. . . a spiritual life which does not include . . . family obligations may not be so perfect after all. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129
I can be doing great in the programapplying it at meetings, at work, and in service activitiesand find that things have gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand, but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress, but they dontunless I show them. Do I neglect their needs and desire for my attention and concern? When Im around them, am I irritable or boring? Are my amends a mumbled Sorry, or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I preach to them, trying to reform or fix them? Have I ever really cleaned house with them? The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it. (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83).
A.A. Thought for the Day
We alcoholics have to believe in some Power greater than ourselves. Yes, we have to believe in God. Not to believe in a Higher Power drives us to atheism. Atheism, it has been said before, is blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere. That's practically impossible to believe. So we turn to that Divine Principle in the universe that we call God. Have I stopped trying to run my own life?
Meditation for the Day
"Lord, we thank Thee for the great gift of peace, that peace which passeth all understanding, that peace which the world can neither give nor take away." That is the peace that only God can give in the midst of a restless world and surrounded by trouble and difficulty. To know that peace is to have received the stamp of the kingdom of God. When you have earned that peace, you are fit to judge between true and false values, between the values of the kingdom of God and the values of all that the world has to offer.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that today I may have inner peace. I pray that today I may be at peace with myself.
