Tolerance - July 21st

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.”
~ Peace Pilgrim

A.A. Thought for the Day

If we feel the need of saying something to put another member on the right track, we should try to say it with understanding and sympathy, not with a critical attitude. We should keep everything out in the open and aboveboard. The A.A. program is wonderful, but we must really follow it. We must all pull together or we'll all be sunk. We enjoy the privilege of being associated with A.A. and we are entitled to all its benefits. But gossip and criticism are not tolerance, and tolerance is an A.A. principle that is absolutely necessary to group unity. Am I truly tolerant of all my group's members?

Living with others in the program didn't come easily to me. My need to measure myself against my fellows controlled most of my interactions with others for a very long time. A good friend shared an idea with my men's group last night about how with true humility we can come to accept a sense of "healthy insignificance". When I let go of my ego I find it much easier to tolerate and accept my fellows.
~ Mike