Daily Reflections reading December 7th

 

True Ambition

 

True ambition is not what we thought is was. True ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 124-125

 

During my drinking years, my one and only concern was to have my fellow man think highly of me. My ambition in everything I did was to have the power to be at the top. My inner self kept telling me something else but I couldn’t accept it. I didn’t even allow myself to realize that I wore a mask continually. Finally, when the mask came off and I cried out to the only God I could conceive, the Fellowship of A.A., my group and the Twelve Steps were there. I learned how to change resentments into acceptance, fear into hope and anger into love. I have learned also, through loving without undo expectations, through sharing my concerns and caring for my fellow man, that each day can be joyous and fruitful. I begin and end my day with thanks to God, who has so generously shed His grace on me.

 

© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services

 

My thoughts on December 7th Reading

 

 

The Twelfth Step it is where we find true ambition, where we turn towards others to help them find recovery, thru working the steps into their lives, like we have worked these steps in to our own lives the twelfth step is practicing all the steps and given away what we have learned

 

How we faced our troubles and walked thru the fears of our pasts now we can show other how to do this working the Twelfth Step is really talking about the kind of love that has no price tag on it, who could put a price on seeing the joy of another person

When they see the light at the end of the tunnel finding hope in the fellowship and finding the God of there understanding this is priceless, for me a spiritual awakening is the awareness that I was not God and that God will help me if I let Him, His unconditional love for us all is what gave me the hope to become the person I am today

 

A new state of consciousness is the grace of God coming into my life, His elegance beauty and love the generosity of His spirit, given me the capacity to tolerate, love and forgive people, for harms done this grace is a gift of God to all 

 

The love mercy forgiveness and goodwill freely given to us by the God of our understanding, our manner of making ready to receive this gift lies in the practice of the Twelve Steps in our program.

This is just about anything we do, like just being there for the new comer

 

With our had out to welcome them to recovery, or to speak at a meeting trying to share or own experiences strengths and hopes to carry A.A.'s message, or we can take on the tasks of our group being coffee maker, secretary, or treasurer, become a GSR for our group

 

Get active in all the affairs of AA as a whole, this list can go on and on, bottom line is anything we do for AA is twelve step work the biggest problem I have had with this work, is trying so hard to carry the message, I some time start to carry the mess

I want to fix people wanting them to do it my way, this just leads to dissepiments for me and more misery for the person I tried to help, after all my way did not work for me, why should I think my way will work for others,

 

Pride and ego can easily get in the way, trying to force feed this program just does not work for any of us, the steps are what lead us all into a new way of life, by letting go of our old self-seeking we find ourselves in a new place

 

We have to put the steps into practice always watching out for our defects and shortcoming to stay in check, practicing them in all are life’s situations will safe guard us against our old inflated egos and the feeling of being superior over others

 

This is where my faith and trust in God can keep me in the right frame of mind to face all the situations that come up in my life being sober does not mean we are free from life’s experiences we all have calamity and pain in our lives

 

We lose loved ones and need to grieve for them we watch some travel down the same road we did sometimes we have to watch them slowly killing themselves but a drink would not change anything that life brings on and prayer will get us thru anything we are never alone again

 

For me with out the help of God's grace, I could not handle problems of life I could not face up to such problems like changing me and my attitudes towards people, places, and things, I had to give up being the ruler of the universe king of my domain

 

Only thru growing spiritually could I ever see it was me who need to change not others in my life with out my growing spiritually I would not have any life or time for anything else, I would be to busy drinking to care, I needed an honest effort to practice these principles in all my affairs 

 

God bless you Al M

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