Daily Readings for Monday, May 4th

Meditation for the Day

God thought about the universe and brought it into being. His thought brought me into being. I must think God’s thought after Him. I must often keep my mind occupied with thoughts about God and meditate on the way He wants me to live. I must train my mind constantly in quiet times of communion with God. It is the work of a lifetime to develop to full stature spiritually. This is what I am on earth for. It gives meaning to my life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may think God’s thoughts after Him. I pray that I may live as He wants me to live.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Freedom from Compulsive Disorders

Thank you for keeping me straight yesterday. Please help me stay straight today.

When I first began my recovery from codependency, I was furious about having to begin another recovery program. Seven years earlier, I had begun recovery from chemical dependency. It didn’t seem fair that one person should have to address two major issues in one lifetime.

I’ve gotten over my anger. I’ve learned that my recoveries aren’t isolated from one another. Many of us recovering from codependency and adult children issues are also recovering from addictions: alcoholism, other drug dependency, gambling, food, work, or sex addiction. Some of us are trying to stay free of other compulsive disorders – ranging from caretaking to compulsively feeling miserable, guilty, or ashamed.

An important part of codependency recovery is staying clean and free of our compulsive or addictive behaviors. Recovery is one big room we’ve entered called healthy living.

We can wave the white flag of surrender to all our addictions. We can safely turn to a Power greater than ourselves to relieve us of our compulsive behavior. We know that now. Once we begin actively working a program of recovery, God will relieve us of our addictions. Ask God each morning to help us stay free of our addictions and compulsions. Thank God for helping us the day before.

Today, God, help me pay attention to all my recovery issues. Help me know that before I can work on the finer points of my recovery, such as my relationships, I must be free of addictive behaviors.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

Daily Readings for Sunday, May 3rd

Meditation for the Day

I must overcome myself before I can truly forgive other people for injuries done to me. The self in me cannot forgive injuries. The very thought of wrongs means that my self is in the foreground. Since the self cannot forgive, I must overcome my selfishness. I must cease trying to forgive those who fretted and wronged me. It is a mistake for me even to think about these injuries. I must aim at overcoming myself in my daily life and then I will find there is nothing in me that remembers injury, because the only thing injured, my selfishness, is gone.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may hold no resentments. I pray that my mind may be washed clean of all past hates and fears.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Freedom from Self-Seeking

Please free my thinking of self-will, self-seeking, dishonesty, and wrong motives.

There is a difference between owning our power to take care of ourselves, as part of God’s will for our life, and self-will. There is a difference between self-care and self-seeking. And our behaviors are not as much subject to criticism as are the motives underlying them.

There is a harmonic, gentle, timely feeling to owning our power, to self-care, and to acts with healthy motives that are not present in self-will and self-seeking. We will learn discernment. But we will not always know the difference. Sometimes, we will feel guilty and anxious with no need. We may be surprised at the loving way God wants us to treat ourselves. We can trust that self-care is always appropriate. We want to be free of self-will and self-seeking, but we are always free to take care of ourselves.

God, please guide my motives today, and keep me on Your path. Help me love myself, and others too. Help me understand that more often than not, those two ideas are connected.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

Note to My Readers

I know there are those days where I don’t post my usual two readings. I get slack in that area from time to time. I thought I’d provide the link to my Facebook page, where I still manage to get the posts done each day. You should be able to view it even if we’re not friends, but if you want to link up as a friend, please feel free to do so.

My FB page: https://www.facebook.com/david.l.moser

Daily Reading for Saturday, May 2nd

Meditation for the Day

I must overcome myself before I can truly forgive other people for injuries done to me. The self in me cannot forgive injuries. The very thought of wrongs means that my self is in the foreground. Since the self cannot forgive, I must overcome my selfishness. I must cease trying to forgive those who fretted and wronged me. It is a mistake for me even to think about these injuries. I must aim at overcoming myself in my daily life and then I will find there is nothing in me that remembers injury, because the only thing injured, my selfishness, is gone.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may hold no resentments. I pray that my mind may be washed clean of all past hates and fears.

From: 24 Hours a Day

Freedom from Self-Seeking

Please free my thinking of self-will, self-seeking, dishonesty, and wrong motives.
—paraphrased from Alcoholics Anonymous

There is a difference between owning our power to take care of ourselves, as part of God’s will for our life, and self-will. There is a difference between self-care and self-seeking. And our behaviors are not as much subject to criticism as are the motives underlying them.

There is a harmonic, gentle, timely feeling to owning our power, to self-care, and to acts with healthy motives that are not present in self-will and self-seeking. We will learn discernment. But we will not always know the difference. Sometimes, we will feel guilty and anxious with no need. We may be surprised at the loving way God wants us to treat ourselves. We can trust that self-care is always appropriate. We want to be free of self-will and self-seeking, but we are always free to take care of ourselves.

God, please guide my motives today, and keep me on Your path. Help me love myself, and others too. Help me understand that more often than not, those two ideas are connected.

From: Language of Letting Go

Trying to Make Sense of It All

It’s difficult to try to put things into perspective with all that has happened with the pandemic. I remember back to March 12th, our last day with students at school, heading for a four day weekend. There was no indication that we were headed for what has transpired since that point. As far as we knew, COVID-19 was something in the news, but nothing that we needed to be overly concerned about.

Over the next several days, that certainly changed, and very quickly. We received word that school would not be back in session the following week and that learning packets must be prepared to send home to students. That all seems so long ago. The learning packets were sent out and many have been returned. Teachers have been using online tools to further learning and those students who are able and willing to take advantage of it, additional learning has been realized.

