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From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click the page number or the book cover icon
to view that page in the literature.1.
2.
3.
Of course, there is such a thing as incompatibility, but in nearly every instance the alcoholic
only seems to be unloving
and inconsiderate; it is usually because he is warped and sickened that he
says and does these appalling things.
4.
5.
When drinking, or getting
over a bout, an alcoholic, sometimes the
model of honesty when normal, will do incredible things.
6.
7.
8.
9.
We say to ourselves, "This
one ought to be cured of his fatal malady," or "That one ought to be relieved of his emotional pain," and we pray for these specific things.
10.
These will appear as big setbacks at the time, but will be seen later as stepping-stones to better things.
11.
12.
13.
The moment we saw that we had
an answer for alcoholism, it was reasonable (or so it seemed
at the time) for us to feel that
we might have the answer to a lot of other things.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Here again we are presented with the temptation to overmanage things, and sometimes this results in
rebuffs and other consequences which are hard
to take.
19.
20.
Perhaps your husband will make a fair start on the new basis, but just as things are going beautifully he dismays you by coming home drunk.
21.
But the head of the house has
spent years in pulling down the structures of business,
romance, friendship, health -- these things are now ruined or damaged.
22.
23.
24.
To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to
see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives -- these things are the substance of what
we receive as we carry A.A.'s message to the next alcoholic.
25.
26.
27.
28.
It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there.
29.
We admit we have some of these symptoms, but we have not gone
to the extremes you fellows did, nor are we likely to, for we understand ourselves so
well after what you have told us that such things cannot happen again.
30.
31.
They understood that the elders, just to nail things down good, were about to apply to the Foundation for
a charter.
32.
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35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
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42.
43.
These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
44.
In all times of emotional
disturbance or indecision, we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."
45.
In all times of emotional
disturbance or indecision, we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."
46.
The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the
seeming evidence to the
contrary that surrounds
us in purely human affairs.
47.
No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme,
doesn't care for this prospect -- unless he has to
do these things in order to stay alive himself.
48.
Though our decision was a
vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of, the things in ourselves which had been blocking us.
49.
Beginning with Step Four, we commenced to search out the things in ourselves which had brought us to physical, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy.
50.
51.
I could almost hear the sound of the preacher's voice as I sat, on still Sundays, way over there on the hillside; there was that proffered temperance pledge I never signed; my grandfather's
good natured contempt of some church folk and their doings; his insistence that the spheres really had their music; but his denial of the preacher's right to tell him how he must listen; his fearlessness
as he spoke of these things just before he died; these recollections
welled up from the past.
52.
Many of us have been so touchy
that even casual reference to spiritual
things made us bristle with antagonism.
53.
54.
Sometimes it's because
God has not delivered us the
good things of life which we specified, as a
greedy child makes an impossible list for Santa Claus.
55.
Having opened our channel
as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the greatest need.
56.
Their common suffering as
drinkers, their common interest in A.A. and spiritual things, often enhance such unions.
57.
That was great news to us, for
we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe.
58.
59.
We had to begin to make our peace, and so we listed the people we had harmed and became willing to set things right.
60.
61.
The alarming physical
and mental symptoms, the
deepening pall of remorse, depression and inferiority that settled
down on our loved ones -- these things terrified and distracted
us.
62.
63.
64.
65.
They flatly declare that
since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves,
to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a
revolutionary change
in their way of living and thinking.
66.
Service, gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at home or in
the world outside we are partners in a common effort, the well-understood fact that in God's sight all human beings are important, the proof that love freely given surely brings a full return, the certainty that
we are no longer isolated and alone in self-constructed prisons, the surety that we need no longer be square pegs in round holes but can fit and belong in God's scheme of things -- these are the
permanent and legitimate satisfactions of right living for which no amount of pomp and circumstance, no heap of material possessions, could possibly be substitutes.
67.
If they sense these things,
they will not take so seriously his periods of crankiness, depression,
or apathy, which will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual understanding.
68.
We could not be all things to all men.
69.
70.
It had been embarrassing enough when in confidence
we had admitted these things
to God, to ourselves, and to
another human being.
71.
72.
73.
74.
An honest regret for harms done, a genuine gratitude for blessings received, and a
willingness to try for better things tomorrow will be the permanent assets we shall seek.
75.
Where the possession of money and material things was concerned, our outlook underwent the same revolutionary change.
76.
As soon as we admitted the
possible existence of a
Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of
the Universe underlying the totality
of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps.
77.
If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson.
78.
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, And wisdom to know the difference.
79.
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, And wisdom to know the difference.
80.
81.
We shall want to hold ourselves to the course of admitting the
things we have done, meanwhile forgiving the
wrongs done us, real or fancied.
82.
Here we cast up a balance sheet, crediting ourselves with things well done, and chalking up debits where due.
83.
Having so considered our day, not omitting to take due note
of things well done, and having searched our
hearts with neither fear nor favor, we can truly thank God for the blessings we have received
and sleep in good conscience.
84.
85.
My friend promised when
these things were done I would
enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my
problems.
86.
Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the
new order of things, were the essential requirements.
87.
88.
Yet we do go to great extremes to provide each other with these very things, when such action is warranted.
89.
When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned.
90.
We wives found that, like everybody else, we were afflicted with
pride, self-pity, vanity and all the things which go to make up the self-centered person; and we were not above selfishness or dishonesty.
91.
Being wrecked in the same vessel, being restored and united under one God, with hearts and minds attuned to the welfare of others, the things which matter so much to some people no longer signify much to them.
92.
93.
94.
Drinking occasionally, and understanding your own reactions, it is possible
for you to become quite sure of many things which, so far as the alcoholic is concerned,
are not always so.
95.
96.
97.
98.
We can go far beyond those things which were superficially wrong with
us, to see those flaws which were basic, flaws which sometimes were responsible for the whole
pattern of our lives.
99.
100.
These things will come to pass naturally and in good time provided, however, the alcoholic continues to demonstrate that he can be sober, considerate, and helpful, regardless of
what anyone says or does.
101.
102.
We could wish to be moral, we
could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could
will these things with all our
might, but the needed power
wasn't there.
103.
Whoever pays the piper is apt to call the tune, and if the A.A. Foundation obtained money from outside sources, its trustees might be tempted to run things without reference to the wishes of
A.A. as a whole.
104.
But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes
annihilation of all the things worth while in life.
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are all CONCORDANCES which display passages from the Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous, the
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164 and More concordance.
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