My Aim Is To Improve My Character

CHARACTER BUILDING

Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection, and love can only invite domination or revulsion.  .

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44

When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step, I didn't think it should rank as a character defect.  I wanted to think of it more of an asset (that is, the desire to please people).  It was quickly pointed out to me that this "need" can be very crippling.  Today I still enjoy getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to pay the price I used to pay to get it.  I will not bend myself into a pretzel to get others to like me.  

If I get your approval, that's fine; but if I don't, I will survive without it.  I am responsible for speaking what I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may want to hear.

     

Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly concerned about my reputation.  Since being enlightened in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

 

A.A. Thought for the Day

Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I feel that the friends I've found in A.A. are real friends? Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and do I want to help them if I can? Do I really care now about other people?

Meditation for the Day

Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle-working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace, you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time, you throw that one aside for a yet finer one. And so from character to character, you are gradually transformed.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person.

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Thought for Today

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

--Will Rogers

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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

So much fear and desire come from that commitment to 'I am'--to being somebody. Eventually they take us to anxiety and despair; life seems much more difficult and painful than it really is.

But when we just observe life for what it is, then it's all right: the delights, the beauty, the pleasures are just that.

-Ajahn Sumedho, "Seeing the Way"

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Native American

"With children we always have to think about seven generations to come but yet unborn."

--Janice Sundown Hattet, SENECA

What we do today will effect the children seven generations form now. How we treat the Mother Earth will affect the children yet to be born. If we poison the water today, our children's children will be affected by the decision we made. Our children are the gateway to the future. Let us conscientiously think about the children and the seven generations to come.

My Creator, I thank you for my ancestors, seven generations ago.

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Keep It Simple

To know all things is not permitted.   ---  Horace

In recovery, we give up trying to be perfect. We give up trying to know
everything. We work at coming to know and accept our short-comings.  In
Step Four and Five, we look at our good points and our bad points. In Step
Six, we become ready to have our Higher Power remove our "defects of
character." Then in Step Seven we ask our Higher Power to remove our
"shortcomings."
Recovery is about coming to accept that we're not prefect. We admit that
trying to be perfect got in the way of being useful to ourselves, our
Higher Power, and those around us. Pretending to be prefect doesn't allow
us to be real. It's also boring and no fun---you never get to mess up.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, You will let me know what I need to know. Allow me to claim
my mistakes and shortcomings.

Action for the Day:  I will work at being okay today. Not prefect, just okay.

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