When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 91
Being fair-minded and tolerant is a goal toward which I must work daily. I ask God, as I understand Him, to help me to be loving and tolerant to my loved ones, and to those with whom I am in close contact. I ask for guidance to curb my speech when I am agitated, and I take a moment to reflect on the emotional upheaval my words may cause, not only to someone else, but also to myself. Prayer, meditation and inventories are the key to sound thinking and positive action for me.
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Every morning when I wake up and realize I’m alive, I say a word of thanks for the opportunity to have another day. I end it with “Thanks for guiding my thinking, decisions, actions, motives, and words. Thy will not mine be done.
Amen”
This has, so far, worked for 14 years 2 months.
Alex
Could not of said it better myself. Amen
Some of went to breakfast yesterday after our Sun. morn daily reflections meeting.. Leaving the cafe a woman was throwing two other women out of her house, it wasn’t a pretty sight. The words I heard were all to familiar sounds. If I don’t pick up today good chances I won’t have a confrontation like that. I’ll concentrate on doing good and showing love
A short prayer before speaking especially when angry will make all the difference in the world. I have to say a prayer especially when driving because of the road rage I used to have. A prayer keeps me patient and I don’t lose my cool over other drivers.
Jim
This is a lesson I have to keep re-learning. I still often speak out in haste and regret it afterwards. I can be far too defensive.
When I first came to AA I could only see these moral and behavioral suggestions as guidance for virtue but I couldn’t clearly see how much this was related to my sobriety.
Through repeated failure to get or stay sober I finally became willing to take the steps anyway. The process taught me a revolutionary new perspective on this. I came to believe that I could only be protected from the insanity of alcoholism by developing a connection to the power that is God and that emotional disturbances obscure that connection. I had to be rid of them or they accumulate and I get disconnected completely.
In my journey I have experienced that personal inventory is the method by which these disturbances are identified so that the connection can be restored daily. For me this is like personal hygiene for the soul. I have to do it regularly just like bathing or brushing my teeth.
The result is access to power, not just for sobriety, but also for the joy of living.
Thanks be to God.
Bob S.