Latest / Sober Readings / The Easier, Softer Way
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Wednesday the 13th of May. Let's begin 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. The reading from Daily Reflections. The easier, softer. If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. That's a line from Alcoholics Anonymous, page 72. I certainly didn't leap at the opportunity to face who I was, especially when the pains of my drinking days hung over me like a dark cloud. But I soon heard at the meetings about the fellow member who just didn't want to take step five and kept coming back to meetings, trembling from the horrors of reliving his past. The easier, softer way is to take these steps to freedom from our fatal disease and to put our faith in the fellowship and our higher power. The reading from 24 hours. May 13, AA Thought for the Day. In AA, we find fellowship and release and strength. And having found these things, the real reasons for our drinking are taken away. Then drinking, which was a symptom of underlying trouble, has no more justification in our minds. We no longer need to fight against a drink. Drink just naturally leaves us. At first, we are sorry that we can't drink, but we get so that we are glad that we don't have to drink. So ask yourself, am I glad that I don't have to drink? The Meditation for the Day Try never to judge. The mind of mankind is so delicate, so complex, that only its maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different. actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different circumstances, influenced by such different sufferings. You cannot know all the influences that have gone to make up a personality. Therefore, it is impossible for you to wholly judge that personality. But God knows that person wholly and He can change it. Leave it to God the unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God to teach you the proper understanding. and today's prayer for the day. pray that I may not judge my fellow men. I pray that I may be certain that God can set right what is wrong in every personnel. And today's final reading is from As Bill Sees It. Today we're reading from page 283. Powerless over alcohol. I had gone steadily downhill and on that day in 1934 I lay upstairs in the hospital knowing for the first time that I was utterly hopeless. Lois was downstairs and Dr. Silkworth was trying in his gentle way to tell her what was wrong with me and that I was hopeless. But Bill has a tremendous amount of willpower she said. He has tried desperately to get well. We have tried everything doctor. Why can't he stop? He explained that my drinking, once a habit, had become an obsession, a true insanity that condemned me to drink against my will. And that's from AA Comes of Age, page 52. In the late stages of our drinking, the will to resist has fled. Yet when we admit complete defeat and when we become entirely ready to try AA principles, our obsession leaves us and we enter a new dimension, freedom under God as we understand him. And that's from a letter that was written in 1966. And that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a huge favor, hit that like button and share this episode. Also drop a comment and let me know what you thought. Make sure you're following or subscribed so you never miss the next episode. And if you like reading sober literature and you'd like to be a guest reader on the show, send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com and we can make that happen. Also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in today's virtual donation basket, just go to soberreadings.com and click the donate button. So thank you so much for listening today. 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.