One Day at a Time in Al-Anon:
How often we think that the trials we have to face were caused by outside forces, by fate, or by God. We’re only too ready to look outside ourselves for the reasons for our afflictions, when the real enemy is self-deception. We may be poor, deprived of the necessities of life, frustrated in the things we think we want to do. It is only too easy to blame all these things on the alcoholic. Yet however difficult he may make our lives, we could do a great deal to offset this damage by turning our examination and criticism on ourselves, and taking energetic steps to correct what we think and do.
Today’s Reminder:
I will examine my own attitudes and activities and face the fact that much of what I do — or leave undone — contributes to my distress. Like the alcoholic, I, too, have an unrecognized sense of guilt which I could overcome by correcting what I find wrong with me. My first job is to stop fooling myself, stop excusing my own short comings.
“If we say that we have no fault, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
— 1st Epistle General of John