Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Alcoholics Anonymous | Step 3 | March 30


Alcoholics Anonymous | Step 3 | March 30 |

Twelve steps helps us find acceptance daily and a new way of life, we still have consequences from our past ~ Gerald Jampolsky "Forgiveness means letting go of the past" -/- Acceptance from others is subject to their understanding, our past actions as well as current attitudes and behaviour...

Life is difficult enough, we need not make it more difficult! People are the way they are and we need find ~ Jessica Lange "Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons" -/- So we may experience life as it is and not as we may wish!

Daily Reflections ~ OUR GROUP CONSCIENCE “. . . sometimes the good is the enemy of the best.” ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS COMES OF AGE, p. 101

I think these words apply to every area of A.A.’s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Service! I want them etched in my mind and life as I “trudge the Road of Happy Destiny” (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164). These words, often spoken by co-founder Bill W., were appropriately said to him as the result of the group’s conscience. It brought home to Bill W. the essence of our Second Tradition: “Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”

Just as Bill W. was originally urged to remember, I think that in our group discussions we should never settle for the “good,” but always strive to attain the “best.”
These common strivings are yet another example of a loving God, as we understand Him, expressing Himself through the group conscience. Experiences such as these help me to stay on the proper path of recovery. I learn to combine initiative with humility, responsibility with thankfulness, and thus relish the joys of living my twenty-four hour program.

As Bill Sees It ~ In God's Economy... "In God's economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is."
We did not always come closer to wisdom by reason of our virtues; our better understanding is often rooted in the pains of our former follies. Because this has been the essence of our individual experience, it is also the essence of our experience as a fellowship. 1. LETTER, 1942
Into the fabric of recovery from alcoholism are woven the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions, steps to be open honest and willing to learn, traditions to live unity service and recovery.

spiritual principles ~ acceptance surrender faith open-mindedness honesty willingness moral-inventory amends humility persistence spiritual-growth service

Step 3 "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him" Practicing Step Three is like the opening of a door which to all appearances is still closed and locked. All we need is a key, and the decision to swing the door open. There is only one key, and it is called willingness. Once unlocked by willingness, the door opens almost of itself, and looking through it, we shall see a pathway beside which is an inscription. It reads: "This is the way to a faith that works." We find faith in doing the next right action, based on truth, love and wisdom we learn as life unfolds.

Open To Truth, Love And Wisdom of Others [we let go having to be right, self obsessed and self medicating our lives away into oblivion and harms way]

We find it amazing that the newcomer can start the A.A. program without any specific beliefs or, for that matter, without any beliefs whatsoever. All a person needs is the open-mindedness and the willingness to believe that WE BELIEVE this program works...

"God [it is what I understand to be God or a "Higher Power," always a personal understanding we have for ourselves, there is no AA or common understanding, simply what you believe] God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference" God is often understood to be: Truth, Love and Wisdom in the moment of now... your faith, your understanding.

Alcoholics Anonymous, DonInLondon, Life Works In Recovery, Addiction And Recovery, Alcoholic, Alcoholism

Alcoholics Anonymous | DonInLondon | Life Works In Recovery |

AA Big Book Videos Chapters 1 - 11

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 1 Bill's Story |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 2 There Is A Solution |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 3 More About Alcoholism |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 4 We Agnostics |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 5 How It Works |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 6 Into Action |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 7 Working With Others |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 8 To Wives |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 9 The Family Afterward |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 10 To Employers |

AA Big Book Video | Chapter 11 A Vision For You |

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