Twenty Four Hours A Day

by Anonymous

I will try to grow in this new life. I will think of spiritual things often and unconsciously I will grow.

Having surrendered our lives to God and put our drink problem in His hands doesn’t mean that we’ll never be tempted to drink. So we must build up strength for the time when temptation will come.

In this quiet time, we read and pray and get our minds in the right mood for the day. Starting the day right is a great help in keeping sober. As the days go by and we get used to the sober life, it gets easier and easier. We begin to develop a deep gratitude to God for saving us from that old life. And we begin to enjoy peace and serenity and quiet happiness.

The elimination of selfishness is the key to happiness and can only be accomplished with God’s help.

We can only be grateful to God for doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.

it is through the grace of God that any real change in human personality takes place. I have to rely on God’s power, and anything I accomplish is through His help.

There are two important things we have to do if we want to get sober and stay sober. First, having admitted that we’re helpless before alcohol, we have to turn our alcoholic problem over to God and trust Him to take care of it for us. This means asking Him every morning for the strength to stay sober that day and thanking Him every night.

We must change from alcoholic thinking to sober thinking. We must reeducate our minds.

It is the quality of my life that determines its value.

The most valuable life is one of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love.

“What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, if he loseth his own soul?”

Simplicity is the keynote of a good life. Choose the simple things always. Life can become complicated if you let it be so. You can be swamped by difficulties if you let them take up too much of your time. Every difficulty can be either solved or ignored and something better substituted for it. Love the humble things of life. Reverence the simple things. Your standard must never be the world’s standard of wealth and power.

I can get well by turning my drink problem over to a Power greater than myself, that Divine Principle in the universe which we call God, and by asking that Power each morning to give me the strength to stay sober for the next twenty-four hours.

I must remember that in spiritual matters I am only an instrument. It is not mine to decide how or when I am to act.

All that hinders my spiritual activity must be eliminated.

Emotional upsets make you useless.

Calmness is based on complete trust in God.

Persistence is necessary if you are to advance in spiritual things. By persistent prayer, persistent, firm, and simple trust, you achieve the treasures of the spirit. By persistent practice, you can eventually obtain joy, peace, assurance, security, health, happiness, and serenity. Nothing is too great, in the spiritual realm, for you to obtain, if you persistently prepare yourself for it.

If you are in harmony with the Divine Spirit, doing your best to live the way you believe God wants you to live, you will be at peace.

Functioning on a material plane alone takes me away from God. I must also try to function on a spiritual plane.

Functioning on a spiritual plane as well as on a material plane will make life what it should be. All material activities are valueless in themselves alone. But all activities, seemingly trivial or of seemingly great moment, are all alike if directed by God’s guidance. I must try to obey God as I would expect a faithful, willing servant to carry out directions.

I pray that I may function on a spiritual plane as well as on a material plane.

Everything works out well, as long as we stay sober. All we need to think about is today.

You cannot have a spiritual need that God cannot supply.

Spiritual development is achieved by daily persistence in living the way you believe God wants you to live.

But he who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city.

When you come into an A.A. meeting, you’re not just coming into a meeting, you’re coming into a new life.

There are two things that we must have if we are going to change our way of life. One is faith, the confidence in things unseen, the fundamental goodness and purpose in the universe. The other is obedience: that is, living according to our faith, living each day as we believe that God wants us to live, with gratitude, humility, honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love.

Be calm, be true, be quiet. Do not get emotionally upset by anything that happens around you. Feel a deep, inner security in the goodness and purpose in the universe. Be true to your highest ideals. Do not let yourself slip back into the old ways of reacting. Stick to your spiritual guns. Be calm always. Do not talk back or defend yourself too much against accusation, whether false or true. Accept criticism as well as you accept praise. Only God can judge the real you.

All alcoholics have personality problems. They drink to escape from life, to counteract feelings of loneliness or inferiority, or because of some emotional conflict within them, so that they cannot adjust themselves to life.

When I came into A.A., I came into a new world. A sober world. A world of sobriety, peace, serenity, and happiness. But I know that if I take just one drink, I’ll go right back into that old world. That alcoholic world. That world of drunkenness, conflict, and misery.

I must learn to accept self-discipline. I must try never to yield one point that I have already won. I must not let myself go in resentments, hates, fears, pride, lust, or gossip. Even if the discipline keeps me separated from some people who are without discipline, nevertheless I will carry on. I may have different ways and a different standard of living than some others. I may be actuated by different motives than some people. But I will try to live the way I believe God wants me to live, no matter what others say.

I must keep balance by keeping spiritual things at the center of my life.

I should keep material things in their proper place and keep spiritual things at the center of my life. Then I will be at peace amid the distractions of everyday living.

At all cost I will keep calm. I can solve nothing when I am agitated. I should keep away from things that are upsetting emotionally. I should run on an even keel and not get tipped over by emotional upsets. I should seek for things that are calm and good and true and stick to those things.

Love means no severe judging, no resentments, no malicious gossip, and no destructive criticism. It means patience, understanding, compassion, and helpfulness.

Am I building up an endowment in serenity, peace, and happiness that will put me on easy street for the rest of my life?

Just for today…nothing is easy just simple. 1 day at a time!

I gain faith by my own experience of God’s power in my life. The constant, persistent recognition of God’s spirit in all my personal relationships, the ever-accumulating weight of evidence in support of God’s guidance, the numberless instances in which seeming chance or wonderful coincidence can be traced to God’s purpose in my life.

The satisfaction you get out of living a sober life is made up of a lot of little things, but they add up to a satisfactory and happy life.

I must arise from the death of sin and selfishness and put on a new life of integrity. All the old sins and temptations must be laid in the grave and a new existence rise from the ashes. Yesterday is gone. All my sins are forgiven if I am honestly trying to do God’s will today. Today is here, the time of resurrection and renewal. I must start now, today, to build a new life of complete faith and trust in God and a determination to do His will in all things.

useful citizen,

Divine control and unquestioning obedience to God are the only conditions necessary for a spiritual life. Divine control means absolute faith and trust in God, a belief that God is the Divine Principle in the universe and that He is

the Intelligence and the Love that controls the universe. Unquestioning obedience to God means living each day the way you believe God wants you to live, constantly seeking the guidance of God in every situation and being willing to do the right thing at all times.

It’s been proved that we alcoholics can’t get sober by our willpower. We’ve failed again and again. Therefore I believe there must be a Higher Power which helps me. I think of that power as the grace of God.

I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in self. I pray that my will may be directed toward doing His will.

Our own wills are no use against the power of liquor.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

We are inside a box of space and time, but we know there must be something outside of that box, limitless space, eternity of time, and God.

The A.A. program is simple. Submit yourself to God, find release from liquor, and get into action. Do these things and keep doing them and you’re all set for the rest of your life.

You must be before you can do. To accomplish much, be much. In all cases, the doing must be the expression of the being.