***********************************************************

As Bill Sees It

Daily Inventory, p. 296

Often, as we review each day, only the closest scrutiny will reveal
what our true motives were. There are cases where our ancient
enemy rationalization has stepped in and has justified conduct which
was really wrong. The temptation here is to imagine that we had
good motives and reasons when we really hadn't.

We "constructively criticized" someone who needed it, when our
real motive was to win a useless argument. Or, the person concerned
not being present, we thought we were helping others to
understand him, when in actuality our true motive was to feel
superior by pulling him down.

We hurt those we loved because they needed to be "taught a
lesson," but we really wanted to punish. We were depressed and
complained we felt bad, when in fact we were mainly asking for
sympathy and attention.

12 & 12, p. 94

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Walk In Dry Places
 
Different routes to alcoholism
Understanding powerlessness
While alcoholics have much in common, the personal stories heard at AA open meetings show that we took different routes to alcoholism. Some became out-of-control drinkers almost from the beginning. Others lost control slowly after years of seemingly moderate drinking.
These differences are underscored by the fact that we also differ in physical and emotional traits. Some alcoholics, for example, were so emotionally disturbed that they became problem drinkers from the very start. Some appeared to "have it all together," yet became alcoholics after retirement or some other change in life patterns.
Whatever the route taken, we share in common our individual powerlessness at the time we knocked on AA's door. And the solution for each of us was the same: sobriety in AA.
The risk in listening to such different personal accounts is that some of us twist these differences into "proof" that we are not alcoholics.  The reward of such sharing , however, is learning that we do have a common problem and that there is a solution that fits everyone, in spite of our diffences.
I'll remember today that I came to AA because I was powerless over alcohol.  That has not changed.

***********************************************************

Keep It Simple
 
Love thy neighbor as thyself, but choose your neighbor.---Louise Beal
In our program, we learn a lot about loving ourselves. Then we start to see how this helps us love our neighbors. We learn to love ourselves honestly, seeing our strengths and our weaknesses. We learn to see others honestly . We learn how much to trust ourselves and when to get extra help. We learn how much to trust others too. We learn to love ourselves with a love that’s honest and challenging. We learn to love others this way too. We learn to care about others without losing our common sense. We learn to protect our spirits from harm.
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me see others clearly. Help me love them. But help me choose carefully who I trust.
Action for the Day:  Today, I’ll list three people I trust the most, and I’ll write down why.

***********************************************************

Each Day a New Beginning

Love has the quality of informing almost everything--even one's work.  --Sylvia Ashton-Warner
We are changed through loving and being loved. Our attitudes are profoundly and positively affected by the presence of love in our lives. Each time we offer a loving response to a friend, co-worker, even a stranger, we powerfully influence the dynamics of the interaction between us.
Every response we make to someone changes us while it informs him or her. When we treat others with disdain, we invite the same. When we express only criticism of others, our self-assessment is equally negative. The beauty of a loving posture is that it calls forth love in response. The more love we give away, the more we receive.
Any task before us is lessened when we carry love in our hearts. Love is more powerful than fear. Love helps to open the channel to God, assuring us of the strength, the understanding, and the patience needed to complete any assignment confronting us.
God loves me, unconditionally. And I will experience the reality of that love the more I give it away. Love wants to change me--and it can.

***********************************************************

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

WE AGNOSTICS

We asked ourselves this: Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material? Even in the present century, American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. Had not all efforts at flight failed before? Did not Professor Langley’s flying machine go to the bottom of the Potomac River? Was it not true that the best mathematical minds had proved man could never fly? Had not people said God had reserved this privilege to the
birds? Only thirty years later the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.

pp. 51-52

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Doctor Bob's Nightmare

A co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.  The birth of our Society dates from his first day of permanent sobriety, June 10, 1935.
To 1950, the year of his death, he carried the A.A. message to more than 5,000 alcoholics men and women, and to all these he gave his medical services without thought of charge.
In this prodigy of service, he was well assisted by Sister Ignatia at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio, one of the greatest friends our Fellowship will ever know.

