"Into your weak and feeble hands I have entrusted a Power beyond estimate.  To you has been given that which has been denied the most learned of your fellows.  Not to scientist or statesmen, not to wives or mothers, not even to My priests and ministers have I given this gift of healing other alcoholics, which I entrust to you.  It must be used unselfishly.  It carried with it grave responsibility.  No day can be too long, no demands upon your time can be too urgent, no case too pitiable, no task too hard, no effort too great.  It must be used with tolerance, for I have restricted its application to no race, no creed and no denomination.  Personal criticism you must expect, lack of appreciation will be common, ridicule will be your lot, your motives will be misjudged.  success shall not always attend your efforts in your work with other alcoholics.  You must be prepared for adversity, for what men call adversity is the ladder you must use to ascend the rungs toward spiritual perfection, I shall not exact of you beyond your capabilities."

"You are not selected because of exceptional talents; and be careful always, if success attends your efforts, not to ascribe to personal superiority, that to which you can lay claim only by Virtue of My gift.  If I had wanted learned men to accomplish this mission, the power would have been entrusted to the physician and scientist.  If I had wanted eloquent men there would have been many anxious for the assignment, for talk is the easiest used of all the talents with which I have endowed mankind.  If I had wanted scholarly men, the world is filled with better qualified than you who would have been available.  You were selected because you have been outcasts of the world, and your long experience as a drunkard has made, or should make you, humbly alert to the cries  of distress that come from the lonely hearts of alcoholics everywhere.  keep ever in mind the admission that you made on the day of your profession to A.A. - namely that you are powerless, and that it was only with your willingness to turn your life and will into My keeping, that relief came to you."

"Think not, because you have been dry one year or two years, or even ten years, that it is the result of your unaided efforts.  the help which has kept you normal will keep you so just as long as you live this program which I have mapped out for you.  Beware of the pride that comes from growth, the power of numbers and invidious comparisons between yourselves, or of your organization with other organizations who's success depends upon number power, money and position.  These material things are no part of your creed.  The success of material organization comes from the pooling of joint assets; yours from the union of mutual liabilities.  Appeal for membership in material organizations is based upon a boastful recital of their accomplishments; yours upon the humble admission of weakness; the motto of successful enterprise is: 'He profits most who serves best,' yours: 'he serves best who seeks no profit.'  The wealth of material organizations, when they take their inventory, is measured by what they have left; yours when you take your moral inventory, by what you have given."

I don't know the author, but this was given to me by a very dear old timer friend in AA, and I wanted to share it with my MIP family.

Thanks for reading...

Brian