Alcohol

Overindulge? Who Me?

2 Peter: 1:5-6: Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness.

I turned on the TV to hear the news and the weather report. In a commercial, the person said this is the season “of overspending and overindulging.”

Years ago, a friend told me she gains 10-15 pounds every Christmas season. My mind pictured her in January with her eyes bulging out of her head as she tried to squeeze into her jeans. Vaseline on her legs wouldn’t have helped her slide her body into those jeans.

An acquaintance told me that when his credit card bill from last Christmas came it was as high as the national debt.

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A.A. – “Stick with the Winners” – Preparing the Newcomer

“Stick with the winners!” That’s one of those often heard, but little understood suggestions a newcomer hears both in his treatment program and in the recovery rooms of Twelve Step Fellowships. The problem is: Who are the winners! How do I find them! What do they do and say that is recognizable and profitable. And if the newcomer is not prepared to spot them, seek them, and follow them, he can’t reap the benefit of “sticking” with them. We believe the winners will subscribe to the following.

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Is God a Choice for You in Your Recovery Today?

In this article about God and Alcoholics Anonymous, we pose the question: Is recovery, healing, spiritual growth, and Divine Aid (as Bill Wilson called it) in A.A. still about “finding God” and “establishing a relationship with God”? A.A.’s basic text still says, “Yes.” And you can find the documentation on pages 29, 58-59 of the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, published in 2001. See also Dick B., God and Alcoholism (www.dickb.com/godandalcoholism.shtml)

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Alcoholics Anonymous and the Bible

You would be surprised at how many people in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings today think that you can’t mention the Bible, share from the Bible, discuss the Bible, or even place a Bible on a table in the meetings.

This is a sketch of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Bible–by no means comprehensive, but definitely informative and useful.

    1. The first three Alcoholics Anonymous members–Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and attorney Bill Dotson–all had Christian upbringings. All had studied the Bible long before A.A. began. And all believed in God.

    2. When Bill and Bob were formulating the Akron Alcoholics Anonymous Christian recovery program in the Smith Home in Akron in the summer of 1935, Dr. Bob’s wife read the Bible to Bill and Bob every single day.

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Stop Rescuing the Alcoholic and Start Rescuing You

Ask Angie: Dear Angie, I have been married to an alcoholic husband for eight years now and we have two young children together. We have taken marriage courses and I have been reading the Love Dare. I have tried the detach method but it is difficult since he starts drinking every day at around 9 or 10 in the morning (since he was laid off over six months ago) and drinks until he goes to bed which is usually midnight. If I don’t talk to him when he’s drinking he gets angry. How can I make the detachment work in this situation and how can I protect our children from his anger?

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Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery: Twelve Steps to What!

Folks who study the Big Book, take the Twelve Steps, and carefully consider the Alcoholics Anonymous program of recovery as it is laid out in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” should really have no problem defining the recovery program, its specified course of action, and the intended objective of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

So we will begin by looking at what the Founders and the Big Book have said about the Twelve Step program of recovery and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Bill Wilson put these important comments in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and here is how they are still expressed today:

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Alcoholics Anonymous Questions Often Asked

Many times, questions are asked about Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) by courts, by clergy, by recovering alcoholics and addicts, and by members of the public. They have to do with genuine concerns as to what A.A. is and does; what the history of Alcoholics Anonymous is; where A.A. came from; what someone has to believe in order to be a “member;” and just how A.A., its recovery program, and its fellowship should be characterized.

The following questions and answers are those I have learned as a long-time A.A. member-recovered for over 24 years; as one who has researched and published on A.A. history and roots for over 20 years; and as one who receives these questions with some frequency-by phone, by email, by Facebook comments, by live audiences, and by mail.

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