Latest / Sober Readings / Accepting Our Humanness
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, welcome to Sober Readings for Friday, April 3rd. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. Accepting our humaneness. We finally saw that the inventory should be ours, not the other man's. So we admitted our wrongs honestly and became willing to set these matters straight. That's from As Bill Sees It, page 222. Why is it that the alcoholic is so unwilling to accept responsibility? I used to drink because of the things that other people did to me. Once I came to AA, I was told to look at where I had been wrong. What did I have to do with all these different matters? When I simply accepted that I had a part in them, I was able to put it on paper and see it for what it was. Human-ness. I am not expected to be perfect. I have made errors before and I will make them again. To be honest about them allows me to accept them and myself. and those with whom I had the differences. From there, recovery is just a short distance ahead. In today's reading from 24 Hours, I have a special guest, my daughter, Micaela. Good morning, this is Micaela. April 3rd, AA, thought for the day. When I was drinking, I was absolutely selfish. I thought of myself first, last, and always. The universe revolved around me at the center. When I woke up in the morning with a hangover, my only thought was how terrible I felt and about what I could do to make myself feel better. And the only thing I could think of was more liquor. To quit was impossible. I couldn't see beyond myself and my own need for another drink. Can I now look out and beyond my own selfishness? Meditation for the day. Remember that the first quality of greatness is service. In a way, God is the greatest servant of all because He is always waiting for us to call on Him to help us in all good endeavor. His strength is always available to us, but we must ask it of Him through our own free will. It is a free gift, but we must sincerely seek for it. A life of service is the finest life we can live. We are here on earth to serve others. That is the beginning and the end of our real worth. Prayer for the day. I pray that I may cooperate with God in all good things. I pray that I may serve God and my fellow men and so lead a useful and happy life. And the final reading today is from As Bill Sees It and we're reading from page 267. behind our excuses. As excuse makers and rationalizers, we drunks are champions. It is the business of the psychiatrist to find the deeper causes for our conduct. Though uninstructed in psychiatry, we can, after a little time in AA, see that our motives have not been what we thought they were. and that we have been motivated by forces previously unknown to us. Therefore, we ought to look with the deepest respect, interest, and profit upon the example set us by psychiatry. Spiritual growth through the practice of AA's 12 steps plus the aid of a good sponsor can usually reveal most of the deeper reasons for our character defects, at least to a degree that meets our practical needs. Nevertheless, we should be grateful that our friends in psychiatry have so strongly emphasized the necessity to search for false and often unconscious motivations. And that's it for today's readings. Thanks everyone for listening. And a special thanks to my daughter, Michaela, for helping me read today's readings. And I'd like to mention that Michaela just hit seven months sober yesterday. So congratulations to her. And if you have any stories about your children in sobriety and how the program of AA or sobriety alone has changed their lives, send me an email at sober readings with scott at gmail.com or you can go to my website sober readings.com and fill out the form. And while you're at the website, you'd like to drop a dollar in the donation basket for today's readings, just click the donate button. So again, thanks for listening. 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.