Daily Reflections reading January 14th

 

No Regrets

 

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

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