Mind is the Slayer of the Real

April 16 -- Reflection of the Day: I once heard it said that "the mind is the slayer of the real." Looking back at the insanity of those days when I was gambling, I know precisely what that phrase means. One of the Program's important fringe benefits for me today is an increasing awareness of the word around me, so I can see and enjoy reality. This alone helps diminish the difficulties I so often magnify, creating my own misery in the process.

Am I acquiring the sense of reality that is absolutely essential to serenity?

Today I Pray: May I be revived by a sharpened sense of reality, excited to see--for the first time since the blur of my worst moments--the wonders and opportunities in my world. Emerging from the don't-care haze of addiction. I see objects and faces coming into focus again, colors brightening. May I take delight in this new-found brightness.

Today I Will Remember: To focus on my realities.

Copyright © 1994 Hazelden Foundation

Restore Normality

April 15 -- Reflection of the Day: Rare are the practicing compulsive gamblers who have any idea how irrational they are, or, seeing their irrationality, can bear to face it. One dictionary defines sanity as "soundness of mind." Yet no compulsive gambler, rationally analyzing his or her destructive behavior, can truly claim soundness of mind.

Have I come to believe, as the Second Step suggests, that a Power greater than myself can restore me to a normal way of thinking and living?

Today I Pray: May I see that my own behavior as a compulsive gambler could be described as "abnormal" or "insane." For those still actively addicted, admitting to "insane" behavior is well-nigh impossible. I pray that I may continue to abhor the insanities and inanities of my addictive days. May others like me recognize their problems of addiction, find help in Gamblers Anonymous, and come to believe that a Higher Power can restore them to a normal way of thinking and living.

Today I Will Remember: He restoreth my soul.

Gamblers Awakening

April 14 -- Reflection of the Day: Every man and woman who has joined Gamblers Anonymous and intends to stick around has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three. Isn’t it true that, in all matters related to their gambling, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of the Program? So already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the addiction in favor of those suggested by the Program. If this isn't turning one's will and life over to a new-found "Providence," than what is it?

Have I had a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps?

Today I Pray: For myself, I pray for a God-centered life. I thank God often for the spiritual awakening I have felt since I turned my life over to Him. May the words "spiritual awakening" be a clue to others that there is a free fund of spiritual power within each person. It must only be discovered.

Today I Will Remember: I will try to be God-centered.

Copyright © 1994 Hazelden Foundation

Reach, Don't Preach

April 13 -- Reflection of the Day: Any number of compulsive gamblers are bedeviled by the conviction that if they ever go near the Gamblers Anonymous Program--whether by attending meetings or talking one-to-one with a member--they'll be pressured to conform to some particular brand of faith or religion. They don't realize that faith is never an imperative for membership in the Program; that freedom from gambling can be achieved with a an easily acceptable minimum of it; and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God--as we understand him--afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.

Am I receiving strength by sharing with newcomers?

Today I Pray: May I never frighten newcomers or keep away those who are considering coming to GA by imposing on them my particular, personal ideas about a Higher Power. May each discover his or her own spiritual identity. May all find within themselves a link with some great universal Being or Spirit whose power is greater than theirs individually. May I grow, both in tolerance and in spirituality, every day.

Today I Will Remember: I will reach, not preach.

Do What Works for You

April 12 - If we attempt to understand rather than to be understood, we can more quickly assure a newcomer that we have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired. All of us, whatever our race. Gender, creed, color, or ethic heritage, are the children of a living Creator, with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms--as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.

Do I know the difference between sympathy and empathy. Can I put myself in the newcomer's shoes?

Today I Pray: May I try to love all humanity as children of a living God. May I respect the different ways through which they find and worship God. May I never be so rigid as to discount another's path to God or so insensitive that I use the fellowship of the group as a preaching ground to extol my religious beliefs as the only way. I can only know what works for me.

Today I Will Remember: We are all children of God.

Inner Strength

April 11 - I came to believe, Gamblers Anonymous has enabled me to learn that deep down in every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of a God. It may be obscured by pomp, by calamity, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves and miraculous demonstrations of that Power in human lives are facts as old as man himself.

How well do I share my free gifts?

