Choose: resentment or peace of mind? Resentment destroys more people than anything else. From it stems all forms of spiritual disease. We need to be thorough and honest as we consider our grudges. The first thing apparent is that this world and its people are often quite wrong. To conclude that others are wrong is as far as most of us ever get. The usual outcome is that people continue to wrong us and we stay angry. The more we fight and try to have our own way, the worse matters get. It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. This business of resentment is infinitely grave. When harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. We must prepare ourselves to look at everything from an entirely different angle. When we do, we began to see that the world and its people really dominate us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others, imagined or real, has power to actually kill. How can we escape? These resentments must be mastered, but how? This is our course: We realize that the people who wrong us are perhaps spiritually sick. Though we do not like their symptoms and the way they disturb us, they, like ourselves, are sick too. We ask God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offends, we say to ourselves, “This is a sick person. How can I be helpful to him or her? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done.’’ The Big Book (AA) chapter 5
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 15:02:52 +0000
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