A.A. Thought for the Day "We cannot get along without prayer and meditation. On awakening, let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking. Our thoughts lives will be placed on a much higher plane when we start the day with prayer and meditation. We conclude this period of meditation with a prayer that we will be shown through the day what our next step is to be. The basis of all our prayers is: Thy will be done in me and through me today." Am I sincere in my desire to do God's will today? Meditation for the Day Breathe in the inspiration of goodness and truth. It is the spirit of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. It is readily available if we are willing to accept it wholeheartedly. God has given us two things -- God's spirit and the power of choice -- to accept or not, as we will. We have the gift of free will. When we choose the path of selfishness and greed and pride, we are refusing to accept God's spirit. When we choose the path of love and service, we accept God's spirit and it flows into us and makes all things new. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may choose the right way. I pray that I may try to follow it to the end.

"It was the hardest two years of my life," a woman said. "So many painful, unexpected events happened. I felt so abandoned, so lost. I didn't understand what was happening, and I felt tortured by God and life. I didn't think it would ever end. But it did. Now I can look back on that time and say, Wow. Look at all I learned. There's nothing that life can bring my way that I can't handle and get through." She learned self-confidence. But whether she's conscious of it or not, this woman is beginning to learn the value of trusting the process. Sometimes we don't know what we're learning, or whether we're learning anything at all. It's easy to look back on a situation once it has worked itself out and be in awe of the process and all that we learned. The time we most need to trust the journey is when it looks like we can't.