The question which might naturally come into your mind would be: "what did the man do or say that was different from what others had done or said?" It must be remembered that I had read a great deal and talked to everyone who knew, or thought they knew, anything about the subject of alcoholism. This man was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkard's experience known to man, but who had been cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say, the spiritual approach. He gave me information about the subject of alcoholism which was undoubtedly helpful. Of far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with whom I bad ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, be talked my language. He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them up in his reading.

p. 180

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

Another crowd of A.A.'s says: "We were plumb disgusted with religion and all its works. The Bible, we said, was full of nonsense; we could cite it chapter and verse, and we couldn't see the Beatitudes for the `begats.' In spots its morality was impossibly good; in others it seemed impossibly bad. But it was the morality of the religionists themselves that really got us down. We gloated over the hypocrisy, bigotry, and crushing self-righteousness that clung to so many `believers' even in their Sunday best. How we loved to shout the damaging fact that millions of the `good men of religion' were still killing one another off in the name of God. This all meant, of course, that we had substituted negative for positive thinking. After we came to A.A., we had to recognize that this trait had been an ego feeding proposition. In belaboring the sins of some religious people, we could feel superior to all of them. Moreover, we could avoid looking at some of our own shortcomings. Self-righteousness, the very thing that we had contemptuously condemned in others, was our own besetting evil. This phony form of respectability was our undoing, so far as faith was concerned. But finally, driven to A.A., we learned better.

p. 30

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"Be the change you want to see in the world."
--Mohandas Ghandi

Who has never tasted what is bitter does not know what is sweet.
--German Proverb

It doesn't take a lot of effort to know the needs of another person. By helping others you
are helping yourself.
--unknown

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
--Abraham Lincoln

In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.
--unknown

Learn to enjoy little things; there are so many of them!
--unknown

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

FLEXIBILITY

"Better bend than break."
-- Scottish Proverb

Dis-ease: to be controlling, stiff, uncomfortable and unbending.

Sobriety: being relaxed, comfortable and flexible in my personal life and my interaction
with others.

Life: not a race but an experience; it is not an exercise but an adventure.

Before I accepted my alcoholism, I went through periods of "dryness" --- when I was
rigid, stiff and unbending. It was awful! Everything became a test, a job, a
premeditated act behind a mask of cheerfulness. I was angry, resentful and in pain. My
problem was that I stopped drinking to please other people, rather than accept the
true nature of my disease. Dryness is controlled denial.

Today the sobriety I have gained from an acceptance of self has overflowed into an
acceptance of life on life's terms --- and I am happy.

Let the wind of experience continue to bend me in the knowledge of Your love.

***********************************************************

"From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord's name is to be praised."
Psalms 113:3

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things
grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be
rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's
field, God's building.
1 Corinthians 3:7-9

"Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight
yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:3-4

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts the burdens of those bent
beneath their loads. The LORD loves the righteous. The LORD protects the foreigners
among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked. The
LORD will reign forever.
Psalm 146:8-10

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Daily Inspiration

Treat your family as you would treat a best friend. Lord, help me to treasure my family with all of their imperfections as well as my own and cherish the time we have together.

There is no real happiness without God and no peace when we separate ourselves from Him. Lord, You said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you". I give you my troubled heart.

***********************************************************

NA Just For Today

Principles Before Personalities

"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."

Twelfth Tradition

"Principles before personalities." Many of us chant these words along with the reader whenever the Twelve Traditions are read. The fact that these words have become a cliche of sorts doesn't make them any less important, either in service or in our lives. These words are an affirmation: "We listen to our conscience and do what's right, no matter who's involved." And that principle serves as one of the cornerstones of recovery as well as our traditions.

What does "principles before personalities" really mean? It means we practice honesty, humility, compassion, tolerance, and patience with everyone, whether we like them or not. Putting principles before personalities teaches us to treat everyone equally. The Twelfth Step asks us to apply principles in all our affairs; the Twelfth Tradition suggests we apply them to our relations with everyone.

Practicing principles doesn't stop with our friends or when we leave a meeting. It's for every day, for everyone… in all areas of our lives.

Just for today: I will listen to my conscience and do what's right. My focus will be on principles, not on people's personalities.

