Daily
Reflections reading January 14th
We
will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS,
p.83
Once
I became sober, I began to see how wasteful my life had been and I experienced overwhelming
guilt and feelings of regret. The program’s Fourth and Fifth Steps assisted me
enormously in healing those troubling regrets. I learned that my
self-centeredness and dishonesty stemmed largely from my drinking and that I
drank because I was an alcoholic. Now I see how even my most distasteful past
experiences can turn to gold because, as a sober alcoholic, I can share them to
help my fellow alcoholics, particularly newcomers. Sober for several years in
A.A., I no longer regret the past; I am simply grateful to be conscious of
God’s love and of the help I can give to others in the Fellowship.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My
thoughts on January 14th Reading
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has
thoroughly followed our path this is the guarantee, all the promises will come
true following all twelve steps first time in my life I knew freedom and
happiness was when I surrender and walked thru the twelve steps
Today I do not regret my past, I can not
close the door on my past, least I forget I reached my bottom hopelessly lost
in the disease of alcoholism, wanting to die more than live, I can now see how
my experiences have benefited many others in their journey
The more I work with other the more I see
how my past can help others not go the path I took hold onto negative experiences
blaming myself repeatedly for all my mistakes in the past, when I started to
think about what I was doing I saw how it was a waste of time
Time is a great healer, hindsight is
easer then doing the deeds over and over again, my memory weeds out the pain,
thank God it does retain the joy, today I need my past so I can be of service
to others, the road to recovery is littered with the mistakes of the past
We all need help to walk down that road,
step nine gives us the chance to do this but we do not have to go alone, when I
walked down that road I follow God and my sponsor they knew where the going
would get tough and let me rest before continuing
I had to learn how to like myself them I
learned how to love myself along this road into my past, I had to finish making
the amends but like it says before I was half way thru I began to not regret my
past and I sure did not want that door closed
Today I am free of fear anger and for the
most part resentments, I know how to handle resentments today, all I need to do
is forgive others for mistakes they make just like other forgave me for my past
mistakes we are all human and have human moments
By accepting my mistake I now do not have
to regret them, but I must continue to learn from them so I do not repeat them
again, this led me into my having lost interest in many selfish things and do
care very much about repairing the damage I had done and helping others do the
same
I had to start thinking a lot less about
myself, I do think a lot more about others, because I walked down that road
with god and my sponsor beside me my whole attitude has changed, I needed to
continue living in the guide lines of the steps as my sponsor taught me
Today my outlook upon life is fantastic,
I can still remember that fear of people I once had worrying about what they
thought of me, this is when I was told what people think of me is none of my
business, it is only what God know about how your trying to change that counts
I guess that things that used to baffle
me, I know how to handle these situations thru Gods help I realize that God is
doing for me, what I could not do for myself in the past ways of living I did
that foot work for all these promises to become guarantees for me today
Gods gifts are endless as long as my mind
is open to Him and His gifts, acceptance is all I needed I am no longer a
victim of myself I have the love and respect of my family and friends, He gave
me the gift of choice to choose how I want to live today I have that choice
every morning
Another Gift from God the willingness to
go to any lengths to stay sober, also willing to change myself I have His gift
to accept my life as it should have always been turning my will over to His
care, thank God for freedom of bondage of myself give freely and you shall
receive Gods gift
God bless you Al M
Please feel free to mail
suggestions or comments