maybe this is something i need to do - but when i have helped others in the past its mainly been making cups of tea at a meeting, doing key duty, i was secretary of a meeting for a year and i guess before i relapsed i had stopped doing any service and have stopped doing things like this that really made me feel useful and increased my self esteem tremendously. Thanks for the reminder!

I love paying it forward. Part of my practice is I do it annonymously as often as I can. So won't recount them all here:-)
Things I will recount are like what Firespinner said and I think that's hugely helpful in my sobriety and I hope for others. I secretaried 2x, I chair whenever asked, I do bday chips at my home group, I'm orgainizing our annual event, I sponsor. I will never be able to pay forward this debt I owe to AA and to God so I just try a day at a time.

The best gift is one that I give another without them knowing it was me.

I pay it forward in AA by suitin' up and showin' up and talking to others about what it was like, what happened, and what it's lke today.

The thing is this: I've never helped another person without it coming back to me tenfold.

I remember when I was in my first year I answered my phone one day and it as a female friend of mine in the program. Their car had died in a town 120 miles away. That's 240 miles round trip. They asked if I could come and pick them up. I couldn't think of any reason why I couldn't so I said "yes". I asked them to not tell others I had done this. I just wanted it to stay anonymous. The gift I got from this was knowing it was the first time since I could remember that I did something for someone without expecting anything in return.

Diane, I agree totally doing something for others without asking for nothing in return and by staying anonymous. Noticed a lot off "I's" doing this and doing that in reply#2 its not what its all about its doing things without thinking about and just by doing.

Heard someone share at meeting awhile back letting everyone know how humbled she was because she was doing this or that and my thought was it someone needs to share things like that it tells me they really need to work on humility.

It is rare that I ever get a chance to 'pay back' someone who has helped me, so the way to go is to pay it forward. It's not about getting anything back or getting anything from my HP.How cool to be able to do something for someone else instead of taking all the time?

I love reply no. 2! Doing service in AA is so important and talking about different areas of service is a necessity in my AA book. A great way to pay it forward and it ensures AA stays healthy.

Personally I do a lot of service too and nothing can beat the joy of giving without expectation of recognition or reward, both inside AND outside the rooms of AA.