Latest / Sober Readings / When The Going Gets Rough
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Sunday, the fourteenth of June. My name is Scott, and I am glad you're here. Let's begin 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 the wisdom to know the difference. From Daily Reflections today for June fourteenth, when the going gets rough. It is a design for living that works in rough going. That's a line from Alcoholics Anonymous page fifteen. When I came to AA, I realized that AA worked wonderfully to help keep me sober. But could it work on real life problems not concerned with drinking? I had my doubts. After being sober for more than two years I got my answer. I lost my job, developed physical problems, my diabetic father lost a leg. And someone I loved left me for another. And all of this happened during a two-week period. Reality crashed in, yet AA was there to support, comfort, and strengthen me. The principles I had learned during my early days of sobriety became a mainstay of my life, for not only did I come through, but I never stopped being able to help newcomers. AA taught me not to be overwhelmed, but rather to accept and understand my life as it unfolded. Today's reading from twenty four hours june fourteenth AA thought for the day. In AA, we have to learn that drink is our greatest enemy. Although we used to think that liquor was our friend, the time came when it turned against us and became our enemy. We don't know just when this happened, but we know that it did because we began to get into trouble, jails and hospitals. We realize now that liquor is our enemy. Is it still my main business to keep sober? Today's meditation for the day. It is not your circumstances that need altering so much as yourself. After you have changed, conditions will naturally change. Spare no effort to become all that God would have you become. Follow every good leading of your conscience. Take each day with no backward look. Face the day's problems with God and seek God's help and guidance as to what you should do in every situation that may arise. Never look back. Never leave until tomorrow the thing that you are guided to do today. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that God will help me to become all that He would have me be. I pray that I may face today's problems with good grace. Today's meditation from Touchstones. The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. Max Lerner. When we consider all the troubles and crises in our lives and all the scrapes we've gotten into, we might feel overwhelmed. With what we have gone through, it seems miraculous for many of us to be here today. When we stop feeling sorry for ourselves and when we stop complaining about the unfairness of it all, we may get a new insight. I have survived. We see the strength and persistence that brought us through the toughest times we have known. Even when some of us did not know it, we were being carried along by our higher power. We can draw strength from that knowledge. We can remind ourselves today that knowing what we have lived through with the help of our higher power, we can deal with anything to come. I am grateful to my higher power for help in surviving the hard times in life. And finally, today a reading from As Bill Sees It. Today we're gonna read from page 297, A Vision of the Whole. Though many of us have had to struggle for sobriety, never yet has this fellowship had to struggle for lost unity. Consequently, we sometimes take this one great gift for granted. We forget that should we lose our unity, the millions of alcoholics who still do not know might never get their chance. That was in a letter written in nineteen forty nine. We used to be skeptical about large AA gatherings like conventions, thinking they might prove too exhibitionistic. But on balance, their benefit is huge. While each AA's interest should center principally in those about him and upon his own group, it is both necessary and desirable that we all get a larger vision of the whole. The General Service Conference in New York also produces this effect upon those who attend. It is a vision stretching process. And that was from a letter written in nineteen fifty-six. And that's it for today's readings. I do have a couple comments. One is on this last reading from As Bill Sees It, and I can totally relate to this ⁓ last sentence here. It is a vision stretching process concerning large AA gatherings. A few years back, some friends and I rode our motorcycles out to Akron, Ohio for Founders Weekend. And I can tell you that there's nothing like sitting in a stadium with thirty thousand other people s all saying the serenity prayer at the same time. It was amazing and I learned so much about AA that weekend. So I would absolutely recommend Founders Weekend if you can make it. And then I'd like to back up to the AA thought for the day from the twenty four hours book. Each after at the end of each AA thought for the day it asks a simple question and and today's question was Is it still my main business to keep sober? Or put in other words, do I put my sobriety first, ahead of everything? Yeah, I've been told that whatever I put before my sobriety, my relationships, my finance, my stuff, I will lose. My last relapse taught me, showed me, convinced me that it is true. And although I didn't lose everything, I have to use the word yet at the end of that sentence. I didn't lose everything yet. Because I would have, eventually, ⁓ because the road that I was on was a short one. What I lost was my sanity and my freedom. So for me, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. It is still, and I pray always will be, my main business to keep sober. And so that brings us to the end of today's episode of Sober Readings. I hope you enjoyed the show. ⁓ if you'd like to be a guest reader on the show, send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com. I would love to have you. Also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, soberreadings.com, and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening. 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, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.