“We only have 24 hours; there’s no room to hold onto old ideas like performance, control & perfection leading the charge to try to make me happy.”

“We are under no obligation to replay old scenes; all of life is optional, including reliving ancient pain. We must release the past to make way for a fresh new future. If today looks gruesomely like yesterday, and your life is a long replay of Groundhog Day, do not blame karma, your family of origin, the environment, or any other people. Instead, look at the choices you are making today. Every day we are free to choose anew. God, I return my past to You, and allow You to make me new. I release the past and invite Your Divine love to meet me in the present.”

Adapted from A Deep Breath of Life

“When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?”

Adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous

“Today my choice is God. He is everything. For this I am truly grateful. When I think I am running the show I am blocking God from my life. I pray I can remember this when I allow myself to get caught up into self. The most important thing is that today I am willing to grow along spiritual lines, and that God is everything. When I was trying to quit drinking on my own, it never worked; with God and AA, it is working! This seems to be a simple thought for a complicated alcoholic.”

Adapted from Daily Reflections

Meditation for the Day “Like a tree, I must be pruned of a lot of dead branches before I will be ready to bear good fruit. Think of changed people as trees that have been stripped of their old branches, pruned, cut, and bare. But through the dark, seemingly dead branches flows silently, secretly, the new sap, until with the sun of spring comes new life. There are new leaves, buds, blossoms, and fruit, many times better because of the pruning. I am in the hands of a Master Gardener, who makes no mistakes in His pruning. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may cut away the dead branches of my life. I pray that I may not mind the pruning, since it helps me to bear good fruit later.”

Adapted from Twenty-Four Hours a Day© 1975, Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.