Latest / Sober Readings / Bringing The Message Home
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, and welcome to a Sunday episode of Sober Readings. My name is Scott. I am glad you're here with me. Today is Sunday, August 23rd. Let's get started today with the Serenity Prayer. God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. Today's reading from Daily Reflections bringing the message home. Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our AA group? That's a question from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pages 111 to 112. My family members suffer from the effects of my disease. Loving and accepting them as they are, just as I love and accept AA members, fosters a return of love, tolerance, and harmony to my life. Using common courtesy and respecting others' personal boundaries are necessary practices for all areas of my life. Today's reading from 24 hours a day. August 23. AA Thought for the Day. We who have accepted the AA principles have been faced with the necessity for a thorough personal house cleaning. We must face and be rid of the things in our lives that have been blocking us. We therefore take a personal inventory. We take stock honestly. We search out the flaws in our makeup that caused our failure. Resentment is the number one offender. Life that includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. If we are to live, we must be free of anger. So the question is, am I free of resentment and anger? Today's Meditation for the Day. Keep in mind the goal you are striving for, the good life you are trying to attain. Do not let little things divert you from the path. Do not be overcome by the small trials and vexations of each day. Try to see the purpose and plan to which all is leading. If, when climbing a mountain, you keep your eyes on each stony or difficult place, how weary is your climb? But if you think of each step as leading to the summit of achievement from which a glorious landscape will open out before you, then your climb will be endurable and you will achieve your goal. The prayer for the day. I pray that I may realize that life without a goal is futile. I pray that I may find the good life worth striving for. Today's meditation from touchstones. Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision. And that's a quote from Stevie Wonder. It has been easy for many of us to meet our limitations with self pity. Maybe we think being a real man means always being strong, capable, good looking, and in charge. If we have a disability such as blindness or learning disorder, we may have thought we were less masculine or less worthy. All of us have disabilities. Some are greater than others and some are more visible than others, but they all confront us with our powerlessness. We do not find our finest human qualities until we have met our limitations and accepted them. A new side of our strength develops when we accept our powerlessness and yield to it rather than trying to take charge of it. We develop greater vision when we stop feeling sorry for ourselves about our disability and surrender to its truth. We then see our kinship with all men and women who struggle with their limitations. Today I will set aside self pity and remember to be grateful for the lessons my limitations have taught me. Today's reading from Keep It Simple Daily Meditations for Twelve Step Beginnings and Renewal August twenty third Where there is no vision, a people perish. That's a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Working our program teaches us to see things more clearly. We learn to look at who we really are. At first, we're scared to see ourselves. But it turns out okay. We have others to remind us that we're okay, even though we're not perfect. We also begin to see others more clearly. We see good in people we don't like. And we see faults in people we thought were perfect. But we don't judge people anymore. Nobody is perfect. Just as our program friends accept us as we are, we learn to accept others. And the prayer for the day in this book, higher power, sometimes I don't like what I see. Help me to believe your way will work for me. Help me have vision and the action for the day. I will use my new way of seeing things to avoid trouble today. And that brings us to the end of today's readings. I wanted to go back to daily reflections and talk about that for a minute. The title was Bringing the Message Home. And the question was, can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our AA group? One of the challenges of recovery is asking whether I can do that, whether I can bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into my family life that I so willingly bring into the meetings. In the rooms I can listen to someone without judging them, forgive their shortcomings, accept that they're struggling, and remind myself that they are doing their best. Yet at home, with the people closest to me, the patience can disappear quickly. Old resentments, expectations, hurt feelings, And familiar arguments can make family life feel almost deranged at times. It's challenging in recovery to practice the principles where they're often the hardest to practice. Love and tolerance can't be something I reserve for the people sitting around the tables in the rooms. They have to follow me home. Sometimes that means listening instead of defending myself, or accepting instead of trying to control, or forgiving instead of keeping score. And also remembering that the people I love deserve at least as much grace as the stranger sitting across from me at the meetings. And I'm interested how you do this. How do you bring the meeting version of you home and practice these principles at home with your family? Send me an email at sober readings with Scott at gmail dot com, or you can be a guest reader with me and we can talk about it on air. And that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you so much for listening, everyone. If you'd like to help me pass on the message, click that like button and also share this episode with someone you think might like it or might need it. Also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket, just go to my website, sobereadings.com and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening, everyone. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll catch you in the next episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other. And remember, just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting. And keep coming back. Have a great day, everyone, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.