Came to Believe Quotes

“I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother, and I found all three.” We find our brothers in the Fellowship, and therein lies spiritual strength.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“I had to let go of the past and forget the future. As long as I held on to the past with one hand and grabbed at the future with the other hand, I had nothing to hold on to today with. So I had to begin here, now.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“It was a great relief to me to learn that I simply didn’t have to understand. After all, you don’t have to know how a tree grows to make a fence out of wood.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“The ultimate positive thought, of course, is “God,” the word which affirms our faith that the universe is friendly to our being.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“In my present life from day to day, I attempt to improve my understanding of God by responding to Him in three basic ways: by moving outwards into positive action, by exercising my ability to choose positive thoughts, and by allowing myself to be drawn inwards to positive being.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“MATHEMATICAL MIRACLE Some years ago, I heard a story which has been making the rounds in Midwest A.A. circles for years. I don’t have any names to back up this story, but I have heard it from many sources, and the circumstances sound believable. A man in a small Wisconsin city had been on the program for about three years and had enjoyed contented sobriety through that period. Then bad luck began to hit him in bunches. The firm for which he had worked for some fifteen years was sold; his particular job was phased out of existence, and the plant moved to another city. For several months, he struggled along at odd jobs while looking for a company that needed his specialized experience. Then another blow hit him. His wife was forced to enter a hospital for major surgery, and his company insurance had expired. At this point he cracked, and decided to go on an all-out binge. He didn’t want to stage this in the small city, where everyone knew his sobriety record. So he went to Chicago, checked in at a North Side hotel, and set forth on his project. It was Friday night, and the bars were filled with a swinging crowd. But he was in no mood for swinging—he just wanted to get quietly, miserably drunk. Finally, he found a basement bar on a quiet side street, practically deserted. He sat down on a bar stool and ordered a double bourbon on the rocks. The bartender said, “Yes, sir,” and reached for a bottle. Then the bartender stopped in his tracks, took a long, hard look at the customer, leaned over the bar, and said in a low tone, “I was in Milwaukee about four months ago, and one night I attended an open meeting. You were on the speaking platform, and you gave one of the finest A.A. talks I ever heard.” The bartender turned and walked to the end of the bar. For a few minutes, the customer sat there—probably in a state of shock. Then he picked his money off the bar with trembling hands and walked out, all desire for a drink drained out of him. It is estimated that there are about 8,000 saloons in Chicago, employing some 25,000 bartenders. This man had entered the one saloon in 8,000 where he would encounter the one man in 25,000 who knew that he was a member of A.A. and didn’t belong there. Chicago, Illinois”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“half the beauty of a gift lies in the manner in which it is received.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“It is wise to pray for the future, but not to worry about it, because we can’t live it until it becomes the present The depth of our anxiety measures the distance we are from God.”
― Aa World Services, Came to Believe

“Happiness is gratitude for the miracle which granted another go-around at a life once abandoned. Happiness is growing up. It is learning to recognize all the things you really have. Happiness is for experiencing, as well as remembering.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“Some of us long to become creative in some realm of life. But we cannot become or remain creative without solitude. One hour of conscious solitude will enrich our creativity far more than hours of trying to learn the creative process.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“We are not healed by love alone, but by our response to love. Our understanding of God grows through our willing response to Him.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“The second thing I learned is that God is love. One of the saints says, “Every man that loveth is born of God.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“I know that spiritual growth is a great, wide, beautiful thing and that I have only stepped up to the open door.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“I believe completeness is waiting for anyone who will take the time to make the effort, through quiet thinking, honest prayer, chosen reading, and exercise. These are the ingredients. It is an adventure so worthwhile that all else fades in comparison, yet it makes all else worthwhile.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“Undoubtedly, this way of life is different for each person, because each becomes his true self in relation to others, as well as to himself. Everything becomes filled with purpose, whether it is small or large, ugly or beautiful. In the life of the spirit, there is no small, there is no ugly. Paradoxically, inwardness increases the importance of other people and of one’s surroundings. All five senses are more alert. The feeling is one of completeness.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“We’re not just some higher form of animal that’s got a little better brain and a thumb that can meet the first finger to grasp a weapon or light a fire and so make us superior. We’re a different breed entirely. We’re unique because of the universal law that like begets like—a rosebush can’t produce a lily of the valley, and a cow can’t produce a colt. If God is a spiritual being, then we are spiritual beings.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“We must never let a newcomer know before he is ready how God springs His magnificent trap and teaches us that love means responding.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“The sheath of a seed must be broken to open it to the nurture of the good earth and the warm sun; so I must lose my old self to grow into another, must die in a former life for a renaissance to a new future.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“In my view, some of the evidences of a spiritual awakening are: maturity; an end to habitual hatred; the ability to love and to be loved in return; the ability to believe, even without understanding, that Something lets the sun rise in the morning and set at night, makes the leaves come out in the spring and drop off in the fall, and gives the birds song.”
― A.A. World Services, Came to Believe

“Although a moral inventory and a daily inventory reveal myriads of flaws in our makeups, still we, as human beings, cannot unravel all our liabilities in the personality. So at night, when I offer thanks to Him for the day’s sobriety, I add a prayer: I ask Him to forgive my failings during the day, to help me to improve, and to grant me the wisdom to discover those faults in myself which I cannot lay my finger on. In short, the need for prayer is infinite! Karachi, Pakistan”
― Aa World Services, Came to Believe

“A spiritual experience, I think, is what God does for a man when the man is completely helpless to do it for himself. A spiritual awakening is what a man does through his willingness to have his life transformed by following a proven program of spiritual growth, and this is a never-ending venture.”
― Aa World Services, Came to Believe