|
If you want to change who you are, change what you do. The Big Book is like a cookbook - you can read it all day long and starve. You have to take the action. If you stay humble, you will not stumble. Our neighbor's window looks much cleaner if we first wash our own. Yesterday is a canceled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, today is cash in hand, spend it wisely. In recovery, we get many lessons about these things. If we are actively growing, we will get help from others and give it too. The rewards of recovery give us ample reasons and opportunities to express our gratitude. We are no longer loners. Now we have a network of friends who truly enjoy and enhance each other's strength. Today, I pray for help in learning how to share my strength and to appreciate the strength of others. Behind an able man there are always other able men and or women. |
Check the website www.aajoplin.org HERE. You can view “The Journal” there as well as the meeting schedule A.A. Thought for the Day Alone in the company of our partner. To be alone in the wilderness is less painful than to feel alone in the company of our partner. When we shut down in silence because we feel wounded by our partner, we slam the door on healing. We may justify emotionally abandoning our partner by telling ourselves that we do not want to be hurt again, and we may be convinced that our partner is never going to change anyway. We each have our own style of "going away" and our own way of maintaining our loneliness. When we feel the pain of separation from each other, we need to reach back and reopen communication. We can do that by telling our partner how we disappeared and asking her or him to join us in healing the wounds. When we talk about our feelings and we are understood, we make genuine contact and we are no longer alone! As a way to enhance your connection now tell your partner about a way that you have disappeared. |
What’s Happening In The Fellowship New Gamblers Anonymous
Meeting 5th Tradition Book Study New Meeting Alano Club Joplin
| |
|
I can change only myself, but sometimes that is enough. Happiness is more fleeting for some of us than for others. We may ponder this notion but fail to grasp the reason. However, careful attention to how "the happy ones" go through life will enlighten us. We will note how seldom they complain about others' actions. We will discover their willingness to accept others as they are. We will see that their attention is generally on the positive aspects of people and circumstances rather than on the negative. We can join the parade of "happy ones" by letting go of our need to change people and situations that disturb us. Even when we are certain other people are wrong, we can let go of controlling them. Doing this means changing ourselves, of course. But this is the one thing in life we do have control over. I will change myself if I think something needs changing today! |
Accepting the past Noted psychiatrist Carl Jung once said, "If one can accept one's sin, one can live with it. If one cannot accept it, one has to suffer the inevitable consequences." We must come to accept our past acts before they will stop causing us pain. All the Steps help us do this, but in particular, Steps Four and Five (the inventory Steps) and Steps Eight and Nine (the amends Steps) help. If we attend to these Steps properly, we will no longer regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. Am I coming to accept myself? Higher Power, help me accept the ways I've behaved in the past - and the ways I behave in the present - that cause me pain, so that in your time I may be freed. Many of us have known someone who refused or was unable to hear the message being offered at our meeting. It takes wisdom, patience, and detachment to know when to reach out to someone, and how far to go. The respect we feel for that person's recovery process as well as the faith we have in our Higher Power and the Twelve Step program can help us do our part and then let go. Life is a learning experience. I can learn the lesson of my life, but not someone else's. |
12 SYMPTOMS OF A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING 1. An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.2. Frequent attacks of smiling. 3. Feelings of being connected with others and nature. 4. Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation. 5. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience. 6. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment. 7. A loss of ability to worry. 8. A loss of interest in conflict. 9. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others. 10. A loss of interest in judging others. 11. A loss of interest in judging self. 12. Gaining the ability to love without expecting anything in return |