Saturday AA speaker/history post - Ester E, author of Big Book Story Flower of the South (Scroll past ad to play recording): Ester E, Flower of the South
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Parallel Passages in the Big Book and 12&12: Under no condition do we criticize such a person or argue. Simply we tell him that we will never get over drinking until we have done our utmost to straighten out the past. We are there to sweep off our side of the street, realizing that nothing worth while can be accomplished until we do so, never trying to tell him what he should do. His faults are not discussed. We stick to our own. If our manner is calm, frank, and open, we will be gratified with the result. BB 77-78 Into Action Step Nine Then we are ready to go to these people, to tell them what A.A. is, and what we are trying to do. Against this background we can freely admit the damage we have done and make our apologies. We can pay, or promise to pay, whatever obligations, financial or otherwise, we owe. The generous response of most people to such quiet sincerity will often astonish us. Even our severest and most justified critics will frequently meet us more th
A Big Book topic for study, meditation or use with a sponsee from our online book study guide at AABookClub.org: Who Do You Think Is Running the Show? We should be sensible, tactful, considerate and humble without being servile or scraping. As God’s people we stand on our feet; we don’t crawl before anyone. (Page 83) It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. “How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done.’’ These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. (Page 85) We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to our
Tuesday AA literature/history post - a 1945 Grapevine article on Step Three: A.A. Oldtimers…On the Third Step A.A. Grapevine, January 1945. Vol. 1 No. 8 Editorial: On the Third Step “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” I was co-chairman of the Loop group a few months ago and the subject of religious experience was brought up. I answered this in my stumbling way by saying that each of us could have such an experience only when we ‘got on center with ourselves’; if that were not clear we could express it thus: when we fully realized for the first time in our lives the essential dignity of ourselves as human beings. I also said that this realization could be achieved through return to the formal religion we once practiced but never knew, or by honest thought along our rough-hewn way. I have lately come to think that the 3rd step on our guide post to the good life is the meat and drink of the twenty-four hour program. Without a comp
