrific hangover because he drank heavily yesterday, he cannot live well today. Step Ten – “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” I get out of the hospital and we visit some of these new-found friends. My wife hears my voice and knows I have found the answer to life. Pioneer A.A., minister’s son, and southern farmer, he asked, “Who am I to say there is no God?” It’s moving me ever closer to understanding life’s mysteries. Instead of dreading the unfamiliar, I will be glad for it. Today, and every day, I will have an opportunity to think creatively and to rely on my inner guide. However, most problems are dispensed with by seeing them as opportunities for creative response, calmly seeking guidance and then moving ahead slowly, being aware of the effects of our actions. Most problems don’t fit an easy solution or a familiar one. Acting “as if” is the next best thing, the program tells us, and it is.Īcting “as if” also comes in handy when only a minor kink interferes with the day’s progression. To consciously behave like a responsible 42-year-old is out of the question. Perhaps we feel 12 years old, instead of 42. There are those days we feel like crawling under the covers and staying there, certain that we can’t handle whatever might be asked of us. I’ll let myself live them today.Įveryday … life confronts us with new problems to be solved which force us to adjust our old programs accordingly.įacing the day straight on is occasionally difficult to do. I want to trust in You, my program, and myself.Īction for the Day: I’ll write the program slogans listed above on a piece of paper, and I’ll read them over today. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I give You my worries. Our slogans also suggest what to do with worry. On Step Three, we turn our will and our lives over to God. Our program is full of ideas about what to do with worry. The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. It seems plain that the grace of God will not enter to expel our destructive obsessions until we are willing to try this. Most of us would declare that without a fearless admission of our defects to another human being, we could not stay sober. Psychiatrists and psychologists point out the deep need every human being has for practical insight and knowledge of his own personal flaws and a discussion of them with an understanding and trustworthy person. It has been validated in every century, and it characterizes the lives of all spiritually centered and truly religious people.īut today religion is by no means the sole advocate of this saving principle. The practice of admitting one’s defects to another person is, of course, very ancient. I pray that my thoughts may be guided by His thoughts. I pray that I may try to think God’s thoughts after Him. Obeyed, they will bring you the answers to your prayers. Your impulses seem to become less your own and more the leading of God’s spirit acting through your thoughts. ![]() Act on this guidance and you will be led to better things. The attitude of “Thy will, not mine, be done’ leads to clear guidance. If you are honestly trying to live the way you believe God wants you to live, you can get guidance from God in times of quiet communion with Him, provided your thoughts are directed toward God’s will and all good things. Have I learned to look through the bottle to the better life that lies ahead? ![]() ![]() No matter how good liquor looks from the short view, we must realize that in the long run it is poison to us. We have to look through the night before to the morning after. We have to look through the glass to what lies beyond it. We have to take a long view of drinking instead of a short view. The example of my sobriety may give others hope, and faith to help themselves. Understanding the havoc I created and trying to repair the destruction, will be a lifelong endeavor. Making amends to my family, and to the families of alcoholics still suffering, will always be important. It is important for me to realize that, as an alcoholic, I not only hurt myself, but also those around me. The entire family is to some extent, ill.” “Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
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