Today's Gift
Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
After we get a new understanding about ourselves we think, "Now I will never have to make the same mistake again!" But our lessons are usually not that easily learned. We have to get them into our muscles and bones as well as our heads. Some of us have to learn how to be kind; others, how to be good listeners or how to stand up for ourselves in many different ways. Every new situation calls on a little different way of knowing, and perhaps we have to fall a few times in the learning.
The most important asset in our lives is the faith to get up again and continue. We must accept our imperfections. Each time we fall and with each mistake we make, we're vulnerable to doubting and losing faith. By rising again, we make progress in our learning and continue to become better men.
Today, I will have faith, even in the midst of my mistakes.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Walk In Dry Places
No Regrets of the Past
Mending the past
"The past is best mended by living so fully today that its errors have no place in our lives." These words by an AA member suggest an approach for healing from the past.
All of us would benefit to use today's knowledge to deal with situations we mishandled in the past. But we must remember that whatever mistakes we made, we had available only the knowledge and resources we possessed the, and we may have done about as well as we possibly could at this time.
We should also remember that active alcoholism and addiction are crippling and ugly diseases with many terrible consequences. It's not surprising that bad things happened to others and us when we were drinking and/or using. We can only be grateful that we are now recovering and that matters are better, not worse, than they once were.
Action for the Day: I'll live fully today, allowing no thoughts of regret from my past to intrude.
If you arrive at AA with no religious convictions you can, if you wish,
make AA itself or even your AA group your "Higher Power."
Here's a large group of people who have solved their alcohol problem.
In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you.
Even this minimum of faith will be enough.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 310
Thought to Ponder . . .
Hope leads to faith if you let it.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Answer Available.
Daily Motivation
Just because
Just because you don’t know how, doesn’t mean you can’t. There is much you can learn by simply getting started, and you have plenty of ways to learn even more.
Just because it’s difficult and complicated, doesn’t mean it’s impossible. For you are able to make a little progress, one step at a time, then make a little more and a little more, until the goal is reached.
Just because something is standing in your way, doesn’t mean it has to stop you. The fact is, you can take the necessary actions to get beyond whatever obstacles may confront you.
Just because people tell you that it can’t be done, or that you can’t do it, doesn’t mean they are correct. Remind yourself, again and again, that you can do what you choose to do, making use of your commitment, thoughts, and actions.
Just because there is strife and pain and negativity in the world, doesn’t mean you have to give up on life. You can change your own life, and many, many other lives for the better, when you decide to do so.
Just because you’ve been reckless or frustrated or disappointed in the past, doesn’t mean the future has to be that way. Today is a new day, your life is yours to live, and there’s no limit to the goodness and joy you can now create.
— Ralph Marston
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