The moment we call a friend instead of being alone. It will be the moments of choice that we remember. Moments lead to days, days to years, and years to a life of honest recovery. Our spirits grow through working our program moment to moment. We do not remember days, we remember moments. In any case, I will at least be honest with my self about my true motives and feelings. I’ll try to be honest in all things today. These are rich rewards for people who once lived in the false world of alcoholism. Honesty makes us comfortable rather than pained, relaxed rather than anxious, and decisive rather than confused. In real honesty, there is no inner struggle to keep up appearances or to pretend we are anybody except ourselves. The honest person has self-respect and a clear conscious. An honest AA member-one who has truly faced personal faults- also becomes an example to others. People know intuitively when a person is completely honest, and they are drawn to that person because of it. Surely we had enough of that while drinking. What are the advantages of being entirely honest about our motives and feelings? One benefit is that we never will have to face the disillusionment and humiliation that come from self-deception. If we are completely honest with ourselves, however, the results can only be positive. Sometimes we think that honesty is simply too painful and demanding- all sacrifice with no gain. It always entailed the hardest kind of work and the sharpest vigilance. Although his craving was hard to withstand, it doubtless did account for some part of the intense incentive that went into forming Akron’s Group Number One.īob’s spiritual release did not come easily it was to be painfully slow. Bob, the insatiable craving for alcohol was evidently a physical phenomenon which bedeviled several of his first years in A.A., a time when only days and nights of carrying the message to other alcoholics could cause him to forget about drinking. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress.”įor Dr. is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. I pray that I may throw away my alcohol crutch and let God’s power take its place. I pray that I may have more and more dependence on God. God’s will shall be revealed to me as I go forward. I will go step by step, one day at a time. God’s power will so invigorate me that I shall indeed walk on to victory. I will throw away the crutch of alcohol and walk in God’s power and spirit. I know that God cannot teach anyone who is trusting in a crutch. With sobriety, have I got everything that drinking’s got, without the headaches? And we make real friends, not fair weather friends. In A.A., we have real fellowship, based on unselfishness and a desire to help each other. We used our drinking companions for our own pleasure. But it really was a false fellowship, because it was based on selfishness. We build them up instead of tearing them down. In A.A., we really try to help other alcoholics. We were only helping them to get drunk, especially if they happened to be an alcoholic. We liked to say, “Have a drink on me.” But we were not really doing the other people a favor. Treating others to drinks gave us a kind of satisfaction. program the alternatives were too bleak! I kept coming back and gradually my faith was resurrected. I was grateful intellectually to have survived such a great fall, but my heart felt callous. It took time to rekindle my faith, though I came to A.A. Those who once had great faith hit bottom harder. My faith turned bitter and that was no coincidence. I was so sure God had failed me that I became ultimately defiant, though I knew better, and plunged into a final drinking binge. They have tried the way of faith and the way of no faith. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have faith and found it wanting.
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