Because there are more than one (pointed to by Silkworth.net);
“As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day ‘Thy will be done.’ ” (p. 87-88)
God, I’m agitated and doubtful right now. Help me to stop and remember that I’ve made a decision to let You be my God. Give me the right thoughts and actions. God save me from fear, anger, worry, self-pity or foolish decisions that Your will not …read more

By following the thoughts of the Eleventh Step Prayer;
The Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred . . . let me sow love
Where there is injury . . . pardon
Where there is doubt . . . faith
Where there is despair . . . hope
Where there is darkness . . . light
Where there is sadness . . . joy
Divine Master,
grant that i may not so much seek
To be consoled . . . as to console
To be understood . . . as to understand,
To be loved . . . as to love
For it is …read more

There is a particular writing in our literature that is of life-saving importance to me because it reminds me that the God I understand loves me in spite of me. It’s today’s Daily Reflection;
“Occasionally…. We are seized with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won’t pray. When these things happen we should not think too ill of ourselves. We should simply resume prayer as soon as we can, doing what we know to be good for us.”
From my experience, these moments truly are sickening. Yet knowing they are sickening and then extracting myself from them are two separate stories.
The …read more

“With Us It Is Just Like That”
From pages 14-15;
“Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.”
Then, from page 16;
“Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us …read more

On January 6th, 1990 and He’ll do it for you too!
“How It Works” tells us;
“It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink …read more

As it does far too often for my personal happiness – today…
From pages 104-105 in AA’s 12&12;
“We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms.”
I’m going to tell you from personal experience not to get your expectations up even though you’ve stopped placing demands upon the God you understand.
“Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God.”
Not …read more

Ladies and gentlemen – if you’re new to recovery and have been told to pray your troubles away, take heed, please. God is not a puppeteer. God doesn’t pull our strings and automatically extract us from the situations we place ourselves in. God does not do for us what we can do for ourselves!
When we were drinking (or using or whatever) and we prayed, how often were our prayers answered to our satisfaction? Now that we’re early into recovery, without having practiced the Twelve Steps, how much do you think our praying has changed?
So, if you’re feeling disconnected after a …read more

I think today’s Daily Reflections is one of those that has the capacity to enlarge your expectations…
Forming True Partnerships
“But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being.”
Can these words apply to me, am I still unable to form a true partnership with another human being? What a terrible handicap that would be for me to carry into …read more

And I’ll waver in and out of it, dammit, because I have basic human instincts…
As I do so often – from “The Language of the Heart” page 237-238 (I ought to set up a cot on these pages)
“My basic flaw had always been dependence – almost absolute dependence – on people or circumstances to supply me with prestige, security, and the like.”
It’s that “and the like” stuff that gets me! Bill doesn’t talk about love, affection, attention, a feeling of worthiness, a feeling of being needed, in this area. “And the like.” He does speak of depression, which I am …read more

As a reminder;
The Tablemate was an early A.A. set of beginners lessons entitled ‘Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps,’ put out in the form of a little pamphlet. It was (and still is) the most successful set of A.A. beginners lessons ever devised.
And I’m drawing content from the Hindsfoot site, laboriously prepared by Glenn C. and others… We are now in Discussion No. 2: The Spiritual Phase (III) (see part I and part II)

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Step No. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
The meaning of this step is clear: prayer, humility.