Latest / Sober Readings / Today, I'm Free
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning everyone, welcome to Sober Readings. Happy Monday. Today is the twenty second of June. Let's begin today's episode 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. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. Today I'm free. This brought me to the good healthy realization that there were plenty of situations left in the world over which I had no personal power, that if I was so ready to admit that to be the case with alcohol, so I must make the same admission with respect to much else. I would have to be still and know that he, not I, was God. And that's from page one hundred four of As Bill sees it. I am learning to practice acceptance in all circumstances of my life. So that I may enjoy peace of mind. At one time life was a constant battle because I felt I had to go through each day fighting myself and everyone else. Eventually this became a losing battle. I ended up getting drunk and crying over my misery. When I began to let go and let God take over my life, I began to have peace of mind. Today I am free. I do not have to fight anybody or anything anymore. From twenty four hours june twenty two AA Thought for the Day If you have any doubt, just ask any of the older members of the AA group, and they will readily tell you that since they turn their lives over to the care of God as they understand him, many of their problems have vanished into the forgotten yesterdays. When you allow yourself to be upset over one thing, you succeed only in opening the door for the coming of hundreds of other upsetting things. So ask yourself today, am I allowing myself to be upset over little things? The meditation for the day. I would do well not to think of the Red Sea of difficulties that lies ahead. I am sure that when I come to that Red Sea, the waters will part and I will be given all the power I need to face and overcome many difficulties and meet what is in store for me with courage. I believe that I will pass through that Red Sea to the Promised Land and the land of spirit where many souls meet in perfect comradeship. I believe that when that time comes I will be freed of all the dross of material things and find peace. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may face the future with courage. I pray that I may be given strength to face both life and death fearlessly. Today's daily meditation from Touchstone. My father didn't tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it. And that's a line from Clarence Buddington Calland. We learn much of what we need to know about being men from models we have in other men. Some of us have fond memories of being next to our fathers and imitating their ways. Many of us also have the feeling of a gap in our models. Perhaps our fathers weren't around enough. Or we may have rejected some of their habits and values, creating an uncertainty about masculine roles. We may feel unsure of ourselves, or we may berate ourselves for what we don't know. It is well to remember how much we have already learned in our adult years. It is never too late. No man ever reaches adulthood having learned everything from his father that he will need to know about masculinity. We can look around us for more models in the men we know. For a man to be our model, we first choose someone we admire, and then get to know him well. In this way we carry on the human tradition of one man learning from another. I am continuing to grow, and I can learn from the men I know now. And finally, today a reading from As Bill Sees It. Today we're gonna read from page 302 Comradeship in Peril. We AAs are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck, when camaraderie, joyousness, and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's table. Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of sharing in a common peril, relapse into alcoholism. Continues to be an important element in the powerful cement which binds us of AA together. That's on page seventeen of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Our first woman alcoholic had been a patient of doctor Harry Tebout's, and he had handed her a pre publication manuscript copy of the big book. The first reading made her rebellious, but the second convinced her. Presently she came to a meeting held in our living room. And from there she returned to the sanitarium carrying this classic message to a fellow patient. We aren't alone anymore. And that's on page eighteen of AA Comes of Age. And that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. I hope you enjoyed those readings. If you did and you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket, just go to my website, soberreadings.com, and click the donate button. So 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.