Thursday May 7th reflection

 May 7—AA Thought for the Day It’s very important to keep in a grateful frame of mind, if we want to stay sober. We should be grateful that we’re living in a day and age when alcoholics aren’t treated as they often used to be treated before Alcoholics Anonymous was started. In the old days, every town had its town drunk, who was regarded with scorn and ridiculed by the rest of the townspeople. We have come into AA and found all the sympathy, understanding, and fellowship that we could ask for. There’s no other group like AA in the world. Am I grateful? Meditation for the Day God takes our efforts for good and blesses them. God needs our efforts. We need God’s blessing. Together they mean spiritual success. Our efforts are necessary. We cannot merely relax and drift with the tide. We must often direct our efforts against the tide of materialism around us. When difficulties come, our efforts are needed to surmount them. But God directs our efforts into the right channels and God’s power is necessary to help us choose the right. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may choose the right. I pray that I may have God’s blessing and direction in all my efforts for good.

Wednesday May 6th reflection

May 6—AA Thought for the Day I’ve noticed that the ones who do the most for AA are not in the habit of boasting about it. The danger of building myself up too much is that, if I do, I’m in danger of having a fall. That pattern of thought goes with drinking. If one side of a boat gets too far up out of the water, it’s liable to tip over. Building myself up and drinking go together. One leads to the other. So if I’m going to stay sober, I’ve got to keep small. Have I got the right perspective on myself? Meditation for the Day The way sometimes seems long and weary. So many people today are weary. The weariness of others must often be shared by me. The weary and the heavy-laden, when they come to me, should be helped to find the rest that I have found. There is only one sure cure for world-weariness and that is turning to spiritual things. In order to help bring about the turning of the weary world to God, I must dare to suffer, dare to conquer selfishness in myself, and dare to be filled with spiritual peace in the face of all the weariness of the world. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may be a help to discouraged people. I pray that I may have the courage to help bring about what the weary world needs but does not know how to get. 

Tuesday May 5th reflection

 May 5—AA Thought for the Day I had to show off and boast so that people would think I amounted to something, when, of course, both they and I knew that I really didn’t amount to anything. I didn’t fool anybody. Although I’ve been sober for quite a while, the old habit of building myself up is still with me. I still have a tendency to think too well of myself and to pretend to be more than I really am. Am I always in danger of becoming conceited just because I’m sober? Meditation for the Day I cannot ascertain the spiritual with my intellect. I can only do it with my own faith and spiritual faculties. I must think of God more with my heart than with my head. I can breathe in God’s very spirit in the life around me. I can keep my eyes turned toward the good things in the world. I am shut up in a box of space and time, but I can open a window in that box by faith. I can empty my mind of all the limitations of material things. I can sense the Eternal. Prayer for the Day I pray that whatever is good I may have. I pray that I may leave to God the choice of what good will come to me.

Monday May 4th reflection

 May 4—AA Thought for the Day When I was drinking, I always tried to build myself up. I used to tell tall stories about myself. I told them so often that I half believe some of them now, even though I know they aren’t true. I used to hang around the lowbrow barrooms so I could feel superior to the other customers. The reason I always tried to build myself up was that I knew deep down in my heart that I really didn’t amount to anything. It was a kind of defense against my feeling of inferiority. Do I still build myself up? Meditation for the Day God thought about the universe and brought it into being. His thought brought me into being. I must think God’s thought after Him. I must often keep my mind occupied with thoughts about God and meditate on the way He wants me to live. I must train my mind constantly in quiet times of communion with God. It is the work of a lifetime to develop to full stature spiritually. This is what I am on earth for. It gives meaning to my life. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may think God’s thoughts after Him. I pray that I may live as He wants me to live.

Sunday May 3rd reflection

 May 3—AA Thought for the Day AA teaches us to take it easy. We learn how to relax and to stop worrying about the past or the future, to give up our resentments and hate and tempers, to stop being critical of people, and to try to help them instead. That’s what “Easy does it” means. So in the time that’s left to me to live, I’m going to try to take it easy, to relax and not worry, to try to be helpful to others, and to trust God. For what’s left of my life, is my motto going to be “Easy does it”? Meditation for the Day I must overcome myself before I can truly forgive other people for injuries done to me. The self in me cannot forgive injuries. The very thought of wrongs means that my self is in the foreground. Since the self cannot forgive, I must overcome my selfishness. I must cease trying to forgive those who have upset and wronged me. It is a mistake for me even to think about these injuries. I must aim at overcoming myself in my daily life, and then I will find there is nothing in me that remembers injury, because the only thing injured, my selfishness, is gone. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may hold no resentments. I pray that my mind may be washed clean of all past hate and fears.

Saturday May 2- reflection

 May 2—AA Thought for the Day In AA we often hear the slogan “Easy does it.” Alcoholics always do everything to excess. They drink too much. They worry too much. They have too many resentments. They hurt themselves physically and mentally by too much of everything. So when they come into AA, they have to learn to take it easy. None of us knows how much longer we have to live. It’s probable that we wouldn’t have lived very long if we had continued to drink the way we used to. By stopping drinking, we have increased our chances of living for a while longer. Have I learned to take it easy? Meditation for the Day You must be before you can do. To accomplish much, be much. In all cases, the doing must be the expression of the being. It is foolish to think that we can accomplish much in personal relationships without first preparing ourselves by being honest, pure, unselfish, and loving. We must choose the good and keep choosing it, before we are ready to be used by God to accomplish anything worthwhile. We will not be given the opportunities until we are ready for them. Quiet times of communion with our Higher Power are good preparation for creative action. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may constantly prepare myself for better things to come. I pray that I may only have opportunities when I am ready for them.

Friday May 1st Reflection

 May 1—AA Thought for the Day The AA program is one of charity because the real meaning of the word charity is to care enough about other people to really want to help them. To get the full benefit of the program, we must try to help other alcoholics. We may try to help somebody and think we have failed, but the seed we have planted may bear fruit sometime. We never know the results even a word of ours might have. But the main thing is to have charity for others, a real desire to help them, whether we succeed or not. Do I have real charity? Meditation for the Day All material things—the universe, the world, even our bodies—may be Eternal Thought expressed in time and space. The more the physicists and astronomers reduce matter, the more it becomes a mathematical formula, which is thought. In the final analysis, matter is thought. When Eternal Thought expresses itself within the framework of space and time, it becomes matter. Our thoughts, within the box of space and time, cannot know anything firsthand, except material things. But we can deduce that outside the box of space and time is Eternal Thought, which we can call God. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may be a true expression of Eternal Thought. I pray that God’s thoughts may work through my thoughts.