FAMILY OBLIGATIONS

“….a spiritual life which does not include …..family obligations may not be so perfect after all.”
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129

I can be doing great in the program–applying it at meetings, at work, and in service activities–and find that things have gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand, but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress, but they don’t–unless I show them. Do I neglect their needs and desires for my attention and concern? When I’m around them, am I irritable or boring? Are my “amends” a mumbled “Sorry,” or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I preach to them, trying to reform or “fix” them? Have I ever really cleaned house with them? The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83)

From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.