A.a. Thread

[Guest]

Tonight a guy was new and had 3 days sober and was in pain...And the guy holding the meeting told him he was happy he was in pain because that pain led him to being at the meeting...It reminded me of the pain and hell I was in a couple months ago and was a reminder that I never want to feel that again...Life sucks sometimes so its not promiced I won't feel pain or feel like I'm in hell again but I can make sure I don't ever feel those feelings as a result of me consuming to much alcohol and making poor choices and having regret...

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

yeah the pain and terror. Your correct though there will still be some pain but excess alcohol increases that pain 100 fold, the higher the highs the lower the lows, that's what i've found anyway. I wanted to be super and forgot about ordinary which is super too, an everyday hero. I wen't to a meeting on friday night, left half way through because the demons where telling me in my mind " where are the racists at say I" and than my head started going " i i i. " I couldn't focus during that so i left, though the rest of the meeting was honest, which was good, didn't like absolutely everything everyone said but most was good, heard something i wanted to remember but forgot, maybe i will hear it again one day. I'm a big book freak and i won't be identifying as an alcoholic this time round therefore won't be sharing, though i still can be a member of a.a and attend meetings because the only requirement for membership is the desire to give up alcohol. Didn't sleep all night when i got home, came under a mad attack. So as they say in a.a " One day at a time." A

 

And thanks Josh for making this an open a.a. thread, i hope this will be great.

 

Onward christian souls

 

Jesus iz LORD.

[Guest]

Meditation meeting

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Meditation meeting

 

 

They don't have those in my city. :(

[Guest]

Open meeting people shared the whole time....It was a 10 pm meeting so not a lot of people there....I got called on to share but I passed...lol

Edited November 17, 2013 by Guest

[Guest]

Went to a 10 pm meeting last night...Only a few people were there and it ended after about a half hour....Got called on to share again so I did....I'm waiting for the 10 pm meeting to start tonight...Wasn't going to come but did....I'm going to cut back on my meetings....Don't feel the need to come everyday and I'm not tempted to drink....I'm coming everyday now out of habit and its not a bad thing...But I think I'm past the point of needing a meeting everyday...

Edited November 19, 2013 by Guest

[AnneLine]

Take it one day at a time... both on the drinking and on how often you need to go.   Praying for you, as always....

[Guest]

Thanks...Tonights meeging was good...We read about step 6 and talked about it...Character defects and having God remove them....I have been on this step awhile...I have a lot of character defects and know I need them removed....Being sober helps me keep these defects more in check....When I'm drunk they all come out and they are intensified....Being sober though I still deal with them and they are always wanting to manifest themselves....Through temptation and anger and resentment....Being single and alone its easy to give in sometimes because you feel as if know one is watching and you can get away with it...Although that is not true because God is always watching....

[Guest]

Decent meeting

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Onward christian soul. Jesus is Lord. Psalm 130:3:4 If you kept a record of our sins, Lord, who could stand there ground? But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.

 

Rejoice and be glad brother, you have been set free of the curse of drunkardness, ALLELUIA!

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I have my second meeting tonight, got drunk last night and preached the ears off someone, hopefully some good will come out of it, not the drunkardness but talking about God as i understand him. I think i got drunk because i wasn't going to meetings, i need to get a meeting list, i know neither times or days for meetings, hopefully there is a spare one at this meeting tonight. My desire to not drink alcohol is driving me a little mad and i felt today as if the very gates of hell where going to open up and swallow me after last nights drinking session, i finally let down my pride and prayed to Jesus and also asked for the holy mothers prayers and read some psalms, immediately after that the devil fled and literally i could see again clearly, alleluia. Please say a prayer for me Josh, my brother in christ. And if anyone reads this before i go to the meeting please pray i stay for the whole meeting, last time i did the bolt at half time.

 

 

Onward christian souls.

 

Jesus is Lord.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Alleluia, 2nd meeting under my belt, and the desire to give up alcohol is back, I got a meetings list this time so will be able to go to other meetings now again, the meeting was ace, very open very honest sometimes ruthlessly honest unfortunately but on the whole was good. I learnt that when i drink i'm searching for myself, and met another catholic christian there and got his number. Also i had a miracle today, i have no money and was running short on petrol and was wondering how i would get to more meetings once i got the list and $50 miraculously appeared in my wallet. Thank you Lord Jesus.

 

Onward christian souls.

 

God is Good.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[AnneLine]

Good for you, Tab!    Just focus on doing each day, and let God lead you.   We're praying for you!

[Guest]

Said a couple prayers for you Tab. Just don't drink. Not once. And go to meetings. I went to a 10 pm meeting last night. I had to leave early. There wasn't many people there and two guys were sleeping and snoring and it was annoying. I'm going to the 7pm meeting in a little bit.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Guest

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Said a couple prayers for you Tab. Just don't drink. Not once. And go to meetings. I went to a 10 pm meeting last night. I had to leave early. There wasn't many people there and two guys were sleeping and snoring and it was annoying. I'm going to the 7pm meeting in a little bit.

