Latest / Sober Readings / ...And Forgive
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome back to Sober Readings everyone, today is Sunday the 17th of May. Let's begin with a serenity prayer. 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. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. The title is, And Forgive. So if you'll remember, yesterday's title was, We Forgive. and today is AND FORGIVE. There's a theme here. Forgiveness. Under very trying conditions, I have had, again and again, to forgive others, also myself. That's from As Bill Sees It, page 268. Forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others are just two currents in the same river, both hindered or shut off completely by the dam of resentment. Once that dam is lifted, both currents can flow. The steps of AA allow me to see how resentment has built up and subsequently blocked off this flow in my life. The steps provide a way by which my resentments may, by the grace of God as I understand Him, be lifted. It is as a result of this solution that I can find the necessary grace which enables me to forgive myself and others. Today's reading from 24 Hours. May 17, AA Thought for the Day. A lot of well-meaning people treat an alcoholic like the priest and the levite. They pass by on the other side by scorning him and telling him what a low person he is, with no willpower. Whereas he really has fallen for alcohol in the same way as the man in the story fell among robbers. And the member of AA who is working with others is like the good Samaritan. Am I moved with compassion? Do I go to another alcoholic and take care of him? The Meditation for the Day I must constantly live in preparation for something better to come. All of life is a preparation for something better. I must anticipate the morning to come. I must feel, in the night of sorrow, that understanding joy that tells of confident expectation of better things to come. Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Know that God has something better in store for you. as long as you are making yourself ready for it. All your existence in this world is a training for a better life to come. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that when life is over, I will return to an eternal, spaceless life with God. I pray that I may make this life a preparation for a better life to come. And today's final reading is a meditation from Touchstones, a book of daily meditation. What sort of God would it be who only pushed from without? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ⁓ we hate to be pushed. We get upset and angry when someone is pushing on us. What man likes it? Sometimes God does the pushing and it takes a while for us to realize it is God's pressure on us that we feel. Our natural reaction is to resist and push back. When we keep getting headaches or stomach aches, Maybe we should listen for the message. An unsettled feeling in our lives about women, money, health, work, or something else may carry a message for us. God might be pushing from within. In this program, we try to develop our ability to hear God's will for us. Sometimes a problem is, in fact, a spiritual message. When we stop resisting and start listening, we soon grow wiser and stronger. God your message is not always clear to me. Today, I will try to put aside my own habit of pushing back so I can have a clearer mind to receive it. And again, that's today's meditation from the book Touchstones. And I chose this reading. I really, I really enjoyed it when I saw it. I just had to read it on the program. This reading can be taken literally and figuratively. certainly, certainly don't like to be pushed physically. But it could also mean being pushed mentally or emotionally, either in a good or a bad way. And what I mean by being pushed in a good way is consider the fourth and the fifth steps. I certainly didn't want to admit my wrongs or my character defects. In a way, my sponsor was pushing me in a good way to be entirely honest with myself in working these steps. And of course, my initial, my natural reaction, as it says in this reading, was to resist and to push back, to blame others in my case. I love the line in this reading where it says, try to develop our ability to hear God's will for us. And like I said the other day on the program, God creates opportunities. All I have to do is be listening and looking out for them. And so that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. I hope you enjoyed that last reading. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a big favor and hit that like button. and this episode and 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're someone who loves reading sober literature and you'd like to be a guest reader on the show, I would love to have you just shoot me an email at sober readings with Scott at gmail.com and we can make that happen. If you'd like to drop a dollar in today's virtual donation basket because we don't have dues or fees, but I certainly do have expenses, just go to sober readings.com and click the donate button. So thank you so much everyone for listening. 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.