Latest / Sober Readings / Opening New Doors
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning and welcome to Sober Readings, everyone. Today is Wednesday, september the ninth. 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, Opening New Doors. They, being the promises, are being fulfilled among us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. That's from Alcoholics Anonymous page eighty four. Promises talked about in this passage are slowly coming to life for me. What has given me hope is putting step nine into action. The step has allowed me to see and set goals for myself in recovery. Old habits and behaviors die hard. Working step nine enables me to close the door on the drunk I was and to open new avenues for myself as a sober alcoholic. Making direct amends is crucial for me. As I repair relationships and behavior of the past, I am better able to live a sober life. Although I have some years of sobriety, there are times when the old stuff from the past needs to be taken care of, and step nine always works when I work it. Today's reading from twenty four hours a day. September nine, AA Thought for the Day. When alcoholics are offered a life of sobriety by following the AA program, they will look at the prospect of living without alcohol and will ask, Am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring, and glum, like some of the religious people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute? And the question is, have I found a more sufficient substitute for drinking? Meditation for the day. In God's strength you conquer life. Your conquering power is the grace of God. There can be no complete failure with God. Do you want to make the best of life? Then live as near as possible to God, the master and giver of all life. Your reward for depending on God's strength will be sure. Sometimes the reward will be renewed power to face life, sometimes wrong thinking overcome. Sometimes people brought to a new way of living. Whatever success comes will not be all your own doing, but largely the working out of the grace of God. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may try to rely more fully on the grace of God. I pray that I may live a victorious life. Today's reading from Keep It Simple, Daily Meditations for Twelve Step Beginnings and Renewal. One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears by listening to them. That's a quote from Dean Rusk. We hate being told what to think. We like to make up our own minds. It helps to talk things out with another person who listens to us, someone who cares what we think. We can give this respect to others. We can listen to their point of view. We can try to understand them and care about what they think. When we do this, others start to care what we think too. We share ideas. The ideas get a little clearer. They change a little. We get a little closer to agreement. We both feel good. Prayer for the day from this book, Higher Power, help me to know when to listen and when to talk today. Work for me and through me. And the action for the day. Today I will look for chances to listen to others when I really want to talk. I'll say, tell me more about that, and I'll listen. And for today's final reading, we'll go to As Bill Sees It, page eleven. Quantity or quality? About this slip business, I would not be too discouraged. I think you are suffering a great deal from a needless guilt. For some reason or other, the Lord has laid out tougher paths for some of us, and I guess you are treading one of them. God is not asking us to be successful. He is only asking us to try to be. That you surely are doing and have been doing. So I would not stay away from AA through any feeling of discouragement or shame. It's just the place you should be. Why don't you try just as a member? You don't have to carry the whole AA on your back, you know. It is not always the quantity of good things that you do, it is also the quality that counts. Above all, take it one day at a time. And that was written in a letter from nineteen fifty eight. And that's it for today's readings. Before I close, I'd like to go back and answer the question from twenty four hours a day. The question at the end of the AA Thought for the Day is have I found a more than sufficient substitute for drinking? For me, the answer is yes, but the substitute for drinking hasn't been one single thing. It's been a completely different way of living. Drinking once filled a lot of roles in my life. It was how I celebrated, how I escaped, how I dealt with stress, how I quieted my thoughts, and sometimes simply how I avoided feeling uncomfortable. Sobriety has given me healthier ways to meet those same needs. Meetings, fellowship, prayer, running, helping another alcoholic, talking honestly with people I trust, and simply learning to sit with my feelings has given me something alcohol never could. A life I don't constantly need to escape from. And that's why I would call it more than a sufficient substitute. Alcohol may have provided temporary relief, but recovery has given me purpose, connection, Self-respect, gratitude, and the opportunity to keep growing, to keep getting better. That doesn't mean every day in sobriety is easy or that I never miss the feeling alcohol once gave me. But today, when I look at everything sobriety allows me to have, and everything drinking eventually took away, the comparison isn't even close. I'm not simply replacing the drink, I'm building a life in which I no longer have to depend on a drink. So ask yourself that question today. Have I found a more than sufficient substitute for drinking? And if you'd like to share your answer with me, that'd be great. Just send me an email at soberreadingswith at gmail.com. And if you'd like, you could even be a guest reader on my show and we could talk about it. So that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. Hey, if you'd like to help me share the message, click the like, share, and subscribe buttons. And if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's episode, Just go to my website, soberreadings.com, scroll down a little bit and find the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening today. 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.