Thought for today:

They say you are as sick as your secrets. We were so alone, our secrets were many.  No one knows how many of us hid our true financial situation from immediate family members who had a right to know.

Then we took Step 5: “Admitted to God, ourselves and another human being thee act nature of our wrongs”. They say taking this step is the beginning of the end of isolation.

Step 5 gave us a new, deeper appreciation for the fellowship of DA. Sharing our defects with our DA sponsor, we weren’t judged. Instead, we were told we were not alone. We felt closer.  If there was a name for what we had done, someone had done it before. We were not so unique as we had imagined. Sometimes our sponsor even shared his or her own character flaws with us, and we identified with the feelings they shared.

Along the way to sharing this step with our sponsor, we included our Higher Power in our newfound self-honesty. God already knew everything we had done, but somehow we didn’t think He was paying attention all along. It took humility to admit the exact nature of our wrongs to God. DA taught us God’s mercy where once we thought we were unforgivable.

Do I realize I am not alone any more? Do I know that I am lovable, especially to God , and myself?

Meditation for today:

The more I isolate, the more I give in to the disease of compulsive debting.
Reaching out to another DA member is just what our disease wants us not to do. It wants to keep us afraid, cowering in a corner, despairing. In DA, we come together to share out experience, strength and hope. We never have to turn back to the old way. This new way is so much better.

Affirmation for today:

I see myself when I look into the eyes of a sharing member in a DA meeting. I am at home in DA.

Prayer for today:

Lord, show me how I am just like many other members of DA. I am not so different. We all need you, and you welcome us all home.  How grateful I am for DA bringing me closer to you.

Further Reading:

The book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is the definitive guide to all the Steps and Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.  It brings an in-depth understanding of why and how the program of recovery evolved, and how it works to this day, over sixty years after it was first published.

DA adapted the short form of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions almost word for word (with AA’s permission) and to this day DA recommends we read AA literature, (including the “Twelve and Twelve“) as a way for us to understand the disease concept.

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