Latest / Sober Readings / Reconstruction
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- Scott Hayes: Good morning everyone, welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Friday the fourth of September. 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 Reconstruction. Yes, there is a long period of reconstruction ahead. That's a line from Alcoholics Anonymous page eighty three. The reconstruction of my life is the prime goal in my recovery as I avoid taking that first drink, one day at a time. The task is most successfully accomplished by working the steps of our fellowship. The spiritual life is not a theory. It works, but I have to live it. Step two started me on my journey to develop a spiritual life. Step nine allows me to move into the final phase of the initial steps, which taught me how to live a spiritual life. Without the guidance and strength of a higher power, it would be impossible to proceed through the various stages of reconstruction. I realize that God works for me and through me. Proof comes to me when I realize that God did for me what I could not do for myself, by removing that gnawing compulsion to drink. I must continue daily to seek God's guidance. He grants me a daily reprieve and will provide the power I need for reconstruction. Today's reading from twenty four hours a day, September fourth, AA Thought for the Day. We must be careful never to show intolerance or hatred of drinking as an institution. Experience shows that such an attitude is not helpful to anyone. We are not fanatics or intolerant of people who can drink normally. Prospects are relieved when they find we are not witch burners. Temperate drinking is okay, but we alcoholics can't get away with it. And no alcoholic likes to be told about alcohol by anyone who hates it. We shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility. So ask yourself, do I have tolerance for those who can drink normally? Today's meditation for the day. Do not become encumbered by petty annoyances. Never respond to emotional upsets by emotional upset. Try to keep calm in all circumstances. Try not to fight back. Call on the grace of God to calm you and when you feel like retaliating. Look to God for the inner strength to drop those resentments that drag you down. If you are burdened by annoyances, you will lose your inward peace and the Spirit of God will be shut out. Try to keep peaceful within. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may do the things that make for peace. I pray that I may have a mission of conciliation. Today's reading from Keep It Simple In my view, we of this world are pulpits in a great school of life. That was written by Bill W. Our addiction has taught us much. It has taught us how far we can drift from ourselves, our higher power, and those who love us. Hopefully, we've learned we can't go it alone. Do I allow myself to learn from the bad things that happened? Recovery has much to teach us too. We need to be students of life. We need to be open to learning. Our spirits can grow if we're willing to do three things. First, we listen. Second, we think about what we've learned. Third, we turn what we've learned into action. Listening, combined with thought and action, will help us learn life's best lessons. And the prayer for today from this book Higher Power, you'll test me so I can learn. Help me accept the tasks you give me and help me learn from them. The action for the day. I will view today as a class. I will do three things. Listen, think, act. And let's go to As Bill sees it for a final reading today. Today we're reading from page nine. Group and worldwide community. The moment twelve-step work forms a group, a discovery is made that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a group. Realization dawns on each member that he is but a small part of a great whole, that no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the fellowship. He learns that the clamor of desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. It becomes plain that the group must survive. or the individual will not. And that's from the twelve and twelve page one hundred three zero. The lone member at sea, the AA at war in a far land. All these members know that they belong to AA's worldwide community, that theirs is only a physical separation, that their fellows may be as near as the next port of call. Ever so importantly, they are certain that God's grace is just as much with them on the high seas or the lonely outpost as it is with them at home. And that's from a letter written in nineteen sixty six. And that letter is obviously talking about AA members that are serving in the military overseas and can't get to their home groups at home. And they actually talk about this in the big book on how they were concerned that AAs wouldn't survive or stay sober actually during the wartime when they were serving overseas. But that apparently was not the case. So let's go back to the question in 24 hours a day. Do I have tolerance for those who can drink normally? Having tolerance for people who can drink normally means accepting that their relationship with alcohol is different from mine. In sobriety, it can be easy to look at someone having one or two drinks and wonder why they can stop when I couldn't. Or even feel resentment that alcohol seems to be something they can enjoy. Without suffering the consequences I experienced. But recovery reminds me that I don't need to understand why someone else can't drink normally. I only need to understand what alcohol does to me. Their ability to drink safely doesn't change the truth of my own experience or what I need to do to stay sober. Tolerance also means allowing other people to make their own choices without judging them or expecting them to change simply because I had to. I can be around people who drink and still protect my sobriety, but I also have the right to remove myself from situations that make me feel uncomfortable or put my recovery at risk. For me, tolerance doesn't mean proving that I can sit at a bar while everyone else drinks. It means accepting other people as they are while having enough humility and self-awareness to accept myself as I am. I don't have to resent someone for being able to drink normally. And I certainly don't have to prove that someday I can become one of them. My job is simply to remember that for me, the safest drink is the one that I never pick up. If you'd like to share your answer to this question with me, or even come on the air and talk to me about it, that'd be great. Just send me an email at sober readings with scott at gmail dot com and we can set something up and certainly make that happen. So that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show and you want to help me spread the message, click that share and like button. And if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, sobereadings.com and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening today. 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 everyone, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.