Daily Recovery Readings

June 29, 2017

Daily Reflection

A RIPPLING EFFECT

Having learned to live so happily, we’d show everyone else how. . . . Yes, we of A.A. did dream those dreams. How natural that was, since most alcoholics are bankrupt idealists. . . . So why shouldn’t we share our way of life with everyone?

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 156

The great discovery of sobriety led me to feel the need to spread the “good news” to the world around me. The grandiose thoughts of my drinking days returned. Later, I learned that concentrating on my own recovery was a full-time process. As I became a sober citizen in this world, I observed a rippling effect which, without any conscious effort on my part, reached any “related facility or outside enterprise,” without diverting me from my primary purpose of staying sober and helping other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

From the book Daily Reflections
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Big Book Quote

“We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill. How could we escape? We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish them away any more than alcohol.”

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 66~

Keep It Simple

I don’t believe in the life afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.
—Woody Allen

Most of us have many questions about a Higher Power. Sometimes we have more questions than answers. No matter how much we believe about God, there are always questions. Why do bad things happen if God is good? Does God punish people?

Is God called Jesus, Buddha, the Great Spirit? Perhaps we’ve chosen a name for our Higher Power, or maybe we haven’t. Yet, we know there is some Power great than ourselves that’s helping us in recovery.

We know what we need to know about God for today. We know how to ask for help, and how to accept help.

Prayer for the Day:
Higher Power, help me to know You more clearly. There’s much I’m not sure about. For now, I will act as if the help I get comes from You.

Action for the Day:
I’ll think of three ways my Higher Power has done just the right thing for me.

Daily Horoscope – Cancer

You don’t appreciate it when people take advantage of your loving nature. Unfortunately, someone might be pressuring you to support their cause as domineering Pluto opposes Mercury in your reclusive sign. However, the more you are pushed, the more you resist any effort to manipulate your behavior. Your first inclination is to walk away from conflict, but it’s smarter to get everything out into the open today. Break through your resistance because nothing will be said if you wait for others to stand up for you. You are the only person who can change your life.