Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   October 19                                          Standing for something

    "...we could feel time, touch reality, and recognize spiritual values
                          long lost to many of us."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 88

                           ----=----

   In our active addiction, we were prepared to compromise everything we
   believed in just to get our hands on more drugs.   Whether we stole from
   our families and friends, sold ourselves, or lied to our employers, we
   were ignoring the values that mattered most to us.    Each time we
   compromised another dearly held belief, another chunk of the mortar
   holding our characters together fell away.  By the time many of us came to
   our first meeting, nothing was left but the ruin of our former selves.

   We will locate our lost values as we carry out our first honest
   self-examination.  But in order to rebuild our characters, we'll find it
   necessary to maintain those values, no matter how great the temptation to
   shove them aside.  We will need to be honest, even when we think we could
   fool everyone by lying.   If we ignore our values, we'll discover that
   the biggest fibs we've told have been the ones we've told ourselves.

   We don't want to start the demolition of our spirits again after all the
   work we've put into their restoration.   It's essential that we stand
   for something, or we risk falling for anything.    Whatever we find
   important to us, we honor.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I stand for something.   My strength is the result of
   living my values.