No Criticism or Character Assassination

Hanging on to resentments and criticizing the behavior of others is often a noticeable characteristic of some members of the program that never find the serenity and peace that is mentioned in the promises. For some people it seems impossible to let their guard down. I think that most of us can understand this, simply because we have all had to face this issue and deal with it as we went through the Twelve Step process.

One of the things that I learned when I was faced with this matter was that I had a self-esteem issue and I overcorrected, by pointing the faults of others, to somehow make myself seem normal. This never worked for me as I could not fool my conscience. Things only got worse.

I still worked through the steps and did what I could at the time. No one gets it perfect the first time, but we can make a second effort at it when we have established a record of living by principles.

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are a training ground for how we treat others and if we cannot accept the people there, it is a cinch we will not do it outside of the rooms.

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