Manna House Ministries and House of Hope

11/07/2025

No meeting tonight in Pickett County due to threatening weather.

10/31/2025

10/22/2025

October 22, 2025
Look who's talking
Page 308

"Our disease is so cunning that it can get us into impossible situations."

Basic Text, p.83

Some of us say, "My disease is talking to me." Others say, "My head won't turn off." Still others refer to "the committee in my mind" or "the monkey on my back." Let's face it. We suffer from an incurable malady that continues to affect us, even in recovery. Our disease gives us warped information about what's going on in our lives. It tells us not to look at ourselves because what we'll see is too scary. Sometimes it tells us we're not responsible for ourselves and our actions; other times, it tells us that everything wrong with the world is our fault. Our disease tricks us into trusting it.

The NA program provides us with many voices that counter our addiction, voices we can trust. We can call our sponsor for a reality check. We can listen to the voice of an addict trying to get clean. The ultimate solution is to work the steps and draw on the strength of a Higher Power. That will get us through those times when "our disease is talking."

Just for Today: I will ignore the "voice" of my addiction. I will listen to the voice of my program and a Power greater than myself.

10/17/2025

Join us this evening in Byrdstown.

10/10/2025

Walk In Dry Places

Putting our trust in people.
Trust

How much should we trust other people? This is an important question, because many of us have erred in both directions: we've trusted people too much or not enough. We can find our answer in the spiritual side of the program. We do have a Higher Power in whom we can have absolute trust. We can have little doubt that the spiritual presence behind everything is infallible and supreme.
As human beings, we know that we can only be trusted in certain ways. We can work to develop our trustworthiness, but it is never high enough, even with the strongest souls. All of us have weaknesses that can keep us from being what we know to be our best.
In our 12 Step living, we should work to develop trust in both ourselves and others, but no be hurt or disappointed when things go wrong. Above all, our real trust should be in our Higher Power.
I'll work today to be trusting and trustworthy, but I'll not expect too much of anybody, including myself.

10/02/2025

Listen up family and friends! This year at the Pumpkin Festival, coming up this Saturday October 4th, Manna House booth will be set up beside the Moody Building. We look forward to seeing you all!
Menu items this year:
Pulled pork sandwich
Pulled pork parfait (Pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, baked beans)
Nachos
BBQ Nachos
Hot dogs
Smoked bologna sandwich
Chips
Drinks

10/01/2025

Walk In Dry Places

Thinking about Blame.
Inventory.
Which is worse: blaming ourselves or others for things that go wrong? A better question might be, Is anyone to blame?
We're really better off, in 12 Step living, to begin dropping the idea of placing blame for our thinking altogether. Even is someone's responsibility for a mistake or wrong is fully evident, we get nowhere by pointing the finger at him or her. What often happens, in fact, is that the person becomes defensive... just as we do... And retreats into denial or anger.
Another problem is that placing blame quickly becomes the sticky
business of taking another person's inventory. Let's leave such matters to courts and prosecutions and focus instead on solving our own problems.
I'll not waste time today thinking about who's to blame. My focus will be on what can be done for general improvement.

09/23/2025

Walk In Dry Places

When resentment Returns

Inventory

It’s surprising and even humiliating to find an old resentment flaring up, sometimes years after we thought it had been put to rest. When that happens, we wonder how thorough we really were in releasing the resentment in the first place.
The secret of handling this problem is to turn the old resentment over to our Higher Power without wasting time wondering why it came up again. We need to deal with it as if it were a brand-new problem; and in a sense, it is.
As for questioning our past sincerity, that too is a waste of time. We are always trying to do our best with the understanding we have for each day. Being too hard on us does not make it easier to practice our program. Resentments can and do return, but they don't have to destroy us.
I'll realize today that I'm always susceptible to any of my ongoing problems, including resentment. Fortunately, I have my program for dealing with them when they occur.

09/17/2025

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Step One is, "We admitted we were powerless over
alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable."
This step states the membership requirement of A.A.
We must admit that our lives are disturbed. We must
accept the fact that we are helpless before the
power of alcohol. We must admit that we are licked
as far as drinking is concerned and that we need
help. We must be willing to accept the bitter fact
that we cannot drink like normal people. And we must
make, as gracefully as possible, a surrender to the
inevitable fact that we just stop drinking. Is it difficult
for me to admit that I am different from normal drinkers?

09/09/2025

As Bill Sees It

Face the Music, p.251

"Don't be too discouraged about that slip. Practically always, we
drunks learn the hard way.

"Your idea of moving on to somewhere else may be good, or it may
not. Perhaps you have got into an emotional or economic jam that
can't be well handled where you are. But maybe you are doing just
what all of us have done, at one time or another: Maybe you are
running away. Why don't you try to think that through again
carefully?

"Are you really placing recovery first, or are you making it
contingent upon other people, places, or circumstances? You may
find it ever so much better to face the music right where you are
now, and, with the help of the A.A. program, win through. Before
you make a decision, weigh it in these terms."

Letter, 1949