Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   September 7                                     Resentment and forgiveness

      "Where there has been wrong, the program teaches us the spirit of
                                forgiveness."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 12

                           ----=----

   In NA, we begin to interact with the world around us.  We no longer live
   in isolation.   But freedom from isolation has its price:   The more we
   interact with people, the more often we'll find someone stepping on our
   toes.  And such are the circumstances in which resentments are often born.

   Resentments, justified or not, are dangerous to our ongoing recovery.  The
   longer we harbor resentments, the more bitter they become, eventually
   poisoning us.  To stay clean, we must find the capacity to let go of our
   resentments, the capacity to forgive.   We first develop this capacity in
   working Steps Eight and Nine, and we keep it alive by regularly taking the
   Tenth Step.

   Sometimes when we are unwilling to forgive, it helps to remember that we,
   too, may someday require another person's forgiveness.   Haven't we
   all, at one time or another, done something that we deeply regretted?  And
   aren't we healed in some measure when others accept our sincere amends?

   An attitude of forgiveness is a little easier to develop when we remember
   that we are all doing the very best we can.  And someday we, too, will
   need forgiveness.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I will let go of my resentments.  Today, if I am wronged,
   I will practice forgiveness, knowing that I need forgiveness myself.