 

 

Awe-somE bro, and thanks for the prayers. I wen't to a meeting at lunch and one tonight . I didn't get the whole lunch meeting in but learnt something from it, i wen't to make a cup of tea about halfway through the meeting and someone i know was also making a cuppa so we sat outside and had a meeting outside of the meeting lol. And tonights meeting i had to leave 15 minutes early because i got hell paranoid all through the meeting because someone put me a bit off kilt before the meeting accidentally and i couldn't focus because of my paranoid and judgmental thoughts on and off through the whole meeting. A big off putter for me at a.a in my city is when someone describes the 3rd step as being higher power when that is the 2nd step and the third step actually brings in the concept of God and by the way doesn't have an s in it so therefore is God and not multiple Gods, which is a universal word and the English dictionary meaning if i remember correctly is " supreme being. " And some meetings in my city at the end when doing the serenity prayer say "to the God or Godess of your own understanding " and again the third step says him but i guess your saving paper and the big book was on the cheap so therefore had to squeeze much into not many pages so possibly God can be feminine also or masculine or neither in the a.a sense, although we know The 2nd person of the holy trinity was incarnate as a man and resurected as a man, but what of the holy spirit who brooded over the waters? Which i was told female birds do over there eggs. Anyhow i can't share at meetings because i'm not an alcoholic although i can be a member of A.A because the only requirement for membership is the desire to give up alcohol, so i will share here, bender not breaker,lol. Oh also i became a member of a meeting today which is not absolute and i can search around for a more suited meeting if i like i get to do service if i'm a member (faith and works) which i hadn't done at my 4 previous attempts at a.a and next thing off my checklist is a sponsor and than to work the steps, i've never worked the steps either though i have thought about them a lot  but i have had a sponser before for a short time. Anyhow thanks for listening, Jesus is Lord. :)

Edited November 22, 2013 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[AnneLine]

Tab, do what you need to make AA work for you. 

 

Like Phatmass and any other community, you can't expect everyone to be exactly like you... but you can look for the kernel you have in common.  

 

That kernel is where God comes to dwell at AA 'where two or more are gathered in My Name."   A lot of people have a lot of baggage, things that could keep them from God and from sobriety... honor that they are doing what they can to find God and to get free of alcohol... you share this in common with them. 

 

Focus on what you have in common, not that which would divide (Satan is totally into the divisive stuff....).  

 

You share God with them in that space.   Don't let the machinations people need to make it possible for them to make AA work for them derail you..... just trust God is gathering them into Himself. OK?

 

Praying for you. 

 

Oh... and I love the image of the Holy Spirit brooding the world like an egg!!!!!   It's beautifully expressed in a poem by a Jesuit, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89):

 

God's Grandeur

 

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.

 It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like like the ooze of oil

Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod? 

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

  And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

 

And for all this, nature is never spent;

  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

 

 

 

What a beautiful image - the Holy Spirit brooding our world like a giant egg!!!!   Did you know... that there is a bare patch on mother birds 'the brood patch' where she holds her eggs close to hear heart to keep them warm?  I often think of how God holds us close to His Heart in much the same way.

 

May God hold you all THAT CLOSE to His heart this night/day....

Edited November 22, 2013 by AnneLine

[AnneLine]

Sorry, Tab and all... it took a few tries to get that poem in correctly!

 

If you read it before, maybe look at it again, now that it is not jumbled.... but be prepared to read it a few times and pray over it... because there is a lot there...

 

Blessings!  Pray for  me as I do for you!

[Luigi]

How goes it?

[Guest]

Missed last night....Was the first time I missed in pry about 3 weeks or so....The last few meetings have been good....The other night I was at a 10 pm meeting with not many people there and was called on to share....So I did....My second time sharing....Both times very brief but it was good to add something to the meeting....Still haven't had a drink....Looking forward to hitting the 3 month mark in a few weeeks....I'm still on the seventh step which I will be on for a long time.....Asking God to remove character defects....I have to ask Him everyday and I am becoming more aware what these defects are....And not getting drunk helps a lot in having God remove these defects....

Edited November 26, 2013 by Guest

[Guest]

This is not to be a rebel or "defy" what aa teaches....But the other night a guy was saying its impossible to stick with aa and remain sober without a sponser....Although that is exactly what I am doing and its worked so far....I said this before but God is my sponser and He's all I need....And I believe He led me to the meetings so I am not saying I don't need them....The meetings have helped and I believe God is in the midst of them because we are gathering there in His name and saying the Our Father at the end of every meeeting....Mabey the last laugh will be on me though and I will end up getting a recovered alcoholic as a sponser.....Although as of right now I don't see it happening and I am doing a decent job at completing the steps honestly on my own with Gods help....

Edited November 26, 2013 by Guest