*Note – I started writing this two days ago and never finished it…thought I would go ahead and publish what I had written…still trying to make sense of it all in a situation where not much makes sense.

David Lee

Daily Readings for Thursday, April 30th

Balance

The goal is balance.

We need balance between work and play. We need balance between giving and receiving. We need balance in thought and feelings. We need balance in caring for our physical self and our spiritual self.

A balanced life has harmony between a professional life and a personal life. There may be times when we need to climb mountains at work. There may be times when we put extra energy into our relationships. But the overall picture needs to balance.

Just as a balanced nutritional diet takes into account the realm of our nutritional needs to stay healthy, a balanced life takes into account all our needs: our need for friends, work, love, family, play, private time, recovery time, and spiritual time – time with God. If we get out of balance, our inner voice will tell us. We need to listen.

Today, I will examine my life to see if the scales have swung too far in any area or not far enough in some. I will work toward achieving balance.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

Meditation for the Day

Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet, but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God’s spirit that can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys, such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God’s love.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant life.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Unusual Occurrences and Such

There are times in life when I’m more aware of things going on that are unusual or odd. Yesterday was one of those days. I had two examples of events occurring that caused me to pause and wonder what that was all about.

The first is a twist of good fortune. I have had problems with the belt on the deck of my riding mower slipping off its tracks. Two weeks ago when I mowed, the belt came off midway through mowing and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to re-thread it. I got the push mower out and finished the second half of the yard using it.

So yesterday, I felt some pressure seeing my neighbor mowing his yard, so I used the internet to find the threading diagram and then went out to see if I could get it done correctly, which I did. I mowed all the yard this time without it slipping off and all was well with the world. That is, until I hit something and noticed the blades had quit turning. This time the belt had snapped in two. But I’m looking at this as a positive event, for at least I got the job mostly done before it happened. And I’ve already ordered a new belt online that will be delivered to my home. Good deal.

The second event is a bit more unusual than the first and I haven’t quite decided if it’s a good thing or not. I turned in for the night and as I usually do, I reached up to the ceiling fan that’s the soul source of light in my bedroom to turn it off. I distinctly remember doing so, because I took note of my dog sleeping in her bed. I was a bit more tired than usual and figured it would be much easier to get a quality sleep.

As I lay there with my eyes barely open, the light that’s a part of the ceiling fan fixture came back on. It took me a while to figure out what it was, but I hadn’t touched it in any way and had almost gotten to sleep when it happened. Now I’m not one to believe in ghosts or spirits, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out how it turned itself back on. I thought about it for a good while and finally got to sleep. But still this morning, I’m left wondering what it was that caused the light to suddenly come back on. It takes a deliberate tug on the chain to get it to turn on otherwise. And sometimes it takes a couple of pulls to get it turned on. So I’m still pondering on that one and have an open mind when it comes to figuring that one out.

So there you go…two unusual occurrences in the same day and I’m both in awe and also in wonder of what might happen today.

David Lee

Daily Readings for Wednesday, April 29th

Meditation for the Day

The rule of God’s kingdom is perfect order, perfect harmony, perfect supply, perfect love, perfect honesty, perfect obedience. There is no discord in God’s kingdom, only some things still unconquered in God’s children. The difficulties of life are caused by disharmony in the individual man or woman. People lack power because they lack harmony with God and with each other. They think that God fails because power is not manifested in their lives. God does not fail. People fail because they are out of harmony with Him.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be in harmony with God and with other people. I pray that this harmony will result in strength and success.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Initiating Relationships

Often, we can learn much about ourselves from the people to whom we are attracted.

As we progress through recovery, we learn we can no longer form relationships solely on the basis of attraction. We learn to be patient, to allow ourselves to take into account important facts, and to process information about that person.

What we are striving for in recovery is a healthy attraction to people. We allow ourselves to be attracted to who people are, not to their potential or to what we hope they are.

The more we work through our family of origin issues, the less we will find ourselves needing to work through them with the people we’re attracted to. Finishing our business from the past helps us form new and healthier relationships.

The more we overcome our need to be excessive caretakers, the less we will find ourselves attracted to people who need to be constantly taken care of.

The more we learn to love and respect ourselves, the more we will become attracted to people who will love and respect us and who we can safely love and respect.

This is a slow process. We need to be patient with ourselves. The type of people we find ourselves attracted to does not change overnight. Being attracted to dysfunctional people can linger long and well into recovery. That does not mean we need to allow it to control us. The fact is, we will initiate and maintain relationships with people we need to be with until we learn what it is we need to learn – no matter how long we’ve been recovering.

No matter who we find ourselves relating to, and what we discover happening in the relationship, the issue is still about us, and not about the other person. That is the heart, the hope, and the power of recovery.

We can learn to take care of ourselves during the process of initiating and forming relationships. We can learn to go slowly. We can learn to pay attention. We can allow ourselves to make mistakes, even when we know better.

We can stop blaming our relationships on God and begin to take responsibility for them. We can learn to enjoy the healthy relationships and remove ourselves more quickly from the dysfunctional ones.

We can learn to look for what’s good for us, instead of what’s good for the other person.

God, help me pay attention to my behaviors during the process of initiating relationships. Help me take responsibility for myself and learn what I need to learn. I will trust that the people I want and need will come into my life. I understand that if a relationship is not good for me, I have the right and ability to refuse to enter into it – even though the other person thinks it may be good for him or her. I will be open to the lessons I need to learn about me in relationships, so I am prepared for the best possible relationships with people.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie