Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Today's Gift
Keeping our motives honest
Motives are important in dealing with other people. If we're frank with someone and that person gets upset, we might think he or she just can't handle our directness, our honesty. But "honesty" without love is more like brutal frankness. If we want to be confrontational, we have to put up with the consequences.
But what is the real reason for being confrontational ("honest"), for pointing out others' flaws? Are we perhaps afraid that our own flaws will be discovered? Are we protecting ourselves by focusing attention on others?
Motives are important in dealing with other people. If we're frank with someone and that person gets upset, we might think he or she just can't handle our directness, our honesty. But "honesty" without love is more like brutal frankness. If we want to be confrontational, we have to put up with the consequences.
But what is the real reason for being confrontational ("honest"), for pointing out others' flaws? Are we perhaps afraid that our own flaws will be discovered? Are we protecting ourselves by focusing attention on others?
Are my motives always honest?
Higher Power, help me see where my motives are selfish or mean or petty, so that I stay honest in my program.
You are reading from the book:
Day by Day - Second Edition by Anonymous
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Walk In Dry Places
Staying on course___Power in purpose
When riding in an airplane on automatic pilot, I marvel at the way the aircraft stays on course even while bouncing and shaking through pockets of turbulence. Even more significant is the pilot's calm indifference to these minor movements as he checks occasionally to make sure the plane continues on the right course.
Staying on course___Power in purpose
When riding in an airplane on automatic pilot, I marvel at the way the aircraft stays on course even while bouncing and shaking through pockets of turbulence. Even more significant is the pilot's calm indifference to these minor movements as he checks occasionally to make sure the plane continues on the right course.
Many things that happen to us each day are no more important than the routine turbulence and aircraft encounters. But as sick, compulsive people, we sometimes view every disturbance as a terrible storm and become panicky or enraged over things that are of little consequence in the long run. "I could accept a major calamity, but a broken fingernail ruined my day," one speaker said at an AA meeting.
We can set our lives on "automatic pilot" by choosing continuing recovery as our major goal and letting all things fall in line with that. The turbulence of ordinary living cannot deflect us from our true course if we calmly accept it as natural, unavoidable, and non-threatening. Even if a real storm blows up and gives us anxious moments, we can stay on the recovery course we have chosen.
Disappointments and annoyances are part of the human condition.
Action for the Day: I will be cheerful and optimistic today even if I am bounced around a bit. There is within me an automatic pilot, through which my Higher Power leads me to continued recovery and true fulfillment as a person.
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One Day At A Time
Problems
I remember telling a friend years ago that I didn't have a drinking problem.
I had a stopping problem. We laughed. It was true,
but there was something else going on, something that never occurred to me
until I came to AA. I didn't just have a stopping problem.
I had a starting problem too.
No matter how often I stopped, or for how long, I always started drinking again.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 372-73
Thought to Ponder . . .
Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Altered Attitudes.
I remember telling a friend years ago that I didn't have a drinking problem.
I had a stopping problem. We laughed. It was true,
but there was something else going on, something that never occurred to me
until I came to AA. I didn't just have a stopping problem.
I had a starting problem too.
No matter how often I stopped, or for how long, I always started drinking again.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 372-73
Thought to Ponder . . .
Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Altered Attitudes.
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Daily Motivation
Daily Motivation
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