Keep It Simple
We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.—Step Six
Character defects include being stubborn, feeling self-pity, and wanting to always be in control. We must be ready to give up these defects, or they will hurt us. Being ready is our part of Step Six. Our Higher Power will remove these defects. We don’t need to know how. We just need to be ready to give them up when God asks for them. We don’t need to know when. We just have to be ready.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, take away my self-pity, fears, anger, and anything else that hurts my recovery. Help me make room for peace.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll get ready to have my character defects removed. I will list them and ask myself, “What do I get from keeping them?”
People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.
–Joseph Fort Newton
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
–Unknown
Life’s most rewarding gifts are those that don’t look like presents at all.
–Unknown
Walk in Dry Places
Why admitting we’re wrong is right
Right action
Sometimes it’s painful or almost impossible to admit that we’ve been wrong. This means we’ll probably go on making the same mistakes until we’re forced to face the truth. Why does this happen?
The problem lies with what we call the EGO in our Twelve step program discussions. We commit ourselves in defending this ego at al times, especially around people who seem to put us down. Far from being a minor correction, any admissions of wrong feels like total defeat, at least in our warped way of looking at things.
We can release ourselves from this bondage simply by coming to see that admitting and facing our wrongs is essential to growth. A store manager who overstocks a certain item “admits” the mistake by putting the goods on a clearance sale and getting rid of them. We can cut any loss in the same way by admitting a mistake and going on to a better course of action.
I’ll not plan to make any mistakes today, but I’ll hold myself in readiness to admit them if they occur. This is no threat to my ego. I am much more than my mistakes.
How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on the inside of us.
–Park Cousins
In this world, nothing is permanent except change.
–American Proverb
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
–Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Keep It Simple
When I have listened to my mistakes, I have grown.—Hugh Prather
Everyone makes mistakes. We all know that. So why is it so hard to admit out own? We seem to think we have to be prefect. We have a hard time looking at our mistakes. But our mistakes can be very good teachers. Our Twelve Step program helps us learn and grow from our mistakes. In Step Four, half of our work is to think of our mistakes. In step Five, we admit our mistakes to God, ourselves, and another person. We learn, we grow and become whole. All by coming to know our mistakes The gift of recovery is not being free from mistakes. Instead, we do the Steps to claim our mistakes and talk about them. We find the gift of recovery when we learn from our mistakes.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to see my mistakes as changes to get to know myself better.
Action for the Day: Today I’ll talk to a friend about what my mistakes taught me. Today I’ll feel less shame.
Many of us grew up in dysfunctional families, because modern society is a dysfunctional place. But the spiritual journey, the path of recovery and personal growth, is a detoxification process in which we bring up and out the negative beliefs we have carried with us from the past and that now poison the present.
–Marianne Williamson
“Don’t just do something, sit there! Sit there long enough each morning to decide what is really important during the day ahead.”
–Richard Eyre
You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.
–Oliver Goldsmith
Keep It Simple
We cannot solve life’s problems except by solving them.—M. Scott Peck
Before getting into the program, we ran from problems at all costs. As time went on, we had more problems. As our problems grew, we became afraid of life.
The program—the Twelve Steps—teaches us how to face and solve our problem. We stop running and stand up to problems. That way, life’s problems scare us less and less over time.
In fact, life’s problems help us better know our Higher Power and ourselves. We now know our Higher Power is with us every step of the way.
Prayer for the Day: I pray for the courage to stand and face life’s problems. I pray for the wisdom to ask my Higher Power for help.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list all problems I now have. I will talk about them with friends and with my Higher Power. I will make plans to solve them (sometimes solving problems means accepting them).
We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
–Samuel Smiles
Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.
–Joan Borysenko
The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things.
–Mechthild of Magdenburg
Keep It Simple
Life is only this place, this time, and these people right here and now.—Vincent Collins
Staying in the present can be hard. This busy world pulls our focus from the present. We often wonder if the future will bring good times or bad times.
Life is right before us. Look around. Life is happening—now! The more we live in the moment, the better we feel. Why? Because we can do something about the present. We can’t do anything about the future. We have choices in the present, and we can do something with our lives. Addiction ran our lives before. Now with the help of others and our Higher Power, we run our lives again. This give us peace of mind.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for giving back my life. Teach me how to run my life. Have me seek others when I need help. It’s okay to ask for it.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list five things I do well. Then I’ll list three things I don’t do well. I’ll think of people who can help me, and I’ll call them.
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
–Dorothy Nevill
When you feel down because you didn’t get what you want, just sit tight and be happy, because God is thinking of something better to give you.
–Unknown
