[alt.recovery] Thought for the Day

billw@serene.UUCP (Bill Wilson) (01/17/90)

From the Day at a Time book
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January 17 -- Reflection for the Day

I have been told over and over that I must constantly work to give up
my old ideas.  "That's easy for you to say," I've sometimes thought.
All my life, I have been programmed, computer-style; specific inputs
brought forth predictable responses.  My mind still tends to react as
a computer reacts, but I am learning to destroy the old tapes and
literally reprogram myself.  ** Am I fully willing to abandon my old
ideas?  Am I being fearless and thorough on a daily basis? **


---
Today I Pray

Help me to take inventory each day of my stock of my new, healthy
thoughts, throwing out the old ones as I happen upon them without
regret or nostalgia.  For I have outgrown those old ideas, which are
as scuffed and run-over as an old pair of shoes.  Now, in the light,
I can see that they are filled with holes.


---
Today I Will Remember

The Program reprograms.


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God grant me the serenity                       |  Serenity BBS (619) 259-7757
To accept the things I cannot change,           |  Keep Callin Back, It Works!
The courage to change the things I can,         |  Mail --> billw, for access
And the wisdom to know the difference.          |  to the recovery conference!

billw@serene.UUCP (Bill Wilson) (01/18/90)

From the Day at a Time book
---
January 18 -- Reflection for the Day

If we are determined to stop drinking or using other chemicals, there
must be no reservations whatsoever, nor any lurking notion that our
allergy of the body and obsession of the mind will some day reverse
themselves.  Our regeneration comes through the splendid paradox of
the Twelve Steps: Strength arises from complete defeat, and the loss
of one's old life is a condition for finding a new one.  ** Am I
convinced that in powerlessness, Power comes?  Am I certain that by
releasing my life and will, I am released? ** 


---
Today I Pray

May I know power through powerlessness, victory through surrender,
triumph through defeat.  May I learn to relinquish any trace of
secret pride that I can "do it by myself."  Let my will be absorbed
and steered by the omnipotent will of God.


---
Today I Will Remember

Let go and let God.


---
God grant me the serenity                       |  Serenity BBS (619) 259-7757
To accept the things I cannot change,           |  Keep Callin Back, It Works!
The courage to change the things I can,         |  Mail --> billw, for access
And the wisdom to know the difference.          |  to the recovery conference!

billw@serene.UUCP (Bill Wilson) (01/19/90)

From the Day at a Time book
---
January 19 -- Reflection for the Day

It was far easier for me to accept my powerlessness over my addiction
than it was for me to accept the notion that some sort of Higher
Power could accomplish that which I had been unable to accomplish
myself.  Simply by seeking help and accepting the fellowship of
others similarly afflicted, the craving left me.  And I realized that
if I was doing what I was powerless alone to do, then surely I was
doing so by some Power outside my own and obviously greater.  ** Have
I surrendered my life into the hands of God? **


---
Today I Pray

May God erase in me the arrogant pride which keeps me from listening
to Him.  May my unhealthy dependence on chemicals and my clinging
dependence on those nearby be transformed into reliance on God.  Only
in this kind of dependence/reliance on a Higher Power will I find my
own transformation.


---
Today I Will Remember

I am God-dependent.


---
God grant me the serenity                       |  Serenity BBS (619) 259-7757
To accept the things I cannot change,           |  Keep Callin Back, It Works!
The courage to change the things I can,         |  Mail --> billw, for access
And the wisdom to know the difference.          |  to the recovery conference!