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Daily Ponderables - Inspiration for Your Day

May 19 – NA Just for Today

By NA Just for Today

A growth inventory

“We review our past performance and our present behavior to see what we want to keep and what we want to discard.” – Basic Text, p. 29

As each day winds to a close, many of us reflect on the past twenty-four hours and consider how we can live differently in the future. It’s easy for our thoughts to remain trapped in the mundane: change the oil in the car, keep the living room clean, or empty the litter box. Sometimes it takes a special effort to jog our thinking out of the daily rut and onto a higher track.

One simple question can put us on the high road: What do we think our Higher Power wants for us tomorrow? Maybe we need to improve our flagging conscious contact with the God of our understanding. Perhaps we’ve been uncomfortable in our job or our relationship, holding on only out of fear. We might be hiding some troubling defect of character, afraid to share it with our sponsor. The question is, in what parts of our lives do we really want to grow?

As each day ends, we find it beneficial to take some moments to spend time with our Higher Power. We can begin to reflect on what will benefit our program of spiritual growth most in the coming day. We think about the areas in which we have grown recently, and target areas that still require work. What more fitting way to end the day?

Just for Today:

I will set aside some time at the end of the day to commune with my Higher Power. I will review the past day, meditating on what stands between me and my Higher Power’s will for my life.

From the book “NA Just for Today”. © 1991 Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Daily Ponderables - Inspiration for Your Day

May 19 – One Day at a Time in Al-Anon

By One Day at a Time in Al-Anon

One Day at a Time in Al-Anon:

The newcomer to Al-Anon is looking for answers to a problem. The questions often begin with these two words: “WHAT IF…” What if we lose our home? What if he has an accident with the car? What if he stays out all night, loses his job, gets into fights, goes to jail? What if… ?

In Al-Anon we call this “projecting”— looking into the future and trying to imagine what may happen. The future — even as close as tomorrow — is a closed book. We cannot know what it holds, and the more we look for disaster, the more we invite it. Because the past has been unhappy is no index that the future will continue to be. This is something only God knows, and we would do well to trust in His loving wisdom and root out all our thoughts that “things can’t get better.”

Today’s Reminder:

It is health to the mind and body to look to the future with confidence. Lifting up our hearts is better preparation for disappointments, if they should come. Negative anticipating only increases the impact of unhappy incidents. Let’s improve the outlook!

“ ‘The thing that I have greatly feared has come upon me…’ says the Bible. I will not give reality to trouble that may never come.”

From the book “One Day at a Time in Al-Anon”. © Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. 1973
Daily Ponderables - Inspiration for Your Day

May 19 – Courage to Change

By Courage to Change

Courage to Change:

In the past, whenever anyone disagreed with me I took it as a personal failure. If only I had found the right words, clothes, opinions, school, job, home, friends, or lover, I could have belonged.
And how did others appear to me? Happy and self-confident—they seemed to have all the answers. But because of the front I put on, people thought I was easy-going and happy, too. If they could be so mistaken about the way I really felt, couldn’t I have a few wrong ideas about their feelings? After all, I couldn’t be the only one who put on a good act. Wasn’t I comparing my insides to other people’s outsides?
In Al-Anon I am learning that someone can disagree with me without either of us being wrong. When no one has to be wrong, we can all fit in, just as we are.

Today’s Reminder:

If I compare, I lose. Maybe I’ll come out feeling better than somebody this time, but next time I’m bound to feel worse. The best way to stop feeling that I’m not good enough is to stop comparing altogether.

“Little by little, we come to realize at our meetings that much of our discomfort comes from our attitudes.” – Understanding Ourselves and Alcoholism

From the book “Courage to Change”. Copyright Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. 1992
Daily Ponderables - Inspiration for Your Day

May 19 – AA Thought for the Day

By AA Thought for the Day

AA Thought for the Day:

Fellowship is a big part of staying sober. The doctors call it group therapy. We never go to an AA meeting without taking something out of it. Sometimes we don’t feel like going to a meeting and we think of excuses for not going. But we usually end up by going anyway. And we always get some lift out of every meeting. Meetings are part of keeping sober. And we get more out of a meeting if we try to contribute something to it. Am I contributing my share at meetings?

Meditation for the Day:

“He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.” The first part, “He brought me up out of a horrible pit,” means that by turning to God and putting my problems in His hands, I am able to overcome my sins and temptations. “He set my feet upon a rock” means that when I trust God in all things, I have true security. “He established my goings” means that if I honestly try to live the way God wants me to live, I will have God’s guidance in my daily living.

Prayer for the Day:

I pray that my feet may be set upon a rock. I pray that I may rely on God to guide my comings and goings.

From “The Little Black Book – Twenty-Four Hours a Day”. Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.