Thought for Today

Yesterday's Thought for the Day:

January 9
“But what clinches the result and keeps the recovered alcoholic in A.A. forever self-determining is, I believe, one of the most important if seldom-noticed principles at work within it. The very factors which I have just enumerated mean that any alcoholic on any given day at any given time can find someone in A.A. who will in all good faith agree with what he has already decided to do. Conversely, on any given day at any given time, the same alcoholic can find someone in A.A. who in all good faith will disagree with what he has already decided to do. Thus, sooner or later, the recovering alcoholic in A.A. is literally forced to think for himself. Sooner or later, he finds himself akin to the turtle, that lowly creature who makes progress only when his neck is stuck out. The formless flexibility of A.A.’s principles as interpreted by their different adherents finally pushes our alcoholic into a stance where he must use only himself as a frame of reference for his actions, and this in turn means he must be willing to accept the consequences of those actions. In my book, that is the definition of emotional maturity.”

A Member’s Eye View of Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 20 & 21
World Services pamphlet P-41