For Today: August 7th

If you will please people, you must please them in their own way; and as you cannot make them what they should be, you must take them as they are.

Lord Chesterfield

I learned early on that pleasing people can make life pleasant.  Today I realize that people-pleasing as a way of life is carrying a good and natural impulse too far.

What freedom to know I am not all-powerful---that I cannot make people play the roles I create for them, no matter how excellent the casting.  OA teaches me to take people as they are.  There will always be some whose company I do not enjoy, but there are many others whose delight in simple things gives me joy.  It is good to be around those people.

For Today:  there is no finer way to treat people than to accept them as they are.

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When I recognize the fact that I can't change someone, then I can relax & accept them for who & what they are. I may not like them.........and that's ok...........because I have the ability to pick & choose the people I want to spend time with.  I accept my family members as they are and those who make it their goal to drive me crazy, I set down boundaries with.

I am not a door-mat, nor am I all-powerful. I am ME. I am working a program of recovery & in order to be successful at it, I have to behave myself in a certain fashion.   I am not in charge of the world, nor am I responsible for taking on the burdens OF the world.  It is not my job to fix someone else; it is my job to fix ME, to keep MYSELF on track, and to work my Steps of Recovery in the best way I possibly can.

I don't compare myself to others; I am unique and 'just right' as I AM.  I am loved in God's eyes and I AM good enough.  I no longer see myself through other people's eyes: I see myself through God's eyes & the eyes of TRUTH that look back at me from within myself.