Daily Reflections
June 28
THE DETERMINATION OF OUR FOUNDERS
A year and six months later these three had succeeded with seven more.
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 159
If it had not been for the fierce determination of our founders, A. A. would have quickly faded like so many other so-called good causes. I look at the hundreds of meetings weekly in the city where I live and I know A. A. is available twenty-four hours a day. If I had had to hang on with nothing but hope and a desire not to drink, experiencing rejection wherever I went, I would have sought the easier, softer way and returned to my previous way of life.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
June 28
A. A. Thought for the Day
You can prove to yourself that life is basically and fundamentally an inner attitude. Just try to remember what troubled you most a week ago. You probably will find it difficult to remember. Why then should you unduly worry or fret over the problems that arise today? Your attitude toward them can be changed by putting yourself and your problems in God’s hands and trusting Him to see that everything will turn out all right, provided you are trying to do the right thing. Your changed mental attitude toward your problems relieves you of their burden and you can face them without fear. Has my mental attitude changed?
Meditation for the Day
You cannot see the future. It’s a blessing that you cannot. You could not bear to know all the future. That is why God only reveals it to you day by day. The first step is to lay your will before God as an offering, ready for God to do what is best for you. Be sure that, if you trust God, what He does for you will be for the best. The second step is to be confident that God is powerful enough to do anything He wills, and that no miracle in human lives is impossible with Him. Then leave the future to God.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may gladly leave my future in God’s hands. I pray that I may be confident that good things will happen, as long as I am on the right path.
Walk In Dry Places
June 28
Why it works.
Confidence.
Twelve Step meetings often begin with a reading from a famous Fifth chapter, “How it works.” We know that the program does work, but why? Is there a secret or magic to it?
The real reason the program works is neither secret nor magic. The program actually relies on ancient principles that always amaze people when they are employed: Help Others, and you help yourself. Clean up your own house. Put your trust in God, not frail human beings or shaky institutions. Remove false gods, such as alcohol and other drugs.
There may be additional reasons for the program’s success, but these are enough for a start. The Twelve Step program does work.
I’ll take comfort today in knowing that I’m walking in a way that has been tested and proven. The program works if I let it work.
Keep It Simple
June 28
The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.
–Stanley J. Randall
Trying to be perfect get us into trouble. Trying to be perfect means we’re trying to control things.
We may be trying to cover up something. Maybe we aren’t facing our pain. Maybe we’ve hurt someone and we need to make amends.
We need to practice being human. Humans aren’t perfect. In Steps Six and Seven, we face our human limits and our shortcomings. We then start the lifelong job of letting them go. To accept our human limits leads us to our Higher Power. We see how we need a guide in life. Our Higher Power makes a perfect guide.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me accept that I can’t be perfect. Help me be a good human being.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list my shortcoming. I’ll talk with a friend about them. I’ll ask my friend to tell me what my good qualities are.
I can get more out of God by believing Him for one minute than by shouting at Him all night.
–Smith Wigglesworth
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.
–Abraham Lincoln
“A positive attitude is like a fire – Unless you continue to add fuel, it goes out.”
–Alexander Lockhart
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
–John Lubbock
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth!
–George W. Crane
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
June 28
WINE
“One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man
mistake words for thoughts.”
–Samuel Johnson
Alcohol produced problems in my life. I was unable to control my drinking and the result was catastrophe. I hurt people. I endangered my health. I ruin my productivity. I became lonely. I felt isolated. I was forever getting into arguments. The police were often involved. People who loved me had to walk away from me for their own sanity. Alcohol made my life a mess!
Today I can see this and I am glad I made the spiritual decision to refuse the first drink. Today I am getting my life together. I am becoming a productive citizen. I have friends and relationships again. But I need to remember what I must never forget:
Alcohol + Me = Problems.
Lord, alcohol is a gift I can refuse.
Daily Inspiration
June 28
Be easier on yourself and more forgiving so that you can begin to recognize the depth of the wisdom you already possess. Lord, help me look beyond my shortcomings so that I am better able to get through my difficult moments and am able to spend more time enjoying who I am.
One of life’s greatest rewards is not what we get, but what we become. Lord, teach me as I am able to learn and give me the courage to be all that I can.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day – June 28
“Whenever you take anything from the Earth, remember to leave an offering.”
–Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
We need to look at nature and its inhabitants as our brothers and sisters. Whenever we pick plants or herbs, we should leave an offering of tobacco. We should talk to the plants and ask their permission to use them. The plants will feel honored to be of service for each of them knows they are here to serve. Each of them knows they carry a special medicine and this medicine is about continuing the cycle of life. We need always to be grateful to our brothers and sisters.
Creator, I thank you for the opportunity of life.
Today’s Gift
June 28
It’s the deepest channel that runs most true.
—Kate Wolf
The greatest rivers spread themselves out wide and lazy over the earth. They roll over on themselves like great turtles turning in the warm sun. A river flows, drawn to the oceans, carving ever-deepening channels, nestling snug in the earth’s welcoming lap. The current is strongest in the deepest channel. Boat navigators know that finding that channel means finding the swiftest current and the safest voyage home.
When we look at a river, or at another person, we see only the surface. What keeps our attention is usually some movement or activity on the surface. But there is more than meets the eye, especially to people. When we overlook someone because that person is quiet or simple, we may be robbing ourselves of an eye-opening discovery.
Which deeper things can I look for in my day?
Touchstones
Meditation For Men
June 28
We fear our highest possibility (as well as our lowest one). We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments.
—Abraham Maslow
In our daily lives, we may dream of success and achievement. We strive and compete in the workplace. We go to meetings and do our part on each Step in the program searching for better lives. When success comes, we are faced with a new problem we could not have expected. It comes as an outcome of some hard work, some good luck, and some help from our friends. It is frightening to have a good thing in our lives and not be in control of it.
We are just as powerless over our successes as we are over the worst of our behaviors. We can only be faithful to our duties and ourselves. The successes, which flow from our work, come and go. Since we can’t nail them down, they may make us feel insecure. Many a man has destroyed his moment of success because he couldn’t stand the powerless feeling. We must return to our program and allow success to rise and fall, as it will.
Today, I turn to my Higher Power for help in accepting success.
Daily TAO
June 28
War
Weapons are tools of ill omen
Wielded by the ignorant.
If their use is unavoidable,
The wise act with restraint.
The greatest sorrow is to be a veteran,
Witness to the atrocities of humanity.
If you hold a real weapon in your hand, you will feel its character strongly. It begs to be used. It is fearsome. Its only purpose is death, and its power is not just in the material from which it is made but also from the intention of its makers.
It is regrettable that weapons must sometimes be used, but occasionally, survival demands it. The wise go forth with weapons only as a last resort. They never rejoice in the skill of weapons, nor do they glorify war.
When death, pain, and destruction are visited upon what you hold to be most sacred, the spiritual price is devastating. What hurts more than one’s own suffering is bearing witness to the suffering of others. The regret of seeing human beings at their worst and the sheer pain of not being able to help the victims can never be redeemed. If you to personally to war, you cross the line yourself. You sacrifice ideals for survival and the fury of killing. That alters you forever. That is why no one rushes to be a veteran. Think before you want to change so unalterably. The stakes are not merely one’s life, but one’s very humanity.