Latest / Sober Readings / Listening Deeply
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome back to Silver Readings. Today is Wednesday, August the fifth. Let's begin today's episode with the Serenity Pro. Use 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, listening deeply. How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just what we shall act. And that's on page 37 of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. If I accept and act upon the advice of those who have made the program work for themselves, I have a chance to outgrow the limits of the past. Some problems will shrink to nothingness, while others may require patient, well thought out action. Listening deeply when others share can develop intuition in handling problems which arise unexpectedly. It is usually best for me to avoid impetuous action. Attending a meeting or calling a fellow AA member will usually reduce tension enough to bring relief to a desperate sufferer like me. Sharing problems at meetings with other alcoholics to whom I relate or privately with my sponsor. can change aspects of the positions in which I find myself. Character defects are identified and I begin to see how they work against me. When I put my faith in the spiritual power of the program, when I trust others to teach me what I need to do to have a better life, I find that I can trust myself to do what is necessary. Today's reading from twenty four hours a day, August five, AA Thought for the Day. We in AA are offering a spiritual program. The fundamental basis of AA is belief in some power greater than ourselves. This belief takes us off the center of the universe and allows us to transfer our problems to some power outside of ourselves. We turn to this power for the strength we need to get sober and stay sober. We put our drink problem in God's hands and leave it there. We stop trying to run our own life. And seek to let God run it for us. And today's question of the day, do I do my best to give spiritual help? The meditation for the day. God is your healer and your strength. You do not have to ask him to come to you. He is always with you in spirit. At your moment of need, he is there to help you. Could you know God's love and his desire to help you, you would know that he needs no pleading for help. Your need is God's opportunity. You must learn to rely on God's strength whenever you need it. Whenever you feel inadequate to any situation, you should realize that the feeling of inadequacy is disloyalty to God. Just say to yourself, I know that God is with me and will help me to think and say and do the right thing. In today's prayer for the day, I pray that I may never feel inadequate to any situation. I pray that I may be bullied up by the feeling that God is with me. Today's meditation from Touchstone. The whole problem is to establish communication with oneself. That's a quote from E. B. White. We are like many faceted gemstones. Each side represents a different aspect of ourselves. We have our emotional sides with different feelings and responses. We have our competencies and strengths, hopes and desires, destructiveness and negativity, self doubts and resentments. We also possess a drive for power and knowledge, a desire to serve, and a wish to connect with others. Our spiritual masculinity requires that we know our many sides. We need a working relationship with our thoughts and feelings so they can be appreciated, accepted, and understood. When we tell our story in a meeting, we let others know us, and we get to know ourselves better. When we are spontaneous in what we say or do, we communicate with ourselves. We discover ourselves through meditation, journal writing, playfulness, and Physical activity and conversations with others. In that way, we become more honest. Today I will use my lines of communication with myself and become more self-accepting and more honest. For today's final reading, I'm gonna read from as Bill Sees It. Today I'm reading from page 329. Do it our way? That's a question. In praying, our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help others as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification. If it be thy will. And that's from page one zero two of twelve and twelve. And that's it for today's readings. Before I close, this last reading from Asbil sees it was from the twelve and twelve, page one zero two. So let's go to the twelve steps and twelve solutions, page one zero two, and finish out that last paragraph. So it ended on saying, If it be thy will. And the last sentence in that paragraph says We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out. And again that's from page one zero two of the twelve and twelve, that's part of step eleven. This passage reminds us that we don't need to understand God's entire plan for our lives all at once. We simply ask for enough guidance to know the next right thing for today. Along with the willingness, courage, and strength to follow through. In sobriety, this keeps us from becoming overwhelmed by the future or trapped in our own thinking. We seek direction one day at a time and trust that when we stay open and willing, the grace we need is available to help us live according to that guidance. And so that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. I'd love to hear your comments. And thoughts on today's readings and on step eleven. If you'd like to be a guest reader and come on and talk about step eleven, I'd love to have you just send me an email at sober readingswithscott at gmail.com and we can make that happen. So again, thanks so much for listening today. 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.