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- Scott Hayes: Good morning and welcome back to Sober Readings. Today is Sunday, the 30th of August. Let's start with the serenity prayer today. 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. From daily reflections, the only requirement. At one time, every AA group had many membership rules. Everybody was scared witless that something or somebody would capsize the boat. The total list was a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined AA at all. That's from the twelve steps and twelve traditions, pages one hundred thirty nine to one hundred forty three. I'm grateful that the third tradition only requires of me a desire to stop drinking. I had been breaking promises for years. In the fellowship, I didn't have to make promises. I didn't have to concentrate. It only required my attending one meeting in a foggy condition to know I was home. I didn't have to pledge undying love. Here, strangers hugged me. It gets better, they said, and one day at a time, you can do it. There were no longer strangers, but caring friends. I asked God to help me to reach out to people desiring sobriety and to please keep me grateful. Today's reading from twenty four hours a day, august thirty, AA thought for the day. Practical experience shows that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as extensive work with other alcoholics. Carry the message to other alcoholics. You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Life will take on a new meaning for you. To watch people recover, to see them help others in turn, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow about you, to have a host of friends. This is an experience you must not miss. So ask yourself, am I always ready and willing to help other alcoholics? The meditation for the day One secret of abundant living is the art of giving. The paradox of life is that the more you give, the more you have. If you lose your life in the service of others, you will save it. You can give abundantly and so live abundantly. You are rich in one respect, you have a spirit that is inexhaustible. Let no mean or selfish thought keep you from sharing the spirit. Of love, of help, of understanding, and of sympathy, give and keep giving. Give your personal ease and comfort, your time, your money, and most of all yourself, and you will be living abundantly. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may live to give. I pray that I may learn this secret of abundant living. Today's meditation from Touchstones Procrastination is the thief of time. That's a quote from Edward Young. When we have a problem with putting things off, we seem to add to our troubles by mentally flogging ourselves. We know we are losing time. We criticize ourselves for our irrational behaviour. Whether we're putting off an important task in our lives or letting many little undone jobs accumulate, we could benefit from stopping the self criticism and asking ourselves for the spiritual message in our actions. Perhaps we need some quiet time to do absolutely nothing. Maybe our perfectionism is paralyzing us. Is an all-or-nothing attitude telling us that if we can't do the whole job right away, there is no point in beginning? Unexpressed anger may be blocking us from doing what we need to do. Whenever we find ourselves doing things that seem irrational, we can ask, what is the message from my higher power in this behavior? This question will carry us much further towards spiritual growth than the mental criticism we are tempted to do. Today I will do what I can within the limits of one day, and I will stay in communication with my higher power. And for today's final reading, I'll read from As Bill Sees It, and today we are on page four. Can we choose? We must never be blinded by the futile philosophy that we are just the hapless victims of our inheritance, of our life experience, and of our surroundings, that these are the sole forces that make our decisions for us. This is not the road to freedom. We have to believe that we can really choose. And that's from an article in the Grapevine from November of nineteen sixty. As active alcoholics, we lost our ability to choose whether we would drink. We were the victims of a compulsion which seemed to decree that we must go on with our own destruction. Yet we finally did make choices that brought about our recovery. We came to believe that alone we were powerless over alcohol. This was surely a choice and a most difficult one. We came to believe that a higher power could restore us to sanity when we became willing to practice AA's twelve steps. In short, we chose to become willing, and no better choice did we ever make. And that's from a letter that was written in nineteen sixty six. And that's gonna do it for today's readings. Before I close, I'd like to go back to the meditation from Touchstones and talk about the quote from Edward Young. Edward Young's quote procrastination is the thief of time. Carries a powerful message in sobriety because recovery depends on what I am willing to do today, not what I promise myself I'll do tomorrow. It can be easy to put off going to a meeting, calling my sponsor, reaching out to another alcoholic, praying, making amends, or simply admitting that I'm struggling. But every time I tell myself, I'll do it later, I risk allowing distance to grow between me and the things that keep me sober. Procrastination quietly steals opportunities for growth, connection, and healing. And sometimes I don't realize how much time I've lost until I find myself drifting away from recovery. Sobriety has taught me that I don't need to fix everything today, but I do need to take the next right action today. After all, recovery has always been built around one simple idea, one day at a time. I'd love to hear from you about procrastination. And how it's shown up in your sobriety. What are the things that you know you should be doing for your recovery, but sometimes keep putting off? Maybe it's going to a meeting, calling your sponsor, working the steps, or simply reaching out when you're struggling. Send me your comments and share your experience with me. And if this is a topic that really speaks to you, I'd love to have you come on Sober Readings as a guest and talk about it. Your experience, strength, and hope might be exactly what someone else needs to hear today. And so that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, soberreadings.com, scroll down a little bit, and find that 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, everyone, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.