OKaysez

 

 Made A Decision

                       

                          Uniquely Qualified

"Giving good wishes to others acts like sunlight, filtering into

 the dark corners of their minds and lightening their burden."

Who wouldn't want to do that?

We didn't -

not back in those nightmare years of alcohol abuse.

But now that we're awake in AA we have better dreams - dreams that include helping others wake from their alcoholic nightmare, too. 

Never fall into the trap of thinking you're too new in recovery to actually become the hand of AA that reaches out to others ... you reached out to others at your very first meeting by your courage in being there.

And by coming back for your second meeting you inspired us all once again.

As author Oswald Chambers wrote: "God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future."

As our own Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book states:

"It was discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again."

In AA we learn our job is to try to bring out the good, not to

 criticize the bad. Every alcoholic has suffered plenty being

 criticized and judged. That didn't get us sober. 

Hearing that we could change ... that there was a solution for

 our problem ... that was the key.

And it's AA members who hand the still-suffering alcoholic the keys to the kingdom.

We are uniquely qualified to do so.

We know from experience what the newcomer is fearing and feeling.

And we know the freedom they'll find in AA. 

We don't look for "the bad" in our newcomers, we look for the

 good.

 That kind of "judging others" always pays off.

We encourage the good points we find and ignore any bad, knowing the good will quickly win out as recovery takes hold.

Like most of us (all?) I arrived in AA thinking my life was over.

 That I was the ultimate loser. That now a thirsty life without

 being able to take a drink was all that lay ahead for me.

Oh, woe!

But I left my first meeting with a new thought ... and with a

 smidgen of hope ...

that the people in that meeting had the answer I needed;

 maybe my life wasn't over? Maybe, just maybe, better days

 were in store?

The people in my first meeting instilled that in me. They said all the right things. Because they had lived it they knew all the right things to say. They told me I could have a wonderful sober life, one beyond my wildest dreams, if I just gave AA a fair trial. 

And they were right! 

When we extend the hand of AA we can expect miracles of change in people's lives. We know people can be changed. All we have to do is look in the mirror!

Our troubled world needs good people helping others. We are

 good people reflecting the goodness and strength we have

 learned in AA.

 And what we do for others has impact in helping them

 become all they are meant to be, too.

 We must never doubt our ability to channel God's strength for

others. 

What we give we also receive. When we offer strength to

 others we strengthen ourselves.

Bill W., regarding his first meeting ever with Dr. Bob, the

 meeting that was to launch our wonderful program of

 recovery, perhaps said it best:

        "Dr. Bob did not need me for his spiritual instruction. He had

 already had more of that than I. 

What he did need, when we first met, was the deflation at depth and the understanding that only one drunk can give to another. 

What I needed was the humility of self-forgetfulness and the kinship with another human being of my own kind."