Here are what I find to be the most useful quotations from the January pages of One Day at at Time in Al-Anon:
If I allow myself to be influenced by what the alcoholic says and does, it will make blots and smears on the pages of my year.
I can live my life only one day at a time.
Perhaps my confusion and despair are so great that I will have to take it one hour at a time, or one minute at a time, reminding myself constantly that I have authority over no life but my own.
Realizing that nothing can hurt me while I lean upon my Higher Power, I ask to be guided through the hours and minutes of each day.
Let me remind myself to bring every problem to Him for I know He will show me the way I must go.
We learn only from experience, and only by making up our minds not to repeat past mistakes.
I will not scold and weep, for it will not help me overcome the difficulties we are trapped in.
When I am tempted or pressured into irrational behavior, I pray that I may stop and think before I do or say anything whatever.
The fact that I am the spouse, child, parent, or friend of an alcoholic does not give me the right to try to control him.
Regrets are vain. They interfere with the good I could do today, the making of the better person I want to be tomorrow.
I realize how much depends on my point of view; my own wrong habits of thinking and acting must be corrected and only I can do that.
When I am pained by anything that happens outside of myself, it is not that thing which hurts me, but the way I think and feel about it.
Other adult human beings are not my responsibility, no matter how closely their lives may be intertwined with mine.
I will not allow myself to be troubled by anyone else; my one problem is to improve my own way of living and looking at life.
God teach me to detach my mind from what others say and do, except to draw helpful lessons and guidance from them.
I pray to learn to enjoy the good that each day brings and not to be apprehensive about the future, which is in God’s hands.
I turned to Him again and placed my life and my will in His hands.
If instead of trusting in God I trust only my own intelligence, my own strength and my own prudence, I will not find my way to Him and His help.
Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
It is by continuing to give of ourselves that we continue to receive.
God guide me to make the right decision and give me the fortitude to cling to it against all pressures and persuasions.
I pray for the wisdom to take a rational and tolerant attitude toward whatever troubles I must face each day.
I must not look to anyone else to make a good life for me; this I must do for myself.
I will try to clear out of my life and my mind all the tools of destruction I have been using.
Just for today I will live through this day only, and not tackle all my problems at once.
I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
If I do what I should, I will be at peace with myself.
It is only when I compare my lot in life with that of others that the destructive emotion of self-pity is allowed to engulf me.
It is only by taking offense at what others do that I will be afflicted with resentment.
If I feel that what I am doing is right, I will not be dependent on the admiration or applause of others.
Nothing has the power to hurt my feelings and stir up unwholesome emotions in me unless I allow it.
I will do what is given me to do … as well as I can.
I will not tell Him what I expect Him to do about my difficulties.
I will ask Him to show me what steps to take.
If I am morose and discontented, I will deliberately cultivate happy thoughts.
If I am prone to criticize, I will seek out what is good and pleasing and fix my mind on that.
I will replace my fruitless doubts and fears with faith and confidence.
If I am bored, I will learn something new—even a new way to make the same old chores more enjoyable.
Let Go and Let God.
I know that Divine Power can deal with matters which are beyond me.
Let me learn to play my own role, and leave his to him.
Whenever I give in to my natural impulse and habit to take over and try to force a change, I’m in trouble again.
I pray to be released from my compulsion to control my situation.