SERVICE

Definition of Service:
The action of helping or doing work for someone.

Synonyms of Service:
Assistance, kindness, help, aid, courtesy, benevolence, giving, etc.

These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs. Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail.

We hope you find them helpful.

Love in fellowship.

Service is a sure way to stay sober.
Helping someone else stay sober helps us stay sober.
And service frees us from self-will. –Keep It Simple | More…

We who have learned to put our drink problem in God’s hands can help others to do so.
We can be used as a connection between an alcoholic’s need and God’s supply of strength. My helping hand is needed to raise the helpless to courage, to strength, to faith, to health.  –24Hours | More…

We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to receive, but we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed. –Anonymous

Service can bring out both the best and the worst in us. It is often through service that we begin to get in touch with some of our more pressing defects of character. –Just for Today | More…

To be of maximum use to the Creator, we must ready ourselves to do so. To become a channel for His purposes, we must prepare ourselves to do so.

If we have resentment, fear, selfishness, or anger, we must be rid of these things. We must change ourselves. We must ask for forgiveness for ourselves and forgive our brothers and sisters.

We must keep our insides clean. We cannot use our power in a good way when we have blockages such as hate, judgement, and envy.

When we are free of these things the Higher Powers can use us beyond our wildest imagination. Then we can really help ourselves and help other people. –Elders | More…

The “Steps” to self- improvement have small beginnings, but each Step builds the “ladder” out of the pit of despair to new hope. Honesty becomes my “tool” to unfurl the “chains” which bound me.

A sponsor, who is a caring listener, can help me to truly hear the message guiding me to freedom. –Daily Reflections | More…

Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs. I was filled with self-pity, anger and resentment.

Then I learned that by helping others, with no thought of return, I could overcome this obsession with selfishness, and if I understood humility, I would know peace and serenity. –Daily Reflections | More…

Service means work we do for others.  It’s the backbone of our program. The reason is simple. Service to our Higher Power and to others breaks down our wanting to be self-centered. –Keep It Simple | More…

Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives. To be in a position of offering true, useful and effective service to others, I must first work on myself.

This means that I have to abandon myself to God, admitting my faults and clearing away the wreckage of my past. Work on myself has taught me how to find the necessary peace and serenity to successfully merge inspiration and experience.  –Daily Reflections | More…

In our illness, we are takers. Now, we’ve changed this around. We are now givers. Giving is a big part of recovery. Our word for it is service.

Our program is based on care, respect, and service.
Our program tells us to “practice these principles in all our affairs.”

The healing power of recovery is love.
As we give love and kindness to others, we heal. Why?
Because people grow by giving kindness and love to others. –Keep It Simple | More…

It seems the more I give to Alcoholics Anonymous, the better my life gets. –Tucson, Ariz., May 2004/”The Fugitives,”  Spiritual Awakenings II/Grapevine

When I am not thinking about myself and my own reactions to events or circumstances, I find that they have been my happiest occasions. –Saratoga, Calif., May 1973/”Look Beyond Yourself,”/Grapevine

I am the place where God shines through
Him and I are One not Two
I need not worry fret or plan
He wants me where and as I am
And if I be relaxed and free
He will carry out his plan through me

The Creator can only create through human beings. Each human being has a purpose given to us by the Creator. We are on this earth to fulfill this purpose. Our only work is to make ourselves ready, to become a channel, to perform for the Creator. We prepare ourselves by becoming unselfish. We prepare ourselves by seeking and choosing to walk on a spiritual path. –Elders Meditations | More…

God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way, if you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in His world, you will be a hindrance and a clog. The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His Redemption. –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him; there is only one thing He wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

What we are, always carries a stronger message than what we say. However it works, there is a powerful message in one’s unspoken thoughts and feelings. We can usually sense, for example, the mood of people in a room, even when little is being said. If we spend any time with others, they will soon know much about us even if we say little. This silent communication may be the great secret of AA’s success in reaching those who still suffer. If we are living sober and want to help others, that’s the message we give out. That’s also a form of carrying the message. –Walk In Dry Places | More…

If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all; they are meant to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across. –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

One of the ways we express our gratitude for the gifts of recovery is to help others find what we’ve found. We can do this in any number of ways: by sharing in meetings, making Twelfth Step calls, accepting a commitment to sponsorship, or volunteering for H&I or phoneline duty. The spiritual life given to us in recovery asks for expression, for “we can only keep what we have by giving it away. –Just For Today | More…

If we refuse to try to exert power over another’s addiction, we may help them. They may grow if we allow them to face reality, painful though it may be. They may become more productive, by their own definition, as long as we don’t try and do it for them. They can become the authority on their own lives, provided we are only authorities on our own. If we can accept all this, we can become whatwe were meant to be—carriers of the message, not the addict. –Just For Today | More…