pg. 311

***********************************************************

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
I love him and I cannot seem to find him. --Ovid
Where can we find the ones we love? Do they always live in our world, or do we have to go out of our way? They often are not at home; we can find them at their work. Their play is different from ours; we could try having their kind of fun.
Too often, we look only for friends who are much like ourselves, and we tend to avoid those who are not. This kind of narrow-mindedness isn't fair to others or ourselves. We are each unique, like the pieces of a puzzle. We are each necessary to the whole picture.
When we go out of our way to know someone else better, we stretch our own boundaries; we give ourselves new space in which to grow.
What part of my life can I discover in someone new today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection; the water has no mind to receive their image. --Zenrin poem
There are moments which simply happen through no conscious intention or will on anyone's part. The image of an old woman with a peaceful face, the smell of smoke rising from a chimney on a chilly night, the knowing look of recognition from a friend as we make a comment, the special feeling of a touch. These are spiritual moments because they reach a deeper part of our being. They are like a sliver in time set aside which nourishes our souls and adds serenity to our lives.
We grow when we learn to notice these kinds of moments. In our willfulness, we have often missed them before because we simply were not open to anything we weren't already looking for. This world is so much larger than the human mind. In recovery, we can take time to admire the beauty reflected around us.
Today, I will let the rest of life intrude upon my mind. I will let myself be nourished by what comes along.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Love has the quality of informing almost everything--even one's work. --Sylvia Ashton-Warner
We are changed through loving and being loved. Our attitudes are profoundly and positively affected by the presence of love in our lives. Each time we offer a loving response to a friend, co-worker, even a stranger, we powerfully influence the dynamics of the interaction between us.
Every response we make to someone changes us while it informs him or her. When we treat others with disdain, we invite the same. When we express only criticism of others, our self-assessment is equally negative. The beauty of a loving posture is that it calls forth love in response. The more love we give away, the more we receive.
Any task before us is lessened when we carry love in our hearts. Love is more powerful than fear. Love helps to open the channel to God, assuring us of the strength, the understanding, and the patience needed to complete any assignment confronting us.
God loves me, unconditionally. And I will experience the reality of that love the more I give it away. Love wants to change me--and it can.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Letting Go of the Past
... in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them. --Ps. 139:16
Some people believe that each of our days were planned, Divinely Ordered, before we were born. God knew, they say, and planned exactly what was to transpire.
Others suggest we chose, we participated in planning our life - the events, the people, the circumstances that were to take place, in order to work through our issues and learn the lessons we needed to master.
Whatever our philosophy, our interpretation can be similar: Our past is neither an accident nor a mistake. We have been where we needed to be, with the necessary people. We can embrace our history, with its pain, its imperfections, and its mistakes, even its tragedies. It is uniquely ours; it was intended just for us.
Today, we are right where we need to be. Our present circumstances are exactly as they need to be - for now.
Today, I will let go of my guilt and fear about my past and present circumstances. I will trust that where I have been and where I am now are right for me.


No matter how busy I think I am, I will share a part of me with someone else today. I am discovering the joy of giving and I will take the time to stop and share a part of me. I am learning to trust the positive and loving people. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey To The Heart
October 25
Replenish Yourself

Some of us don’t know how tired we are until we try to relax. Then we realize we’re exhausted.

We may have lived with exhaustion and stress so long it’s become habitual. That doesn’t mean we’re bad or wrong, or even off track. Many of us are deeply involved in activities, work, projects, and relationships we enjoy. We like our lives and the things we’re doing. But sometimes we’ve pushed too hard or too long. Sometimes we haven’t given our bodies adequate time to relax, to rest, to really let go.

It’s all right to take time out. Relax. Refresh. Regroup. It’s all right to rest even if we’re busy, rest often enough to keep ourselves replenished. Get in touch with your body, then stay in touch with yourself.

Find out how tired you are. Then let your body tell you what it needs to come back to life and love.

*****

more language of letting go
Stop tricking yourself

Even the best of us get tricked from time to time. Someone comes along and impresses us with magic. Later we discover it wasn't magic, just illusions.

Sometimes the issue isn't that people were trying to trick us. We tricked ourselves. We saw what we wanted to see, regardless of what reality was. Then, when reality started to creep in, we told ourselves if we held our breath and didn't feel our feelings and hoped long and hard enough, reality would change.

We don't have to get mad at ourselves when we get tricked, even if we've fooled ourselves. We need to see and acknowledge the truth and become aware of what reality is.

Don't let our embarrassment over finding yourself in a bad situation cloud your view of yourself. Sometimes all we need to do is acknowledge the truth, including the truth about how we feel. In a few days or a few months, the solution will become clear.

When all the illusions drop away, that's when real magic begins. You'll be guided along your path.

God, help me remember that when I admit and accept the truth, I'll be given the power and guidance to change.

*****

Big Steps On Life's Path
Being Aware is the First Step by Madisyn Taylor

There is freedom that comes with awareness, because with it comes the opportunity to make a choice.

