"...ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."
Tradition Twelve
Sometimes it's hard to accept others' character defects. As we recover together, we not only listen to others talk in meetings, we also watch how they walk through their recovery. The more we get to know other members, the more we become aware of how they live their lives. We may form opinions about how they "work their program." We may find that certain members upset us, or we may even hear ourselves say, "If I worked their program, I would surely use."
We have found tolerance to be a principle that no only strengthens our own recovery, but also our relationships with individuals who are a source of irritation to us. It becomes easier to accept other members' frailties when we remember that we ourselves rarely turn over our own character defects until we become painfully aware of them.
Just for Today: I will strive to accept others as they are. I will try not to judge others. I will focus on the principles of love and acceptance.
when I'm in a good space, love and acceptance come easily. When the self centered nature of my disease is in control, I'm more apt to whine about others love and acceptance of me. I just get so tired of it all sometimes.
I'm glad people are able to practice this with me, even when I don't always practice it with others. NA people sometimes just let me make it! I hope I can pass that on half as well as it's been given to me.
Yes,just for today we will pray for tolerance, Now that we know that the NA way is all about freedom, We thank god for reminding us that the freedom to be who we are is written in the na literature.We give thanks for we no longer have to judge the new na members that use the words alcoholic/sober,for now we know that the new na members experience is the na way,,our rich diversity is the na way,thank you god for showing us that we no longer have to judge.Thank you god for today i will be in recovery,i will do my best not to judge. We give thanks to god for showing us that anothers recovery is none of our business,we thank god for showing us we no longer have to act like little old ladies gossiping at a church function. Just for today we will give thanks to god for giving us acceptance of the na traditions. We give thanks to god for allowing na as a whole to tolerate our miss givings. We give thanks to god for putting alcoholics and addicts in our lives that help show us the way,the na way.
-- Edited by Sober and clean Rosie on Thursday 24th of June 2010 08:46:36 AM
For some of us ( like me ) it takes extreme pain to finally make some real change, once again my intolerance has drove someone from me, did I practice true love ? no not at all, will i next time ? probably so.....
beautiful take on the daily message Rosie, thanks for sharing. Yo V...relationships are a two way street brother. Maybe you only contributed half of the difficulty.
