Daily Reflections reading August
7th
A Design For Living
We in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, “a design for living” that really works. ALCOHOLIC ANONYMOUS , p. 28
I try each day to raise my heart and hands in thanks to God for showing me a “design for living” that really works through our beautiful Fellowship. But what, exactly, is this “design for living” that “really works”? For me, it is the practice of the Twelve Steps to the best of my ability, the continued awareness of a God who loves me unconditionally, and the hope that, in each new day, there is a purpose for my being. I am truly, truly blessed in the Fellowship.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on August 7th Reading
When I started my journey into recovery I had no real belief
system nor did I want to pray to God, I had control of the rest of my life,
only thing I needed to do was stop drinking, the time did come that no power on
earth was going to keep me from drinking, I became as desperate as a dying man
could
I admitted my powerlessness and I started to honesty pray to
this God of your understanding, I had nothing to lose but did find the loving
and powerful hand of God, a new life has been given to me a design for living
that really works, that tells me I have had a spiritual awakening to the power
of God
A spiritual awakening it is simply the knowledge that there
is a power greater than myself, its that awareness that some form of a higher
power is now working in my life, the design is all laid out in those twelve
step of recovery, the books, the meetings the sponsor, the sayings, the slogans
the acronyms, being active in my life, the spirituality of
finding a power greater than myself , using this power to change, the
fellowship where I came to share my own experience, strength, and hope with
others, theses are the tools to recovery and to a new way of life a design for
living
it was the best way to go for me to find this and with out
the steps to guide me into this new way of looking at myself I would still be a
raving manic using the same things to try and control people, places, and
things, I thought I had control of my life
before I learned about all twelve steps of recovery, not
just step one, yes I surrendered and found that higher power, I began to get a
little sanity thru using step two finding our there was a power greater and
more awesome that I could ever have believed
then the biggie step three making that decision to turn my
live over to this awesome power I found, the God of my understanding a loving
and forgiven God who led me right into steps four and five, sure was hard
looking at myself thru the eyes of another my sponsor
but God helped me thru the fears, guilt, and remorse, of the
past, by showing me the way to do this moral inventory and to be able to share
this with another human being, a priest at first but then with this awesome sponsor who I had complete trust in
He showed me in steps six and seven what I had to do to
change my attitudes, about people places, and things, showing me where my character
defects and shortcomings were, how I had to become humble enough to become
willing to do the next step making that list of harms
Step eight the big list I had already started in step four,
I had to really look this list over and be as sure as I could at the time, to
make it accurate leaving nothing out by personal admission ready to make the
amends to all
this took me right into step nine, with my sponsors help did
not want to hurt others with the amends I needed to make, some would have been
at the expense of others who did not deserve to get hurt by my making amends
today step ten is my daily reprieve to make amends for
mistakes of the present moments in time, this
took some time to understand if I make daily amends for
wrongs then I did not have to carry them around in my head getting more
resentments
now I am in step eleven, I use daily to ask God thru prayer
and meditation, for the help to change my way, I to listen to Gods answers, He
does say No a lot of times when I pray for selfish things for me
my sponsor told me to be careful what I pray for God might
just give it to you
this just leaves me
with step twelve, I do try to carry this message to all the sick and suffering,
the message that was given to me "God can and will do for me what I could
not do for myself" all anyone has to do is let Him, surrender and you to
can have this new way of life
God bless you Al M
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suggestions or comments