Life is a journey comprised of many steps on our personal path that takes us down a winding road of constant evolution. And each day, we are provided with a myriad of opportunities that can allow us to transform into our next best selves. One moment we are presented with an opportunity to react differently when yet another someone in our life rubs us the wrong way; on another day we may find ourselves wanting to walk away from a particular circumstance but are not sure if we can. Eventually, we may find ourselves stuck in a rut that we can never seem to get out of. We may even make the same choices over and over again because we don’t know how to choose otherwise. Rather than moving us forward, our personal paths may take us in a seemingly never-ending circle where our actions and choices lead us nowhere but to where we’ve already been. It is during these moments that awareness can be the first step to change.

Awareness is when we are able to realize what we are doing. We observe ourselves, noticing our reactions, actions, and choices as if we were a detached viewer. Awareness is the first step to change because we can’t make a change unless we are aware that one needs to be made in the first place. We can then begin understanding why we are doing what we are doing. Afterward, it becomes difficult not to change because we are no longer asleep to the truth behind our behaviors. We also begin to realize that, just as much as we are the root source behind the causes for our behaviors, we are also the originator for any changes that we want to happen.

There is a freedom that comes with awareness. Rather than thinking that we are stuck in a repetitive cycle where there is no escape, we begin to see that we very much play a hand in creating our lives. Whether we are aware of them or not, our behaviors and choices are always ours to make. Our past and our present no longer have to dictate our future when we choose to be aware. We are then free to move beyond our old limits, make new choices, and take new actions. With awareness, our paths can’t help but wind us forward in our lives while paving the way for new experiences and new ways of being. It is through awareness that we can continue to consciously evolve. Published with permission from Daily OM

************************************

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

My addictions were like thieves in more ways than I can count. They robbed me not only of money, property and other material things, but of dignity and self-respect, while my family and friends suffered right along with me. My addictions also robbed me of the ability to treat myself properly, as God would treat me. Today, in total contrast, I’m capable of true love of self — to the extent that I’m able to provide myself with more love than even I need. So I give that love away to other people in The Program, just as they have given their love to me. Do I thank God for their love to me. Do I thank God for bringing me to a Program in which sick people are loved back to health?

Today I Pray

Thanks be to God for a way of life which generates such love and caring that we in The Program can’t help but learn to love ourselves. When I see that someone cares about me, I am more apt to be convinced that perhaps I am, after all, worth caring about. May I be conscious always of the love I am now able to give — and give it.

Today I Will Remember

Someone caring about me makes me feel worth caring about.

************************************

One More Day

The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you have left when anything happens.
–Ethel Barrymore

Now is a good time for us to pursue our interest and to nurture both new and old relationships. We understands so well how easily and quickly our circumstances can change. This understanding nudges us to expand our experience.

No one of us is immune from the troubles of life. Whether the problem is loss of a job or loss of a home, good health, or a dear friend, we all suffer at one time or another. Keeping our lives as full as possible with the love of good people and the challenge of activities provides support even when times get tough.

Tragedies and hard times will affect me, but I know I have the ability to move on.

************************************

Food For Thought

Abstaining from Harmful Relationships

Habit sometimes locks us into relationships, which are not in our best interest. It is easy to mistake dependency for love. When we stop overeating compulsively, we can evaluate our attachments to other people with greater clarity and perception than was possible when we continually escaped into food.

Our OA friends act as sounding boards for us as we try to sort out the healthy from the unhealthy relationships in our lives. We may find that for our continued growth we need to move away from old emotional entanglements, which are hampering our progress with the program. Abstaining from a harmful relationship can be as difficult at first as abstaining from compulsive overeating! The same physical restraint is necessary to keep ourselves from following old habit patterns.

By taking Step Three, we make all of our relationships with other people subject to the will of our Higher Power. When God comes first, other loves fall into their proper places.

Show me how to love.

*****************************************

One Day At A Time

Courage
“If you're going through hell, keep going.”
Winston Churchill

Recovery work takes great courage. Everyone who tells you differently has not explored themselves in great depth.

It takes great courage for many of us to get up each morning to face a day of physical challenge. Others feel the pull of emotions, job, or family issues.

If but for today, reach inside and give yourself a big hug for being willing to hang on one minute longer. That minute will turn into moments, and before you know it, you will have lived out the Program message, “One day at a time."

One day at a time...
I will honor and celebrate the courage shown in working this program.
~ January K.

