-For me, faith is the ability to keep doing the right thing knowing the result of my doing right might never be seen by me.
-I worked on the Los Angeles skid row for many years at the Union Rescue Mission. I noticed that the hopelessness many street women and men live with is a defense mechanism. If they never risked hope again they would never be disappointed again.
-In my mind, hope is a sense that the wonderful things I have faith I will receive in the fullness of time are coming to me. It is like the presents a child sees under the tree before Christmas. The child is excited because she knows that present is her’s but she won’t get to have it in her hands until Christmas morning.
-Sometimes my Higher Power has answered my need months before I even noticed. I did not notice because the answer came in a way that was very different from the way I expected it to come.
– Many times I have felt that the reason I feel so disappointed is that I have committed some grievous sin that caused my Higher Power to move away from me as a punishment.
-I like to say that “I am powerless over God’s love.” God’s love never changes. God always loves me totally and completely. That means That Her love for me is the same on my worst day as it is on my best day. God never will away from me never, forever and ever.
-A woman I used to know named Sharon had a wonderful way of thinking about her Higher Power. She liked to say ” God never says no. He only says yes or I have something better”.
-Another woman I knew said, “There are three things to do when you are asking for wisdom. The first is ask. The second is to believe the answer is coming. The third is wait until the wisdom you need comes.”
-There is a character in the New Testament we call Doubting Thomas. I think all the disciples also had doubts like Thomas had but Thomas is the only one that fessed up.
-I come from an alcoholic home in which no one drank. Alcoholism comes in two forms. One form is compulsive drinking. The other is the constant need to control the situation. That kind of alcoholism is why Al-Anon exists. That is because in my mind I have think that the drinking that creates so much havoc in my world is somehow mine and mine alone to solve. Only I can get it done.
-I have many years in Al-Anon. I have far more serenity than I had when I first committed myself to Al-Anon. I still have bad days. However my low days now are more serene than my high days were when I first began. My midnights now are higher than my dawns used to be.
George Caywood 