A MOMENT FOR YOU

What’s one small step you can take today?

No perfect answers. Just a little room to reflect.

“One way to keep the channel open and to improve my conscious contact with God is to maintain a grateful attitude. On the days when I am grateful, good things seem to happen in my life. The instant I start cursing things in my life, however, the flow of good stops. God did not interrupt the flow; my own negativity did.” – Daily Reflections, November 6, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services (quoting Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 96)

That line from today’s “GOING WITH THE FLOW” reading stopped me cold. The channel was open. Gratitude kept it open. Negativity slammed it shut. And God did not flip the switch. My attitude did!

Prayer changes me, not God

Today’s Daily Reflections also shares a short morning prayer: “I arise, O God, to do Thy will.” Then it adds a truth that takes the pressure off: prayer doesn’t change God’s attitude toward me; it changes my attitude toward God. Meditation is the quiet side of that same practice, a wordless centering that leaves us physically relaxed, emotionally calm, mentally focused, and spiritually aware.

In other words, the channel is not a magic pipe for getting what I want. It is a living connection I tend. Gratitude keeps the water moving. Complaint clogs the line.

Scripture puts gratitude at the door: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” Psalm 100:4 (ESV). Thanksgiving is how we walk in. Praise is how we stay.

Faith instead of fear

Twenty-Four Hours a Day for November 6 presses the same point from another angle. Fear and worry had people down. The reading’s counsel is simple and strong: think faith instead of fear. Put faith where fear used to sit.

Fear closes the channel. Faith keeps it clear. That does not mean pretending hard things are easy. It means handing the worry over and then taking the next right step with a different soundtrack in your head.

Norman Vincent Peale, shared in today’s Your Daily Reprieve, named a quieter barrier: “A very real barrier to faith is this feeling of self-sufficiency, this unrealistic idea that one can accomplish everything by his or her own self…” Self-sufficiency looks strong. It is often just a closed valve.

Humility keeps me honest, and myself

Just for Today for November 6, “Understanding Humility,” quotes the Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text: “Humility is a result of getting honest with ourselves.” Humility is not thinking you are the lowest form of life. It is refusing to deny your good qualities or overemphasize your defects. You honestly accept who you are.

That honesty keeps the channel clear because pretending uses up all the bandwidth. Keep It Simple brings John Clark’s line this morning: “That suit is best that best suits me.” As we find our own way of following a Higher Power, we need to be okay with being different. The suit that fits you is the one that lets the real you stay open.

In today’s Dynamic Catholic reflection, St. Thomas More said it with street-level wisdom: “Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones.” Gratitude is one of those good thoughts. So is faith. I wrote about choosing where you focus in Look for the Good, and about how attitude opens or closes the day in Attitude, Attitude, Attitude. The channel follows the mind.

Start with irreducible minimums

As Bill Sees It (p. 308), via Your Daily Reprieve today, warns against the all-or-nothing trap. Trying to set your whole life in order at once is destructive. Begin with irreducible minimums of activity. One prayer. One honest admission. One grateful sentence. One faithful action.

That is how you reopen a clogged channel. Not with a renovation project. With a drip that becomes a stream.

In Recovery Thinking, I put it this way: “Positive meaningful recovery is living life to its fullest.” Fullness is not frenzy. It is a channel that stays open while you live today. After more than 40 years in human services since 1983, I still come back to gratitude, faith over fear, honest humility, and small next steps. For a longer walk through thanksgiving as practice, start with Count Your Blessings.

Five ways to keep the channel open today

  1. Say a short morning prayer out loud. Borrow the simple line from today’s reading if you need one: “I arise, O God, to do Thy will.” Mean it as much as you can.
  2. Trade one fear thought for one faith thought. Catch the worry. Replace it. Think faith instead of fear.
  3. Write three gratitudes before noon. Keep them concrete. Names, moments, mercies. Gratitude is the valve that stays open.
  4. Practice honest humility once. Name one strength without swagger and one defect without shame. Accept both.
  5. Do one irreducible minimum. Make the call. Take the walk. Open the book. In Success-Full I wrote, “No action, no change, know action, know change!”

Keep the water moving

God did not interrupt the flow. Negativity did. Prayer changes my attitude. Faith replaces fear. Humility tells the truth. Good thoughts occupy the mind. Small minimums restart the day.

Keep the channel open. Life is GOOOOOOOD!!!

Here’s my question for you: What one grateful thought, or one small action, will you use today to keep the channel open?

Go, Go, Go… Dan 🙂

Books quoted in this post:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A note on anonymity: Although I quote Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous literature here, nothing in this post should be taken to imply my membership in any specific mutual support group, in keeping with Tradition Eleven.

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Reflection note: I wrote this from my own daily readings. Quotes belong to their original authors and sources (Daily Reflections, November 6, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, “GOING WITH THE FLOW,” quoting Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 96, via Daily Ponderables and Your Daily Reprieve; Twenty-Four Hours a Day, November 6, Hazelden; Norman Vincent Peale via Your Daily Reprieve, November 6; Just for Today, November 6, Narcotics Anonymous, quoting the Basic Text; Keep It Simple, November 6, Hazelden, including John Clark; St. Thomas More via the Dynamic Catholic Daily Reflection, November 6; As Bill Sees It, p. 308, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, via Your Daily Reprieve; Psalm 100:4, English Standard Version; Recovery Thinking; Success-Full). I used AI to help organize it and reviewed it before posting.

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