Latest / Sober Readings / Anonymous Gifts Of Kindness
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Hey good morning everyone, welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Wednesday, the twenty ninth of July. Let's get started 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. Today's reading from Daily Reflections Anonymous Gifts of Kindness. As active alcoholics, we were always looking for a handout in one way or another. That's on page fourteen of the twelve traditions illustrated. The challenge of the seventh tradition is a personal challenge, reminding me to share and give of myself. Before sobriety, the only thing I ever supported was my habit of drinking. Now my efforts are a smile, a kind word, and kindness. I saw that I had to start carrying my own weight and to allow my new friends to walk with me because through the practice of the twelve steps and twelve traditions, I've never had it so good. Today's reading from twenty four hours. July twenty nine, AA thought for the day. There are two days in every week about which we should not worry. Two days that should be kept from fear and apprehension. One of these days is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone beyond recall. Do I still worry about what happened yesterday? The meditation for the day. God will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation he will also find a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. If you have enough faith and trust in God, He will give you all the strength you need to face every temptation and to overcome it. Nothing will prove too hard for you to bear. You can face any situation. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. You can overcome any temptation with God's help, so fear nothing. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may face every situation without fear. I pray that nothing will prove too hard for me to bear. Today's daily meditation from Touchstone. Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life. That's a quote from Herbert Otto Gill. The rewards of our new life are apparent to us because of how we feel, and apparent to others by what they can see. Many of us had reached our bottom point, and we felt there was no risk in trying a program of recovery. Yet we still had some distorted security in our harmful ways of relating to others or in our addictions. Letting go was an experiment. This program gives us guidelines for experimenting with our Life for growth, and we continue growing every day. Some of our benefits are increased confidence and self-respect, more intimacy with our partner, better friendships, and better physical health. We feel these changes in ourselves and we see them in the other men and women in this program. Today I am grateful for the rewards in my life from this experiment in recovery. And for today's final reading, I'm gonna read from the grapevine of February of twenty sixth this year. And this is a personal story that is titled The War Within. After an emotional, gut wrenching tour in Vietnam, he came home with a bronze star and a drinking problem. And this is on page forty three of this edition of The Grapevine. I never expected to be drafted into the military. It was September of nineteen sixty nine. I had recently left a religious order where I had been preparing to become a Christian brother. I had spent years trying to find a life of purpose, but it wasn't the right path for me. That's when Uncle Sam called. I began basic training at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri. Early on, a captain asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to become a chaplain assistant. I raised my hand. I didn't know it at the time, but that moment would change everything. After a series of interviews, I was sent to chaplain school in New York for twelve weeks. That's when I learned the truth. Every chaplain assistant was being sent to Vietnam. I landed in Vietnam in March of 1970, and I was assigned to two chaplains, one Catholic, one Protestant. We were based in Plai Ku in the central highlands near the Cambodian border. My role was part soldier, part spiritual guardian. I protected the chaplains and made sure they could visit the combat troops every day. We traveled by Jeep. When needed, we flew in by helicopter. There were no days off. Time moved slowly in Vietnam. At night, I spent my evenings at Ply Ku hospital, sitting with wounded troops. Many couldn't write home, so I helped them write letters to their families. I became their hands and hearts when they couldn't use their own. It was gut-wrenching. The emotional weight of war sank into me, and I didn't have the tools to carry it. That's when alcohol took hold. What started as a way to numb the pain I felt quickly become a dependency. I returned home in April of 1971 with a bronze star and a drinking problem. Ten years later, my wife gave me a choice. Get help or get out. We had two young daughters and I didn't want to lose them. That's when I walked into my first AA meeting in 1983. It wasn't easy. At first, I didn't believe I could stay sober. I didn't believe I deserved peace. But a day at a time I started showing up. For myself, for my family, and for my fellow alcoholics. I have not had a drink since. I've now been sober forty-two years. I'll turn 77 in March of 2025. For the past sixteen years I volunteered at our VA hospital, working in the Homeless Veterans Program. Every time I walk those halls I remember how close I came to losing everything, and how far I've come since I walked into AA. Sobriety gave me my life back. It gave me the chance to be the husband, father, and friend I always meant to be. These days, I just try to do the next right thing. Whether it's driving a fellow vet to an appointment, making coffee at a meeting, or helping someone write a letter home, I've learned that service is the bridge between pain and purpose. AA didn't just help me get sober, it helped me remember who I am. And for that, I am grateful every single day. And that was written by Terry ⁓ in Wheaton, Illinois. And I can relate to that story not because I went to Vietnam, but because I'm also a veteran and I came home with a drinking problem. But you know, I think about that a lot and it doesn't define me. I don't let my military service with a drinking problem define me and what happened during that time. It is something that I have a lot of shame and guilt surrounding, but I've worked the twelve steps around that and I've been able to work through it and actually use that to my benefit and help other people, other veterans. That went through the sim the same thing or something similar as me. The first time I attended a veterans AA meeting and told my story, I was completely blown away when other people could relate and said, Yep, I did that too. I did those things too. I seriously thought I was the only one that did the things that I did while I was in the military, and felt shame and guilt around them. You know, I got out with a honorable discharge Luckily, somehow, ⁓ but I don't sometimes I don't feel like I deserved that honorable discharge. But working the twelve steps and finding God in my life has shown me that I do deserve it, because I've made my amends not only to other people in my life, but also to myself surrounding that issue. So if you're a veteran in AA, I would encourage you to find a veteran meeting and go share your story. Or at least just listen to other veterans in the program, because I'm sure that you will probably hear your story through other veterans. And so that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thanks for listening. Hey, if you'd like to be a guest on my show, I'd love to have you. Just send me a ⁓ an email at Soberreadings with Scott at gmail dot com. You can also go to my website, soberreadings.com, ⁓ and there's a short form on there that you can fill out and that'll make its way to me. Also, if you're while you're there at the website, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket, just click that donate button, and I really appreciate that. So again, thanks so much for listening. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll catch you in 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.