Transcript

A Day's Plan · Sober Readings

Scott Hayes: Good morning, welcome back to Sober Readings. Today is Thursday, the 12th of March. And before I start, I'd like to say hello to all the listeners in Saudi Arabia. Thanks for listening, that's amazing. All right, let's get started with daily reflections. A day's plan. On awakening, let us think about the 24 hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking. especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest, or self-seeking motives. That's from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 86. Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose, a hundred times if necessary. Today's reading from 24 Hours. March 12th, AA Thought for the Day. The prodigal son took his journey into a far country and wasted his substance with riotous living. That's what we alcoholics do. We waste our substance with riotous living. When he came to himself, he said, I will arise and go to my father. That's what an alcoholic does in AA. He comes to himself. His alcoholic self is not his real self. His sane, sober, respectable self is his real self. That's why we're so happy in AA. So ask yourself, have I come to myself? The meditation for the day. Simplicity is the keynote of a good life. Choose the simple things always. Life can become complicated if you let it be so. You can be swamped by difficulties if you let them take up too much of your time. Every difficulty can be either solved or ignored and something better substituted for it. Love the humble things of life. Reverence the simple things. Your standard must never be the world's standard of wealth and power. The prayer for the day. I pray that I may love the simple things of life. I pray that I may keep my life uncomplicated and free. And for today's final reading, we're going back to As Bill Sees It. Today we're gonna read from page 258. Beneath the Surface. Some will object to many of the questions that should be answered in a moral inventory because they think that their own character defects have not been so glaring. To these, it can be suggested that a conscientious examination is likely to reveal the very defects the objectionable questions are concerned with. Because our surface record hasn't looked too bad, we have frequently been abashed to find that this is so simply because we have buried these self-same defects deep down in us under thick layers of self-justification. Those were the defects that finally ambushed us into alcoholism and misery. And that's from the 12 and 12, pages 53 to 54. And that's it for today's readings. Before I close, I'd like to go back to daily reflections and talk about that first little paragraph. On awakening, let us think about the 24 hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest, or self-seeking motives. So basically, I'm asking God to help me to be a good person and do the right thing. just for today. But for me, that's not a one and done. I do that every morning on my knees. But that's not a one and done thing. I don't just ask in the morning and then I'm good for the rest of the day. That's something that I have to be conscious of for the rest of the day. And that may sound like a lot of work, but it's really not. It really just means being aware of my emotions and taking a pause before I react or respond to a lot of things. And we have a saying in AA, the greater the space, the greater the grace. And there's also a famous quote from Viktor Frankl that I'd like to read real quick that applies here. Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. And that quote is credited to Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor. So I'd love to hear your thoughts and your comments on this, on asking God to direct your thinking for the day, and whether you do it in the morning or whether it continues throughout the day. You can send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com, or you can go to my website soberreadings.com and fill out the form. And while you're there, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the donation basket for today's readings, click the donate button. Again, thanks everybody for listening. 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.