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- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Saturday, the thirteenth of June. Let's begin today's episode with the Serenity Project. 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. From daily reflections Living Our Amends. Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic. The entire family is, to some extent, ill. That's from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous page one two two. It is important for me to realize that as an alcoholic, I not only hurt myself, but also those around me. Making amends to my family and to the families of alcoholics still suffering will always be important. Understanding the havoc I created and trying to repair the destruction will be a lifelong endeavor. The example of my sobriety may give others hope and faith to help themselves. Today's reading from 24 Hours, June 13, AA Thought for the Day. In AA, we have to re-educate our minds. We have to learn to think differently. We have to take a long view of drinking instead of a short view. We have to look through the glass to what lies beyond it. We have to look through the night before to the morning after. No matter how good liquor looks from the short view, We must realize that in the long run it is poison to us. Have I learned to look through the bottle to the better life that lies ahead? Meditation for the day. If you are honestly trying to live the way you believe God wants you to live, you can get guidance from God in times of quiet communion with Him, providing your thoughts are directed towards God's will and all good things. The attitude of thy will not mine be done leads to clear guidance. Act on this guidance, and you will be led to better things. Your impulses seem to become less your own and more the leading of God's Spirit acting through your thoughts. Obeyed, they will bring you the answers to your prayers. And today's prayer for the day, I pray that I may try to think God's thoughts after him. I pray that my thoughts may be guided by his thoughts. For today's final reading, I'm going to read How It Works from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. As many of you know, the first two and a half pages of this chapter are read at the beginning of each AA meeting. Today, this reading, especially the first line, has new and a very special meaning to me. Recently a close friend, a fellow in the program, a mentor, passed away, or as we say in in the programme, he graduated. He passed away after twenty nine years of sobriety and would have celebrated thirty years next month. The legacy he left behind has changed the face of a community, and countless people have not only got sober but stayed sober, because of his dedication to sobriety and to AA. Like many people whose lives he not only touched but changed, I will never forget him. May you forever be in God's hands, my friend. How it works. Rarely have we seen a rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program. Usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault. They seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those too who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest. Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it, Then you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked, we thought we could find an easier, softer way, but we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas, and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. Remember that we deal with alcohol. Cunning, baffling, powerful. Without help, it is too much for us. But there is one who has all power, that one is God. May you find him now. Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked his protection and care with complete abandon. Here are the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery. One, we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable. Two, came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Four, made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Five, admitted to God to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Six, we're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Seven, humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings. made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. nine. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. ten. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. eleven, sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. twelve, having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Many of us exclaimed, What an order, I can't go through with it. Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas. A. That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. B that probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. And C that God could and would if he were sought. I'll end by saying that my friend taught me two very simple things. That I will never forget, and that help keep me sober on a daily basis. If I want to stay sober, hang out with sober people. And the first thing to do in the morning is to get right with God. Thank you everyone 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.