Today I Pray: I pray that I may continue to look for-- and find--the Godliness that is in me and in every other person, no matter how it is obscured. May I be aware that the consciousness of a Higher Power has been present in man since he was first given the power to reason, no matter what name he gave to it or how he sought to reach it. May my own faith in a Higher Power be reinforced by the experience of all mankind--and by the working of God's gracious miracles in my own life.

Today I Will Remember: God is in us all.

A Powerful Change in Gamblers Anonymous

April 10 -- Reflection of the Day: Change is the characteristic of all growth, from reckless action to thoughtfulness, from dishonesty to honesty, from conflict to serenity, from childish dependence to adult responsibility--all this and infinitely more represent change for the better. Only God is unchanging; only God has all the truth there is.

Do I accept the belief that lack of power was my dilemma? Have I found a power by which I can live--a Power greater than myself?

Today I Pray: I pray that the Gamblers Anonymous Program will be, for me, an outline for change--for changing me. These days of transition from compulsive gambling to abstinence, from powerlessness to power through God, may be rocky, as change can be. May my restlessness be stilled by the unchanging nature of God, in whom I place my trust. Only God is whole and perfect and predictable.

Today I Will Remember: I can count on my Higher Power.

Share the Faith

April 9 -  Faith is more than our greatest gift; sharing it with others is our greatest responsibility. May we in the Gamblers Anonymous Program continually seek the wisdom and the willingness by which we may well fulfill the immense trust which the Giver of all perfect gifts has placed in our hands.

If you pray, why worry? If you worry, why pray?

Today I Pray: Our God is a mighty fortress, a bulwark who never fails us. May we give praise for our deliverance and for our protection. God gives us the gift of faith to share. May we pass it along to others as best we know how and in the loving spirit in which it was given to us.

Today I Will Remember: God will not fail us.

Trash and treasures

April 8 - Time after time, we learn in Gamblers Anonymous, newcomers try to keep to themselves "shoddy facts" about their lives. Trying to avoid the humbling experience of the Fifth Step, they turn to a seemingly easier and softer way. Almost invariable, they slip. Having persevered with the rest of the Program, they then wonder why they fell. The probable reason is that they never completed their housecleaning. They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock.

Have I admitted to myself and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs?

Today I Pray: That I may include all of the sleaziness of my past, my cruelties and my dishonesties, in a complete moral and financial inventory of myself. May I hold back nothing out of shame or pride, for the "exact nature" of my wrongs means just that--a thorough and exact recounting of past mistakes and character flaws. We have been provided with an appropriate "dumping ground." May I use it as it was intended. May all my throw-aways, the trash and outgrown costumes of the past, be foundation "fill" on which to build a new life.

Today I Will Remember: Trash can be a foundation for treasures.

Be Teachable

April 7 -- Reflection of the Day: Our spiritual and emotional growth in the Gamblers Anonymous Program doesn't depend so deeply upon success as it does upon our failures and setbacks. If we bear this in mind, a relapse can have the effect of kicking us upstairs, instead of down. We in the Program have had no better teacher that Old Man Adversity. Except in those cases where we refuse to let him teach us.

Do I try to remain always teachable?

Today I Pray: May I respect the total Program, with its unending possibilities for spiritual and emotional growth, so that I can view a relapse as a learning experience, not "the end of the world." May relapse for any one of our Fellowship serve to teach not only the person who has slipped, but all of us. May it strengthen our shared resolve.

Today I Will Remember: If you slip, get up.

Learn from others

April 6 -- Reflection of the Day: What do we say to a person who has slipped, or one who calls for help? We can carry the message, if the person is willing to listen; we can share our experience, strength and hope. Perhaps the most important thing we can do, however, is to tell the person that we love him or her, that we're truly happy he or she is back, and that we want to help all we can. And we must mean it.

Can I still "go to school" and continue to learn from the mistakes and adversities of others?

Today I Pray: May I always have enough love to welcome back to the group someone who has slipped. May I listen to that person's story-of-woe, humbly. For there, but for my Higher Power, go I. May I learn from others' mistakes and pray that I will not re-enact them.

Today I Will Remember: Abstinence is never fail-safe.

