Latest / Sober Readings / I Am Responsible
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to Sober Readings for your daily dose of reality and positivity. My name is Scott, I am your reader. Thank you for joining me today. 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 wisdom to know the difference. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. I am responsible. For the readiness to take the full consequences of our past actions and to take responsibility for the well being of others at the same time is the very spirit of step nine. That's on page eighty seven of twelve steps and twelve traditions. In recovery and through the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, I learn that the very thing I fear is my freedom. It comes from my tendency to recoil from taking responsibility for anything. I deny, I ignore, I blame, I avoid. Then one day I look, I admit, I accept. The freedom, the healing, and the recovery I experience is in the looking, admitting, and accepting. I learn to say, yes, I am responsible. When I can speak those words with honesty and sincerity, then I am free. Today is reading from twenty four hours a day, september twelfth, AA thought for the day. What draws newcomers to AA and gives them hope? They hear the stories of men and women whose experiences tally with their own. The expressions on the faces of the women, that undefinable something in the eyes of the men, the stimulating atmosphere of the AA club room conspire to let them know that there is haven at last. The very practical approach to their problems, the absence of intolerance of any kind, the informality, The genuine democracy. The uncanny understanding that these people in AA have is irresistible. Have I found a real haven in AA? ⁓ A meditation for the day. If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. The eye of the soul is the will. If your will is to do the will of God, to serve him with your life, to serve him by helping others, then truly shall your whole body be full of light. The important thing is to strive to attune your will to the will of God, a single eye to God's purpose, desiring nothing less than that his purposes be fulfilled. Try to seek in all things the advance of His kingdom, seek the spiritual values of honesty and purity, unselfishness and love, and earnestly desire spiritual growth. Then your life will emerge from the darkness of futility into the light of victory. And the prayer for the day. I pray that my eye may be single. I pray that my life may be lived in the light of the best that I know. And for today's final reading, we're gonna go to As Bill sees it. And today we're reading on page 13 The Shared Gift. AA is more than a set of principles. It is a society of alcoholics in action. We must carry the message, else we ourselves can wither, and those who haven't been given the truth may die. And that's from the service manual page S one. Faith is more than our greatest gift. Its sharing with others is our greatest responsibility. May we of AA continually seek the wisdom and the willingness by which we may well fulfill that immense trust which the giver of all perfect gifts has placed in our hands. And that is from an article in the Grapevine from April of nineteen sixty one. And that's it for today's readings. Before I close, I thought we'd go back to the twenty-four hours a day book and the AA Thought for the Day question, which is Have I found a real haven in AA? Let's talk about haven and how it fits into sobriety and that question. So a haven is a place of safety, refuge, or shelter. Somewhere you can go when the world outside feels threatening, chaotic, exhausting, or uncertain. It doesn't necessarily mean that everything inside the haven is easy or comfortable. It means that that it's a place where you can find protection, support, and enough peace to regain your footing. So when you ask, have I found a real haven in AA, I think the question goes deeper than simply asking whether you enjoy going to meetings. It asks whether AA has become a place where you can bring the truth about yourself without having to pretend. When life becomes difficult, when your thinking starts to get dangerous, when you feel lonely, angry, ashamed, overwhelmed, or tempted to drink, is the fellowship somewhere you know you can return? A real haven might be the meeting where someone understands what you're going through without needing a long explanation. The phone call with another alcoholic. You know, a conversation with a sponsor or Sitting in a room and realizing that you're surrounded by people who understand the disease because they live with it too. But a haven isn't necessarily a hiding place. That's an important distinction in sobriety. AA shouldn't be somewhere where I go to escape my life. Ideally, it's somewhere I go to become better equipped to live my life. The program gives me a place to recover, examine myself honestly, ask for help. And regain perspective so that I can walk back into the world and deal with life on life's terms. So for me, the question might ultimately become When the storms of life come, do I still recognize AA as a place I can return for safety, honesty, connection, and direction? Or do I try to weather those storms alone? And if you'd like to share your comments and your thoughts, your answer to that question with me. You can find my email address, a link to my email address in the show notes. And so that's all for today's episode of Sober Readings. I hope something you heard today stays with you and helps you throughout your day. And if you'd like to be a guest on the show and share your experience, strength, and hope, or even just join me for a reading, there's a link in the show notes to send me an email, and I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoy Sober Readings and would like to help support the podcast, you can drop a dollar in the donation basket by using the link in the show notes. And remem remember that every little bit helps, so thank you. And also in the show notes you'll find a link to the Sober Readings website where you can learn more about the podcast and stay connected. And as always, 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.