On Awakening (from Alcoholics Anonymous pages 86-88)
© 2001 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Everybody’s got plans… until they get hit. Mike Tyson
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day.
1. before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking
2. Especially asking that it be divorced from
Self-pity,
Dishonest or Self-seeking motives.
My thinking gets lost in thoughts of what’s in it for me?
under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use.
Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here
1. We ask God for
2. Inspiration,
3. An intuitive thought, or decision.
2. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle.
3. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.
4. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.
Still a rookie at the masters table, I am willing to raise Cain, but plainly barley Able to maintain.
Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times.
We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we
find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to
be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will, an are careful to make no request for ourselves only.
Our personal shopping list has been put on pause,we can only shop for our neighbor, our sisters, and and our brothers, that’s the higher law
We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped.
We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn’t work. You can easily see why.
It’s a family affair, when we are willing to learn to pray with love and care.
If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation. If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a
definite morning devotion, we attend to that also. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing.
There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day
As we go through the day,
We pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.
We loose control, no we loose the illusion of control
We constantly remind ourselves
we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day Thy will be done.”
Steady as she goes, no great highs and no great lows
We are then in much less danger of
Excitement, Fear, Anger, worry, Self-pity, or Foolish decisions.
Spiritual fuel burns clean, for we have miles to go, and miles to go and never seem to run out of steam. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when
we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. It works – it really does.
We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined
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