Latest / Sober Readings / Stepping Into The Sunlight
Transcript
- 11 9Reading: Welcome back to Sober Readings, everyone. Today is Monday. Happy Monday. It is November 9th. Today I'm gonna start off with my usual two readings from Daily Reflections in 24 Hours. And then the third reading today is coming from a book called Keep It Simple. And it is Daily Meditations for 12-step beginnings and renewal. But let's get started 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 wisdom to know the difference. So today from Daily Reflections, the title is Stepping Into the Sunlight. But first of all, we shall want sunlight. Nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun. And that comes from as Bill sees it. Sometimes I think I don't have time for prayer and meditation, forgetting that I've always found the time to drink. It is possible to make time for anything I want to do if I want it badly enough. When I start the routine of prayer and meditation, it's a good idea to plan to devote a small amount of time to it. And I can really relate to this next line. As prayer becomes a habit, I will increase the time spent on it. And then the last paragraph says, I don't need to shut myself in a closet to pray. I can really relate to this paragraph. It can be done even in a room full of people. I just remove myself mentally for an instant. As the practice of prayer continues, I will find I don't need words, for God can and does hear my thoughts through silence. And the first thing that I want to say about that reading is that I don't pray in silence. I have to pray out loud because I have a lot of thoughts going through my head all the time, and for me, I just need to get those those prayer thoughts out into the open. I need to get them away from all of my other thoughts, and like it kind of makes them real. To hear them coming out of my voice. And one of the most important things I've learned in sobriety is that I have to make time for things that matter most in my life, especially for the things that keep me sober. No matter how busy my day gets, there should always be time for prayer, meditation, and maintaining my conscious contact with God. And all of that does not take much time at all. In fact, my prayers only take maybe less than a minute. And meditation doesn't have to be a 30-minute practice. It could be one or two minutes if I only have time, but it's generally about 10 minutes. I've also learned that I don't have to be embarrassed or ashamed to pray anymore, even when I'm around other people. There was a time when I might have worried about what someone would think if they saw me bow my head and say a prayer. I also worried about getting on my knees on the side of the bed when I was married. But today I remind myself that those people aren't the ones keeping me sober. My relationship with God, my faith, and my daily spiritual practices are what give me the strength to stay sober. I don't need anyone's approval to do what's right for me. If I can make time for all the distractions and responsibilities of everyday life, I can certainly make time for the God who has given me this second chance in life. My sobriety has to come first, because without it, Everything else that matters to me is at risk. Let's get to the reading today from 24 hours. This is the AA thought for the day. And I'll just say that I love this reading because I feel like I'm so much more positive in my life now because of my sobriety, and this reading talks about that exactly. I have learned to be less negative and more positive. I used to take a negative view of almost everything. Most people, in my estimation, were bluffing. There seemed to be very little good in. But lots of hypocrisy and sham. People could not be trusted. Then it skips down a bit and talks about taking everything with a grain of salt, and my general attitude toward life was negative. But now how I am positive, and I believe in people and in their capabilities. And I'll say a little bit more about that after this meditation for the day. Think of God as a great friend and try to realize the wonder of that friend. When you give God not only worship, obedience, and allegiance, but also close companionship, then he becomes your friend, even as you are his. Your prayers become more real to you when you feel that God counts on your friendship and you count on his. So today's prayer for the day, I'm praying that I may think of God as my friend. And I heard from someone early on in sobriety to talk to God as if I'm talking to God. close friend. And that's really what I try to think about now when I say my prayers, is that my friend is here in the room with me and he can hear me and I'm talking to him. And I'm not asking for things. I'm asking generally for help in getting through things that life puts in my way today. And now I want to talk about the first part of the reading which was being positive. So when I was drinking and using, I had a very negative and pessimistic outlook on life. I always seemed to focus on what was wrong, what I didn't have, and what other people were doing that bothered me. I could find something negative in just about any situation, and I was often quick to judge others without ever considering their circumstances. But sobriety has completely changed the way I look at the world. Today I make a conscious effort to see the good in people, even when we don't agree or when their behavior isn't what I think it should be. I also try to find something positive in every situation, even the difficult ones, because I've learned that challenges often bring opportunities to grow. And that doesn't mean I walk around pretending everything is wonderful or that bad things don't happen. It simply means I have a choice in how I look at life and how I respond to it. And that means that my perspective on things, on my life in general, has changed. I've spent enough of my life focusing on the darkness, and today I'd much rather look for the light. Sobriety hasn't made the world a perfect place, but it has given me a much better way of seeing it. And for that, I'm truly So let's get to the final reading for today, which is from Keep It Simple for November 9. Starts off with a quote from Carl von Niebel. He who can take advice is sometimes superior to he who can give it. In recovery, we learn that we don't know everything. We stopped listening. Most of us have been asked by family, friends, doctors, and employers to stop drinking and using other drugs. But we didn't listen. If we had listened, we would have been in this program long ago. Addiction did something to how we listened. We heard only what we wanted to hear. In recovery, we learn to listen. We listen to our groups, we listen to our sponsor, we listen as we read. The better we listen, the better our And today's action for the day. Today I'll try to listen. Today I'll seek the advice of others. You know, one of the things I've learned to appreciate more in sobriety is the importance of really listening when other people share at meetings. I never know when someone's going to say something that I can relate to, something that might help me with a problem I'm having, or something that gives me an entirely new perspective on a problem or life in general. In the past I might have sat through a meeting while my mind was wandering off to everything else that I had going on in my life. But today I make a conscious effort to stay present and pay attention. Now I'm not saying that my mind never wanders, because it certainly does, but when I catch myself drifting, I try to bring my attention back to the person speaking. I even take notes when someone says something that really stands out to me, because I know I might want to reflect on it later. I've also learned that I don't have to relate to someone's entire story to or share to get something valuable from their share. Sometimes it's just one sentence or one experience or one simple suggestion that makes all the difference. The person sharing might not might not even realize it, but what they say could be exactly what I need to hear that day. And that's one of the beautiful things about AA. We help each other simply by sharing our experience, our strength. and our hope. And speaking of sharing your experience, strength, and hope, if you'd like to share yours with me and my listeners, I would love to have you on my show. If you scroll down to the show notes, you can find a link to my email, which happens to be soberreadings with Scott at gmail.com. And also my website is soberreadings.com and at that website, if you click on the support page, you'll find a button that says drop a dollar in the basket if you'd like to donate and help the podcast. And also if you'd like to help me pass along the message of sobriety in these readings, make sure that you subscribe to the podcast and like this episode. So thank you so much for spending a few minutes of your day with me. Remember, be good to yourselves, be good to others. We only have to do this one day at a time. So just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting Keep coming back. Have a great day, everyone, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.