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

The spiritual life is not a theory. WE HAVE TO LIVE IT. - Pg. 83 - Into Action

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Sometimes reality slaps us right in the face. We may be out of money, facing jail, losing a loved one, or hating our circumstances. However, right this hour we have only one true reality: SOBRIETY. Without sobriety all the above only gets worse!

I make contact with Divine Intelligence so that I am not preoccupied with things outside my control. I want to remember why I am here.

Prayer and Miracles

Today, I will pray for a miracle in a situation that seems too much for me to handle or understand. There are times when I just don't have what it takes to work out a situation. I'm too loaded up with fears and anxieties. What could it hurt to pray for a little divine guidance or intervention? At the very least, it will help ease my burden; and at best, it will aid in a genuine shift in perception that might truly help my situation. When I feel stuck and as if I have explored every option and am still nowhere, I will pray for a miracle.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

On the way to becoming an old-timer, there are those who glow in their growing and those who are slow in their growing. The person who glows is always able to see the larger picture and the one who doesn't stays focused in their own little world. See yourself as a small part of a magnificent whole and do not see self as the whole.

The fellowship is not my whole world but my world wouldn't be whole without it.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Acknowledge your tallcomings along with your shortcomings.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

No matter how busy I think I am, I will share a part of me with someone else today. I am discovering the joy of giving and I will take the time to stop and share a part of me. I am learning to trust the positive and loving people.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

I'm so grateful to be here fully clothed and in my right mind and not crawling around in a jail cell on my hands and knees like an animal. - Johnny H.

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AA Thought for the Day

October 25

Laughter
I began to see the miracles that happen only in AA.
People who would nearly crawl in the doors, sick and broken,
and who in a few weeks of meetings and not drinking one day at a time
would get their health back, find a little job and friends who really cared, and then discover a God in their lives.
But the most compelling part of AA, the part that made me want to try this sober thing,
was the laughter, the pure joy of the laughter that I heard only from sober alcoholics.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 333

Thought to Ponder . . .
Take time to laugh -- it is the music of the soul.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
K C B = Keep Coming Back.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

The Group
"Over the years, every conceivable deviation
from our Twelve Steps and Traditions have been tried.
That was sure to be, since we are so largely a band
of ego-driven individuals.
Children of chaos, we have defiantly played with
every brand of fire,
only to emerge unharmed and, we think, wiser.
These very deviations created a vast process
of trial and error, which, under the grace of God,
has brought us to where we stand today. . .
We saw that the group, exactly like the individual,
must eventually conform to whatever
tested principles would guarantee survival."
c.1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 146

Thought to Consider . . .
Working with alcoholics in committees
is like trying to herd cats.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
C H A O S = Can't Handle Another Overwhelming Situation

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Business
>From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":
"When they heard that the book was making money, some of the cash subscribers, including even Charlie Towns, began to get restless. They wanted to know why all of the profits of the book were being spent to finance a Headquarters for A.A. We replied that there was not any other way; would they like to see all those pleas for help thrown in the wastebasket? But a few still insisted on getting their money back, and something had to be done.
"Therefore Ruth and I set about making Works Publishing's first report to its stockholders. We outlined the history of the book project and painted a rosy picture for the future. From the mass of check stubs, old bills, and receipts we made an approximate accounting. As I remember, the publishing company had shown a profit of about $3,000, which had all been spent on A.A. work at the office."
2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 188

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"I made the decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, and then I got out of the way."
Christchurch, New Zealand, March 2010
"Gimme Shelter,"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We
have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun
to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our
enemies, for we look on them as sick people."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, Pg. 70~

Thus we grow. And so can you, though you be but one man with this
book in your hand. We believe and hope it contains all you will need
to begin.
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 162

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p.417

Can we accept poverty, sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity?
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.112

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

Even the newest of newcomers finds undreamed rewards as he tries to help his brother alcoholic, the one who is even blinder than he. This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him.
And then he discovers that through the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether or not his brother has yet received anything. His own character may still be gravely defective, but he somehow knows that God has enabled him to make a mighty beginning, and he senses that he stands at the edge of new mysteries, joys, and experiences of which he had never before dreamed.

Prayer for the Day: No Other - I have no other helper than You, no other father, no other redeemer, no other support. I pray to You. Only You can help me. My present misery is too great. Despair grips me, and I am at my wits' end. I am sunk in the depths, and I cannot pull myself up or out. If it is Your will, help me out of this misery. Let me know that You are stronger than all misery and all enemies. Oh Lord, if I come through this, please let the experience contribute to my and my brothers' blessing. You will not forsake me; this I know.