Thank God for the Salvo's and Alcoholics Anonymous

Below is a testimony I wrote in 1989 for an inhouse newsletter called TRUTH - Recovery First, produced by the men on the Salvation Army's Bridge Program. Reading it today I still thank God for the Salvation Army's Bridge Program and for Alcoholics Anonymous. Both played a significant part in my recovery and because of them I have now been sober for 20years, living one day at a time and Turning my will and life over to Him Daily

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I thank God today for the Salvation Army's Bridge Program and Alcoholics Anonymous and the Simplistic way of life they have shown me.

The simple little sayings I heard in so many meetings but never took in are today life savers in my sobriety. There seems to be one for every occasion that arises in my life. If you are returning to A.A. after a 'bust' remember "You don't fail until you stop trying". If you are like I was, an arrogant, self-centered alcoholic, quick to jump down the throat of anyone who threatens my new found security. When someone upsets you, don't jump down their throat before you ask yourself the question "How important is it?" Is it really worth losing your sobriety over?

'It is important for me today to remember that word I see in so many meetings, "THINK"!! Because we all do know the difference between right and wrong. If I am doing wrong, I know it, and if I don't do something about it I'm on my way back to where I came from. I didn't like it very much last time.

Another saying I hear around is "It gets better"! and you know it does.

Today I have an indescribable peace, a God given peace. I say God given because I have never known any peace before in my life. My head was always filled with a thousand different thoughts that really meant ftothing. When I decided to turn my life and my will over to God I realized with help, that what happened in my past isn't really that important. I can't change my past,-but I can alter its effect on my future. The object of every situation was to learn, and I praise God today for the lessons I have learned.

If I live my life "one day at a time" and ask myself each night "How much of today wasn't God's will?" and try to do better the next day I can't go wrong.

"Let go, let God". "Live and let live". "Easy does it".

They all sound so simple, don't they?

I couldn't "live and let live". I grew up in a world full of racial, religious and political violence. I was a member of the National Front, and hated any one who wasn't like me.