Daily Reflections reading October
9th
A Spiritual Axiom
It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the
cause, there is something wrong with us. 12
& 12, p. 90
I never truly understood the Tenth Step’s spiritual axiom until I had the following experience. I was sitting in my bedroom, reading into the wee hours, when suddenly I heard my dogs barking in the back yard. My neighbors frown on this kind of disturbance so, with mixed feelings of anger and shame, as well as fear of my neighbor’s disapproval, I immediately called in my dogs. Several weeks later the exact situation repeated itself but this time, because I was feeling more at peace with myself, I was able to accept the situation–dogs will bark–and I calmly called in the dogs. Both incidents taught me that when a person experiences nearly identical events and reacts two different ways, then it is not the event that is of prime importance, but the person’s spiritual condition. Feelings come from inside, not from outward circumstances. When my spiritual condition is positive, I react positively.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on October 9th Reading
“Page 449 third edition of the Big book in
part is about acceptance being the answer to all my problems today it goes on
to say when I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or
situation, some fact of my life unacceptable to me, and finally it tells us we
can’t find serenity until we accept that person, place, thing, or situation as
being exactly the way it is supposed to be
I am having a few
problems health wise, some problems with a family member who needs a liver
transplant because of alcoholism, that’s part of life today, serenity is in my
life, taking care of my health is getting better and it‘s not a struggle for me
God has giving me peace
and serenity right now, but some of that stinking thinking creeps in every once
in a while, this stinking thinking is just a thought, I try and be grateful and
remember to count my blessings and enjoy the peaceful serene times
Serenity is a present
from my Higher Power and I am going to enjoy every moment of it, the faith and
trust I have in my God today, is something that has built up over time, I see
all the things He has given me, the blessings, the grace, and his power all
around me
It makes my faith that
much stronger, when I look at the things in my life, I certainly can not do
anything about my past, I sure do not know what the future is gone bring, but I
can do anything in today, when I was drinking I lived for the future everything
I was going to do was tomorrow
Because I was to drunk to really do anything but sit and procrastinate, I would wake up in morning, or should say I came to, I made plans for the day, of course I would start by drinking right away and would put off the things, like take my family to the beach, our go to ball game with the kids,
I never got to do much
unless it involved booze, like taken my wife and kids to the club, to play pool
or some other activity the club was putting on, even then I would not be able
to enjoy their company I was to busy at the bar, never could do any good
healthy things with them
Unless I had my booze
with me, it was more important then they were, at that time in my life, today I
can go to things with my wife Sandy, we can have a great time with out the
drink, we travel a lot now because we have the time and money to do so
Our kids live out of
state so we have to drive to see them and the grand children, we have 15 grand
children we love and they love us, we go visit them often, we know what they
are into, we can plan on events around their activities, we are available for
friends, family, or what ever life brings us
Even if its not all good
things, we know the bad will pass, we only do have today, we can plan anything
for tomorrow, but we can not plan the results, we just needed to trust in Gods
wisdom, He does provide wisdom and he does it thru people like you in the halls
of AA
We have all the tools to
be happy and to be safe from ourselves if we use them, God has truly given us
just this one day to think about, so enjoy the moment your in now, do not worry
about the future leave that up to your High Power Sandy and I do
When I willingly
surrender myself to the spiritual principles of the program, my life was
transformed. I become a mature, responsible, person with a great capacity for
love and forgiveness I may never be perfect, but spiritual
progress will show me my growth I discover that I am worthy of love
I can love others without
loosing myself, I have learned to accept love in return, my secrets will no
longer blind me, I have been given this ability to forgive myself, my friends,
and family and our world, today I can stand with honor and dignity, I stand for
myself, and not against our fellows
God Bless you AL M
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suggestions or comments
