Latest / Sober Readings / Love And Tolerance
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, happy Friday. Today is the 20th of March. This is Sober Readings. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. Love and Tolerance. Love and tolerance of others is our code. That's a line from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 84. I have found that I have to forgive others in all situations to maintain any real spiritual progress. The vital importance of forgiving may not be obvious to me at first sight, but my studies tell me that every great spiritual teacher has insisted strongly upon it. I must forgive injuries, not just in words or as a matter of form, but in my heart. I do this not for the other person's sake, but for my own sake. Resentment, anger, or desire to see someone punished are things that rot my soul. Such things fasten my troubles to me with chains. They tie me to other problems that have nothing to do with my original problem. Today's reading from 24 Hours. Where will I end up? In the gutter or the sanitarium? We can see ourselves slipping, getting worse and worse, and we wonder what the finish will be. Sometimes we get so discouraged in thinking about the future that we toy with the idea of suicide. Ask yourself, in AA have I stopped worrying about the future? the meditation for the day. Functioning on a material plane alone takes me away from God. I must also try to function on a spiritual plane. Functioning on a spiritual plane as well as on a material plane will make life what it should be. All material activities are valueless in themselves alone. But all activities, seemingly trivial or of seemingly great moment, are all alike if directed by God's guidance. I must try to obey God as I would expect a faithful, willing servant to carry out directions. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that the flow of God's Spirit may come to me through many channels. I pray that I may function on a spiritual plane as well as on a material plane. And today's final reading is from As Bill Sees It. Today we're reading from page 262. Individual Responsibilities. Let us emphasize that our reluctance to fight one another, or anybody else, is not counted as some special virtue which entitles us AA's to feel superior to other people. Nor does this reluctance mean that the members of AA are going to back away from their individual responsibilities as citizens. Here they should feel free to act as they see the right upon the public issues of our times. But when it comes to AA as a whole, That's quite a different matter. As a group, we do not enter into public controversy because we are sure that our society will perish if we do. And that's from the 12 and 12 page 177. Before I close, I'd like to comment on this reading from As Bill Sees It. In this first line, it talks about our reluctance to fight one another or anybody else. And it just reminds me of page 84 of the big book where it says we ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol. And what they're talking about is the shift from resistance to acceptance. And it indicates a shift towards accepting rather than fighting life circumstances and my past and everything else that life throws at me during the day. It allows for a certain level of emotional and mental peace. during my day because it's a turning point where I no longer feel like alcohol is the enemy and I'm fighting every day. And for me, that obsession has been lifted, but that was only through working the 12 steps of the program, attending meetings regularly, and staying active in Alcoholics Anonymous. I was having a conversation with my therapist just the other day and it kind of ties into this individual responsibilities. topic and fighting everything and everyone and he brought up the concept of relapse of thought versus relapse of behavior and the amount of time between those relapse of thought should get farther apart as time goes on in sobriety but for me when I stopped going to meetings and stopped being an active part of the fellowship there was really nothing between that relapse of thought and the relapse of behavior You see, when I consistently attend meetings, sobriety is fresh in my head. So that when I do have those thoughts, I know how to deal with them. They're just thoughts they'll pass, they'll go away. But if I'm not active in the program, then those thoughts tend to hang around and roll around in my head more often. And eventually, those thoughts will turn into behaviors. And one of those behaviors is, like they say in this reading, fighting everyone and everything. And that can lead me right back to a drink. So I'd love to hear your thoughts and your comments on this. Send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com or you can go to my website and fill out the form. That's at soberreadings.com. And if you haven't followed the show, click that scrolling red link that says follow the show. And if you'd like to drop a dollar in the donation basket for today's readings, just click the donate button. So again, thanks for listening, everyone. 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.