Latest / Sober Readings / Forming True Partnerships
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Happy Friday, everyone. My name is Scott, this is Sober Readings, and today is the twelfth of June. Let's begin today with a 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. From Daily Reflections, June twelfth, forming true partnerships. But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. That's from the twelve steps and twelve traditions page fifty three. Can these words apply to me? Am I still unable to form a true partnership with another human being? What a terrible handicap that would be for me to carry into my sober life. In my sobriety, I will meditate and pray to discover how I may be a trusted friend and companion. Today's reading from twenty four hours, june twelfth, AA thought for the day. When we came into AA, we made a tremendous discovery. We found that we were sick persons rather than moral lepers. We were not such queer birds as we thought we were. We found other people who had the same illness that we had, who had been through the same experiences that we had been through. They had recovered. If they can do it, we could do it. So ask yourself today, was hope born in me the day I walked into AA? Today is meditation for the day. He that heareth these sayings and doeth them is like unto a man who built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. When your life is built upon obedience to God and upon doing his will as you understand it, you will be steadfast and unmovable, even in the midst of storms. The serene, steadfast, unmovable life, the rock home, is laid stone by stone, foundations, walls, and roof, by acts of obedience to the heavenly vision. The daily following of God's guidance and the daily doing of His will builds your house upon a rock. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that my life may be founded upon the rock of faith. I pray that I may be obedient to the heavenly vision. Today's meditation for the day from Touchstone. Originality is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe. You can't take a taxi. That's from Alan Alda. We are on an adventure trip in this program. Each of us is a wilderness that is only partly explored and mapped. We can't know exactly what we will find along the way, but we can expect to find some great and moving beauty, some spectacular experiences, as well as awesome and frightening ones, and some soft, pleasant rest spots. Any day we'll have a mixture of various feelings. This program is not a map of The uncharted territory. It is a guide for survival in the wilderness. It tells us how to orient ourselves when there are no familiar landmarks and how to learn and grow from the experience. The more time we spend in this wilderness, exploring the mystery of living, the more comfortable we become with it and the greater appreciation we have for its unique beauty. Today I pray for the courage to explore the original person I was created to be. And finally, a reading from As Bill Sees It. Today we're reading from page two hundred nine six Daily Inventory. Often, as we review each day, only the closest scrutiny will reveal what our true motives were. There are cases where our ancient enemy rationalization has stepped in and justified conduct which was really wrong. The temptation here is to imagine that we had good motives and reasons when we really hadn't. We constructively criticized someone who needed it, when our real motive was to win a useless argument. Or the person concerned not being present, we thought we were helping others to understand him, when in actuality our true motive was to feel superior by pulling him down. We hurt those we loved because they needed to be taught a lesson. But we really wanted to punish. We were depressed and complained we felt bad, when in fact we were mainly asking for sympathy and attention. And that is from the twelve and twelve page ninety-four. And that's it for today's readings. I wanna comment real quick on the meditation from Touchstones. I love this metaphor of the wilderness, the unexplored wilderness. Each of us is a wilderness that's only partly explored and mapped. And I really love that because in the in sobriety, in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, I am learning a lot about myself. And I was thinking about why is that? And really the reason is because I'm doing things differently than I've ever done in my life. For instance, I'm using prayer and meditation on a daily basis. I'm being open and honest and willing to discuss things and be vulnerable in meetings with my friends in the in the program and the fellowship. And all of that combined really teaches me about myself. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I've always acted differently. I've always tried to be someone that people wanted me to be so that they would like me, so I would feel accepted. And I've been taught in the program not to do that anymore. I've been taught in the program to be myself, to become more comfortable in my own skin, which has never been my thing. And I love that they say in the program, We will love you until you learn to love yourself. And that is my goal for today. So thank you all for listening. That's the end of today's episode of Sober Readings. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a huge favor and hit the like button and share this episode with someone. And also if you'd like to be a guest reader on sober readings, send me an email at sober readingswithscott at gmail.com. And also if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to soberreadings.com and click the 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, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.