Daily Reflections reading June
11th
Family Obligations
a
spiritual life which does not include . . . family obligations may not be so
perfect after all. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129
I can be doing great in the
program–applying it at meetings, at work, and in service activities–and find
that things have gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand,
but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress, but they
don’t–unless I show them. Do I neglect their needs and desire for my attention
and concern? When I’m around them, am I irritable or boring? Are my “amends” a
mumbled “Sorry,” or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I
preach to them, trying to reform or “fix” them? Have I ever really cleaned
house with them? “The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.”
(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83).
© Alcoholics Anonymous World
Services
My thoughts on June 11th Reading
My recovery was slow
because I wanted to get sober just to get my wife and kids back, I wanted every
thing to be good again, this was not to happen, we never did get back together,
but my kids sure liked the changes I had made
This is where my family
after started with them, I became a father to them, instead of ruling over
there little lives, they were five and eight when I sobered up, it was not
until I had a spiritual experience that I started to share my new found
knowledge of God and what he was doing for me
I guess at that time I
wanted to shout it from the roof tops, there is a God and he has saved my from
a life of self destruction, I was going to save the world I did see that I had
a distorted way of looking at this new found faith, but also saw it was one
sided at that time
After all I was the one
who had this white light spiritual experience, not my family, I needed balance
in my ways, this is were the reading came in “that for
an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family
obligations may not be so perfect after all”
Knowing I could not give
this to everyone I met, I started to share my spiritual experience with my
children, because at this time I became a real father to them, we used to go
camping a lot and we had a camp site next to a small open field, at night we
would lay in the field and look to the stars finding peace and serenity
My daughter always
wanted me to tell her about how God came down and helped me out of the big hole
I dug myself into, walking in circles when drunk and digging the hole deeper
the hole got so deep that I could not climb out by myself, I needed help to get
out of this deep hole
I had dug for myself, I
called out for someone to help me, it was at this time God reached deep down
into the hole and grabbed my hand, lifted me out of that pit of despair I had
been in so long, I did stop walking around that bottle going in circles
On that day we had
started a new relationship, founded on the principles of a spiritual way of
life I had learned in the halls of AA, I became a father who could teach his
children love, for the rest of my family well lets say my brothers could have
used the program
But this is about how I
related to them after recovery, we had a very hard relationship, a lot of hurt
and anger was exchanged, I was the youngest of 4 boys, so I got the crap end of
most things, till I found alcohol could make me 10 feet tall and no one could
ever make me hurt again
I went to live with Mom
the first 6 months of sobriety, it was first time I ever saw her cry with joy,
the day I told her I needed help, I was going into treatment to get help, well
I did make a lot of amends to all of them, even my x wife, we are friends today
and we had shared in raising the kids
Today I have a wonderful
family, beautiful life, with my angel Sandy, we have watch our kids grow up
with us both being sober, we have a fantastic relationship with our family and
were truly bless by God, the AA fellowship has taught us about ourselves
I can sure identify with
others who have active family members in trouble, I like so many others, had to
finally turn it all over to God’s care just praying but still talking to our
son about his alcohol abuse, hopefully in Gods time he will see the light and
go for the help to find his recovery and a new way of life
The second half of this
reading tonight is on pages 83 and 84 of the Big Book the promises of recovery,
if we follow the simple steps of the AA program, all the promises will become
guarantees to a happy peaceful life free from alcoholism
God bless Al M
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