Latest / Sober Readings / Building A New Life
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning everyone and welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Thursday, the third 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 Building a New Life. We feel a man is unthinking when he says sobriety is enough. That's from page eighty two of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. When I reflect on step nine, I see that physical sobriety must be enough for me. I need to remember the hopelessness I felt before I found sobriety, and how I was willing to go to any lengths for it. Physical sobriety is not enough for those around me, however. Since I must see that God's gift is used to build a new life for my family and loved ones. Just as importantly, I must be available to help others who want the AA way of life. I ask God to help me share the gift of sobriety so that its benefits may be shown to those I know and love. Today's reading from 24 Hours a Day, September 3, AA Thought for the Day. Offer new prospects friendship and fellowship. Tell them that if they want to get well, you will do anything to help. Burn the idea into the consciousness of new prospects that they can get well, regardless of anyone else. Job or no job, spouse or no spouse, they cannot stop drinking as long as they place dependence on other people ahead of dependence on God. Let no alcoholic say they cannot recover unless they have their family back. This just isn't so. Their recovery is not dependent upon other people. It is dependent on their own relationship to God. So ask yourself today, can I recognize all excuses made by a prospect? The Meditation for the Day. The spiritual life depends upon the unseen. To live the spiritual life, you must believe in the unseen. Try not to lose the consciousness of God's spirit in you and in others. As a child in its mother's arms, stay sheltered in the understanding and love of God. God will relieve you of the weight of worry and care, misery and depression, want and woe, faintness and heartache. If you will let him. Lift up your eyes from earth's troubles and view the glory of the unseen God. Each day try to see more good in people, more of the unseen in the scene. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may rest and abide in the presence of the unseen God. I pray that I may leave my burdens in his care. Today's reading from Keep It Simple, Daily Meditations for 12-step beginnings and renewal. You will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it. That is from the AA promises. As we work the steps, we fix our broken life. Many things in our life have been painful. Our addiction to alcohol or drugs made it all worse. But if things hadn't gotten so bad, we might not have gotten into recovery. We have changed so much. We have learned so much. Why? Because we have to learn so much about life, our higher power, and ourselves in order to fix ourselves. We can't act like nothing in the past matters. It does matter because it brought us to this new life, and it's better already. And the prayer for today from this book, Higher Power, help me face my past and heal my wounds and others' wounds. And the action for the day. Today I'll list three things I'm ashamed of. How can I make amends for them when I work? Step nine. I will call my sponsor if I need help. And finally, today a reading from As Bill Sees It. Today we're reading from page eight. A New Life. Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening? No. Sobriety is only a bare beginning. It is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life, the one that did not work, for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever. Regardless of worldly success or failure, regardless of pain or joy, regardless of sickness or health or even death itself, a new life of endless possibilities can be lived if we are willing to continue our awakening through the practice of AA's twelve steps. And that is from an article written in the Grapevine from December of nineteen fifty seven. And that's it for today's readings. Let's go back to the reading from Keep It Simple and the action for the day. Today I'll list three things I'm ashamed of. How can I make amends for them when I work step nine? I will call my sponsor if I need help. And although I won't list three things that I'm ashamed of and get into specifics, I will say that this action asked me to look honestly at the things I can carry shame about, not so I can punish myself for the past. But so I can begin thinking about what it would mean to make things right. Step nine reminds me that an amend is more than simply saying, I'm sorry. It means taking responsibility for the harm I caused and whenever possible, changing my behavior so I don't continue causing that same harm. Some amends may involve a direct conversation, while others may be better demonstrated by the way I live today. And there may be situations where approaching someone could cause additional harm. Which is why I don't have to decide on my own how or when an amend should be made. I talk it through with my sponsor and allow the steps to guide me. The purpose isn't to erase my past. I can't do that. It's to stop hiding from it, take responsibility for my part, and use the person I'm becoming in sobriety to repair what I reasonably can. If you'd like to share your thoughts on today's action for the day. You can send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com, or you can go to my website, soberreadings.com, and there's a short form that you can fill out. And while you're there at the website, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket, just scroll down a little bit and find that donate button. So thank you so much for listening today. That's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. 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.