![]() Perhaps we had other higher powers too–like money, gambling, food, or sex. We once made alcohol or other drugs our Higher Power. I’ll frequently remind myself that anger is destructive and that my real purpose is to build a better life.Įvery saint has a past and every sinner has a future. I’ll make it through this day without a trace of anger. If we’re angry over another’s behavior, we can remember that anger might be a way of reacting, but it’s not necessary in our lives. If we sense it coming on, we have the choice of taking charge of our feelings. The AA program can show us that there is virtually no justification for anger, under any and all circumstances. Terrible things said in anger leave wounds that never heal, creating problems that lead to more anger. Once angry, we hurt ourselves and we hurt others. The trouble with anger, though, is that it’s destructive. In the past this brought results of a sort, and helped reinforce the idea that anger works. It can be employed as an excuse to leave the house, it can bring an argument to an explosive end, and it can make others fearful and defensive. ![]() One reason some of us have trouble overcoming anger is that we’ve used it too often as an offensive weapon. If our circumstances happened to be good, we no longer dreaded a change for the worse, for we had learned that these troubles could be turned into great values, for ourselves and for others. We could cheerfully perform humble labor without worrying about tomorrow. And these were fears which would make a serene and useful existence, at any financial level, quite impossible.īut as time passed we found that with the help of A.A.’s Twelve Steps we could lose those fears, no matter what our material prospects were. ![]() When a job still looked like a mere means of getting money rather than an opportunity for service, when the acquisition of money for financial independence looked more important than a right independence upon God, we were the victims of unreasonable fears. I pray that I may concentrate on doing what I can do best. I pray that I may not become distracted by material affairs. I must concentrate and specialize on what I can do best. I do not have time to be concerned about the multifarious concerns of the world. It is easy to become distracted by material affairs, so that I lose my singleness of purpose. I must not let material distractions interfere with my job of improving personal relationships. I must have a singleness of purpose to do my part in God’s work. Have I gone through that door to sobriety? By encouraging us to honestly admit that we’re alcoholics and to realize that we can’t take even one drink, and by showing us which way to turn for help, A.A. There seems to be no door in that blank wall. But we don’t know which way to turn for help. We see that we’re licked, that we have to quit. I became willing to believe and I have had 26 years of stable and satisfying sobriety. But I could not expect help if I turned my back on that help and went my own way. With the vastness of the universe under His command, He would, no doubt, be able to guide my thinking and actions if I was prepared to accept His guidance. After reading a variety of versions, including the scientific, of a great explosion, I went for simplicity and made the God of my understanding the Great Power that made the explosion possible. When I came to A.A., an understanding of some description of the spiritual dimension became a necessary adjunct to a stable sobriety. I remember the times I looked up into the sky and reflected on who started it all, and how. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea … “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?” That statement hit me hard.
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