Feel the blessings of today

April 5 -- Reflection of the Day: Still another common thread we invariable see among slippers is that many of them felt dissatisfaction with today. "I forgot we live one day at a time,: or "I began to anticipate the future," or " I began to plan results, not just plan. They seemed to forget that all we have in NOW. Life continued to get better for them and, as many of us do, they forgot how bad it had been. They began to think, instead, of how dissatisfying it was compared to what it could be.

Do I compare today with yesterday, realizing, by that contrast, what great benefits and blessing I have today?

Today I Pray: If I am discouraged with today, may I remember the sorrows and hassles of yesterday. If I am impatient for the future, let me appreciate today and how much better it is than the life I left behind. May I never forget the principle of "one day at a time."

Today I Will Remember: The craziness of yesterday

Working the Steps Makes a Difference

April 4 -- Reflection of the Day: Another common denominator among those who slip is failure to use there tools of the Gamblers Anonymous Program---the Twelve Steps. The comments heard most often are, "I never did work the Steps," "I never got past the First Step," "I worked the Steps too slow," or "too soon." What it boils down to is that these people considered the Steps, but didn't conscientiously and sincerely apply the Steps to their lives.

Am I learning how to protect myself and help others?

Today I Pray: May I be a doer of the Steps and not a hearer only. May I see some of the common mis-Steps that lead to a fall: being too proud to admit Step One: being too tied to everyday earth to feel the presence of a Higher Power; being overwhelmed by the thought of preparing Step Four, a complete moral and financial inventory; being too reticent to share that inventory. Please God, guide me as I work the Twelve Steps.

Today I Will Remember: To watch my Steps.

Meetings Make It

April 3 -- Reflection of the Day: In almost every instance, the returned slipper says, "I stopped going to meetings," or " I got fed up with the same old stories and the same old faces," or "My outside commitments were such that I had to cut down on meetings," or " I felt I'd received the optimum benefits from the meetings, so I sought further help from more meaningful activities." In short, they simply stopped going to meetings. A saying I've heard at Gamblers Anonymous hits the nail on the head: "Them that stops going to meetings are not present at meetings to hear about what happens to them that stops going to meetings."

Am I going to enough meetings for me?

Today I Pray: God keep me on the path of the GA Program. May I never be too tired, too busy, too complacent, too bored to go to meetings. Almost always those complaints are reversed at a meeting if I will just get myself there. My weariness dissipates in serenity. My busyness is reduced to its rightful proportion. My complacency gives way to vigilance again. And how can I be bored in a place where there is so much fellowship and joy?

Today I Will Remember: Attend the meetings.

Always Come BACK!

April 2 -- Reflection of the Day: What causes slips? What happens to a person who apparently seems to understand and live the Twelve Step way, yet decides to go out gambling again? What can I do to keep this from happening to me? Is there any consistency among those who slip, and common denominators that seem to apply? We can each draw our own conclusions, but we learn in the Gamblers Anonymous Program that certain in actions will all but guarantee an eventual slip.

When a person who has slipped is fortunate enough to return to the Program, do I listen carefully to what he or she says about the slip?

Today I Pray: May my Higher Power show me if I am setting myself up to gamble again. May I glean from the experiences of others that the reasons for such a lapse of resolve or such an accident of will most often stem from what I have not done rather than from what I have done. May I "keep coming back" to meetings.

Today I Will Remember: Keep coming back.

Ignore, Shut Out, Shun

April 1 -- Reflection of the Day: If we can't want to slip, we'll avoid slippery places. For the gambler, that means shunning poker parties and race tracks and anywhere that gambling is taking place. For me, certain emotional situations can also be slippery places; so can indulgence in old ideas. Such as a well-nourished resentment that is allowed to build to explosive proportions.

Do I carry the principles of the Gamblers Anonymous Program with me where I go?

Today I Pray: May I learn not to test myself too harshly by "asking for it," by stopping in at the casino, the Bingo hall, or the track. Such "testing" can be dangerous, especially if I am egged on, not only by a craving for the old object of my addictions, but by others still caught in addiction whose moral responsibility has been reduced to zero.

Today I Will Remember: Avoid slippery places.