The moral inventory is a cool examination of the damages that occurred to us during life & a sincere effort to look at them in true perspective. This has the effect of taking the ground glass out of us, the emotional substance that still cuts & inhibits.
As Bill Sees It, p. 140
My Eighth Step list used to drag me into a whirlpool of resentment. After four years of sobriety, I was blocked by denial connected with an ongoing abusive relationship. The argument between fear & pride eased as the words of the Step moved from my head t my heart. For the first time in years I opened my box of paints & poured out an honest rage, an explosion of reds & blacks & yellows. As I looked at the drawing, tears of joy & relief flowed down my cheeks. In my disease, I had given up my art, a self-inflicted punishment far greater than any imposed from outside. In my recovery, I learned that the pain of my defects is the very substance God uses to cleanse my character & to set me free.
A.A. Thought for the Day
"While alcoholics keep strictly away from drink, they react to life much like other people. But the first drink sets the terrible cycle in motion. Alcoholics usually have no idea why they take the first drink. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied, but in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. The truth is that at some point in their drinking they have passed into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of no avail." Am I satisfied that I have passed my tolerance point for alcohol?
Meditation for the Day
He who made the ordered world out of chaos and set the stars in their courses and made each plant to know its season, He can bring peace and order out of your private chaos if you will let Him. God is watching over you, too, to bless you and care for you. Out of the darkness He is leading you to light, out of unrest to rest, out of disorder to order, out of faults and failure to success. You belong to God and your affairs are His affairs and can be ordered by Him if you are willing.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be led out of disorder into order. I pray that I may be led out of failure into success.