Latest / Sober Readings / An Ever-Growing Freedom
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- Scott Hayes: Good morning and welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Wednesday, the eighth of July, and let's begin today's episode like we always do 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 and Ever Growing Freedom. The seventh step is where we make the change in our attitude, which permits us with humility as our guide, to move out from ourselves toward others and toward God. That's a line from twelve steps and twelve traditions page seventy six. When I finally asked God to remove those things blocking me from Him and the sunlight of the Spirit, I embarked on a journey more glorious than I ever imagined. I experienced a freedom from those characteristics that had me wrapped up in myself. Because of this humbling step, I feel clean. I am especially aware of this step because I'm now able to be useful to God and to my fellows. I know that He has granted me strength to do His bidding. And has prepared me for anyone and anything that comes my way today. I am truly in his hands, and I give thanks for the joy that I can be useful today. From twenty four hours, july eighth, AA thought for the day. AA members will tell you that they can look back and clearly see that they were out of control long before they finally admitted it. Every one of us has gone through that stage when we wouldn't admit that we were alcoholics. It takes a lot of punishment to convince us, but one thing is certain. We all know from actual experience that when it comes to dishing out punishment, John Barleycorn has no equal. Have I any reservations as to my status as an alcoholic? The meditation for the day. There is a force for good in the world, and when you are cooperating with that force for good, good things happen to you. You have free will, the choice to be on the side of right or on the side of wrong. This force for good we call God's will. God has a purpose for the world, and he has a purpose for your life. He wants you to bring all your desires into oneness with his desires. He can only work through people. If you try to make God's will your will, you will be guided by Him. You will be in the stream of goodness, carried along by everything that is right. You will be on God's side. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may try to make God's will my will. I pray that I may keep in the stream of goodness in the world. Today's meditation from Touchstones. He was shut out from all family affairs. No one told him anything. The children, alone with their mother, told her all about the day's happenings, everything. But as soon as the father came in, everything stopped. That's a quote from D. H. Lawrence. Many of us men are on the outer edge of our family circles. The closeness between our children and our wives often seems more comfortable, more intimate than our relationships with them. Perhaps it's similar to the closeness we had with our mother while our father was outside. It is painful to us and probably not entirely our own fault. We were taught that our main job was outside the home, supporting our family by earning a living. But it is up to us to change the situation. Many of us learned from our own father that grown men stay aloof from emotional relationships. But this has hurt our relationships and alienated us from people we most care for. Learning to know our feelings and how to express them helps us move into the family circle of intimacy. Today I will let go of my aloofness with my family so they can know me better. And today's final reading is from As Bill Sees It. We're gonna read from page 311. Telling the worst. Though the variations were many, my main theme was always how god awful I am. Just as I often exaggerated my modest attainments by pride, so I exaggerated my defects through guilt. I would race about confessing all and a great deal more, to whoever would listen. Believe it or not, I took this widespread exposure of my sins to be great humility on my part, and considered it a great spiritual asset and consolation. But later on I realized at depth that the great harms I had done others were not truly regretted. These episodes were merely the basis for storytelling and exhibitionism. With this realization came the beginning of a certain amount of humility. And that is from an article in the Grapevine dated June of 1961. So before I close today, I want to go back to twenty-four hours and the question. That's at the end of the AA thought for the day. Have I any reservations as to my status as an alcoholic? What could possibly make me think even for a minute to second guess that I'm an alcoholic? I heard a critic of AA once say that it must be demoralizing to be reminded every day that I'm an alcoholic and of the terrible things that I've done and how I've ruined my life over and over. Demoralizing? For me, it's just the opposite. What's demoralizing is going back out drinking over and over. What's so demoralizing about being sober? And being a better version of myself today than I was when I was actively drinking and using. Yes, it's true, we do remind ourselves of our past behavior, and as it says in the ninth step promises, we will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. So the purpose of the twelve steps is to relieve myself of the regret, the shame, and the guilt by admitting my faults and taking responsibility. You know, making things right by trying to be a good person today and by helping another alcoholic. So no. I have no reservations of being an alcoholic. And as a matter of fact, I might even be one of those people that say, My name is Scott, and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic. So how do you answer this question? Do you have reservations? Think about it and let me know. Send me an email at soberreadings with Scott at gmail.com. So thanks for listening today. I really appreciate it. ⁓ if you'd like to be a guest reader on my show, just send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com. Or you can go to my website, sobereadings.com, and there's a little short form that you can fill out. And while you're there at my website, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket, just click that donate button. So thank you so much for listening. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll see 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.