Episodes

  • MAY 20 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "God can teach me"

    MAY 20 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "God can teach me"
    May 20 2025
    Compulsive gambling is a lonely dis ease; although it may have seemed that we were part of the lights-and-action crowd, we were often tortured by lone liness. Even before the end of our gam bling days before the debts and the guilt showed us how unmanageable our lives had become-nearly all of us felt that we didn't quite belong. Either we were basically shy, or we were noisy good fellows craving attention and approval, but rarely getting it. Though we sought through the seeming sociability of gambling to overcome our loneliness, reckless risk was always lonely. Finally, even the Game itself betrayed us; we were struck down and left in terrified isolation. Have I begun to achieve an inner calm? Today I Pray … May I know the tenderness of an intimate relationship with God and the calm I feel when I touch God's spirit. May I translate this tenderness and calm to my relationships with others. May God deliver me from my lifelong feeling of loneliness and show me how to be a friend. Today I Will Remember … God can teach me to be a friend. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠
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    2 mins
  • MAY 19 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "Make room"

    MAY 19 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "Make room"
    May 19 2025
    "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us," wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes. I was never able to look at what was within me until I came to Gamblers Anonymous and heard my story told. Then I no longer had my "uniqueness" to hide behind. What was more, the person seemed a lot happier telling it than I was hearing it. I was jealous of a winner - always had been - so I began, ever so slowly, to tell my own story. Am I surprised today that all that was within me could possibly have been kept secret so long from the outside world? Today I Pray … Regardless of what lies ahead or behind me, may I remember that I must have God within me to guide me through difficult situations. When I am not in a difficult sit uation, may I thank God-and know that He is the reason I am where I am today. Today I Will Remember … To make room for God within me. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠
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    1 min
  • MAY 18 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "Becoming whole"

    MAY 18 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "Becoming whole"
    May 18 2025
    I considered myself a "loner" in the days when I was gambling. Although I was often with other people - saw them, heard them, touched them - most of my important dialogues were with my inner self. I was certain that nobody else would ever understand. Considering my former opinion of myself, it's likely that I didn't want anybody to understand. I smiled through gritted teeth even as I was dying on the inside. Have my insides begun to match my outside since I've been in the Gamblers Anonymous Program? Today I Pray … May my physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual selves become one, a whole person again. I thank my Higher Power for showing me how to match my outside to my inside, to laugh when I feel like laughing, to cry when I feel sad, to recognize my own anger or fear or guilt. I pray for wholeness. Today I Will Remember … I am becoming whole. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠
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    1 min
  • MAY 17 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "New friends"

    MAY 17 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "New friends"
    May 17 2025
    If we felt guilty, degraded, or ashamed of either our addiction itself or the things we did while "in action," that served to magnify our feelings of being outcasts. On occasion, we secretly feared or actually believed that we deserved every painful feeling; we thought, at times, that we truly were outsiders. The dark tunnel of our lives seemed formidable and unending. We couldn't even voice our feelings and could hardly bear to think about them. So we soon gambled again. Do I remember well what it used to be like? Today I Pray … May I remember how often, during my gambling days, I felt alone with my shame and guilt. The phony jollity of a gambling party or the shallow relationships struck up at a casino could not keep me from feeling like an outsider. May I appreciate the chance to make new friends through the Fellowship. May I know that my relationships now will be saner, less dependent, more mature. Today I Will Remember … Thank God for new friends. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠
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    2 mins
  • MAY 16 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "I'm not unique"

    MAY 16 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "I'm not unique"
    May 16 2025
    Many of us in the Gamblers Anonymous Program share the memory that we originally gambled to "belong," to "be a big shot," or to "be a part of the crowd." Others of us fueled our addictions in order to "get in"-to feel, at least for a short time, that we fitted in with the rest of the human race. Sometimes, our gam bling had the desired effect, temporarily assuaging our feelings of apartness. But when the rush of the action wore off, we were left feeling more alone, more left out, more "different" than ever. Do I sometimes feel that "my case is different"? Today I Pray … God, may I get over my feeling of being "different" or in some way unique, of not belonging. Perhaps it was this feeling that led me to gambling in the first place. It also kept me from seeing the seriousness of my addiction, since I thought "I am different. I can handle it." May I now be aware that I do belong, to a vast Fellowship of people like me. With every shared experience, my "uniqueness" is disappearing. Today I Will Remember … I am not unique. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠
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    2 mins
  • MAY 15 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "I'm not alone"

    MAY 15 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "I'm not alone"
    May 15 2025
    Looking back at those last desperate days before I came to Gamblers Anonymous, I remember more than anything the feelings of loneliness and isolation. Even when I was surrounded by people, including my own family, the sense of "aloneness" was overwhelming. Even when I tried to act sociable and wore the mask of cheerfulness, I usually felt a terrible anger at not belonging. Will I ever forget the misery of being "alone in a crowd"? Today I Pray … I thank God for the greatest single joy that has come to me outside of my abstinence from gambling the feeling that I am no longer alone. May I not assume that loneliness will vanish overnight. May I know that there will be a lonely time during recovery, especially since I must pull away from my former gambling buddies. I pray that I may find new friends who are recovering. I thank God for the Gamblers Anonymous Fellowship. Today I Will Remember … I am not alone. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠
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    1 min
  • MAY 14 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "Step by step"

    MAY 14 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "Step by step"
    May 14 2025
    "A very popular error-having the courage of one's convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack upon one's convictions," wrote Nietzsche. The Gamblers Anonymous Program is helping me get rid of my old ideas by sharing with others and working the Twelve Steps. Having made a searching and fearless moral and financial inventory of myself; having admitted to myself and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs; and having become entirely ready to have all my defects of character removed I will humbly ask God to remove my shortcomings. Am I trying to follow the Program just as it is? Today I Pray … I pray that I may continue to practice the Twelve Steps, over and over again, if need be. The Program has worked for thousands and thousands of recovering compulsive gamblers the world over. It can work for me. May I pause regularly and check to see if I am really practicing the GA Program, as it is set forth. Today I Will Remember … Step by Step. A Day at a Time https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH G.A. A New Beginning https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC
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    2 mins
  • MAY 13 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "God preserved me"

    MAY 13 REFLECTION OF THE DAY "God preserved me"
    May 13 2025
    When a person wakes up each morning and rises, with nerves screaming and sick at heart, to face frightening reality; when a person stumbles through the day in a pit of despair, wishing to die, but refusing to die; when a person gets up the next day and does it all over again-well, that takes guts. That takes a kind of real, basic survival courage, a courage that can be put to good use if that person ever finds his or her way to Gamblers Anonymous. That person has learned courage the hard way, and when that person comes to the GA Program, he or she will find new and beautiful ways to use it. Have I the courage to keep trying, one day at a time? Today I Pray … May I put the "guts-to-survive" kind of courage left over from my gambling days into good use in the Program. If I was able to "hang on" enough to live through the miseries of my addiction, may I translate that same will to survive into my recovery program. May I use my courage in new, constructive ways. Today I Will Remember … God preserved me to help carry out His purpose. A Day at a Time ⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠
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    1 min