Inner Peace

FAMILY OBLIGATIONS
....a spiritual life which does not include .....family obligations may not be so perfect after all.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129
I can be doing great in the program--applying it at meetings, at work, and in service activities--and find that things have gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand, but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress, but they don’t--unless I show them. Do I neglect their needs and desires for my attention and concern? When I'm around them, am I irritable or boring? Are my "amends" a mumbled "Sorry," or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I preach to them, trying to reform or "fix" them? Have I ever really cleaned house with them? The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it." (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83)





Come live it at Friendship House
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day
We alcoholics have to believe in some Power greater than ourselves. Yes, we have to believe in God. Not to believe in Higher Power drives us to atheism. Atheism, it has been said before, is blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere. That's practically impossible to believe. So we turn to that Divine Principle in the universe that we call God. Have I stopped trying to run my own life?

Meditation for the Day
"Lord, we thank Thee for the great gift of peace, that peace which passeth all understanding, that peace which the world can neither give nor take away." That is the peace that only God can give in the midst of a restless world and surrounded by trouble and difficulty. To know that peace is to have received the stamp of the kingdom of God. When you have earned that peace, you are fit to judge between true and false values, between the values of the kingdom of God and the values of all that the world has to offer.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that today I may have inner peace. I pray that today I may be at peace with myself.
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Thought For Today

SOLITUDE
        Greta Garbo was reported to have said, "I want to be alone." Life
        brings its pressures, but we all need to find a place where we can be
        "alone".  Alone - not to "think" or "do" - simply to be. We need time to simply
        rest in our lives. A time in the day which we can call our own, to have a
        visit with the most important person we have got in our lives -
        ourselves.
        To rest in self is to experience "spiritual selfishness" - the joy of
        self-love.
         And how much we look forward to setting aside a time just for heart
        and mind to center on the pathway to listening to God.

Loneliness - the pain of being alone.

Solitude - the joy of being alone.
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Buddha/Zen Thoughts
 The most dangerous thing in the world is to think you understand something.

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Native American
"When you go inside that power, there's no fear. It's so beautiful!! There's no fear there. There's no pain."
---- Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

Imagine you are standing on the edge of a stage. In the center of the stage is a spotlight shining from above. If you stand anyplace outside the spotlight, in the darkness, you will experience fear. But as soon as you step into the light in the center of the stage, all fear and pain go away. When we stand in the power, fear cannot exist. How do we find this place of power? We pray our way into it. We ask the Creator to take our hand and help us. When we get to that place, we will feel the fear go away.
Great Spirit, hold my hand and guide me today.

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Keep It Simple
 Who is the bravest hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.  ---  Hebrew Proverb
In recovery we take our worst enemy, addiction, and turn it around. We were ashamed of our addiction. Over time we become proud of our recovery. We were our own worst enemy. Now we're our own best friend. We are brave people.

Being brave is about facing our fears. Often we think brave people don't get afraid, but this isn't true. Brave people learn to stay put, even when their knees are shaking. Many times in recovery, we will want to run when we should stay put. We may even think about using chemicals again.
We need to remember our bravery and how we turned our worst enemy into a friend.
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, teach me when to run and when to stay put. Help me be brave.
Action for the Day:  I will claim bravery today. I'll hold my head up high and be proud of how far I've come. I now have nothing to be ashamed of.