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November 27


Tolerance Prayer

Lord, give me tolerance towards those whose thoughts and ways conflict with mine. For though I would, I cannot always know what constitutes the Absolute Truth. The other person may be right, while I may be all wrong, yet unaware.

Lord, make my motives right, for only this can ease my conscience when I sometimes err.

Lord, give me tolerance, for who am I to stand in judgment on another person's mistakes? No one knows better than my inward self how many little blunders I have and can make.

Life is full of stones that somehow trip us, and meaning not, we stumble now and then.

Lord, give me tolerance, for only you are rightly fit to judge my fellow travelers.

(From: Global Steps, Bristol, CT)

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Just a Thought

"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

The basis of our effectiveness in carrying the message to others is the reality of our own spiritual awakening. If we have not changed, we cannot be used to change others. To keep this program, we must pass it on to others. We cannot hoard it for ourselves. We may lose it unless we give it away. It cannot flow into us and stop; it must continue to flow into us as it flows out to others.

So ............

Am I always ready to give away what I have learned in A.A.?

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Just a Contemplation

Tolerance

Tolerate our quirks, our feelings, our reactions, our peculiarities, and our humanness. Tolerate our ups and downs, our resistance to change, and our struggling and sometimes awkward nature.

Tolerate our fears, our mistakes, our natural tendency to duck from problems, and pain. Tolerate our hesitancy to get close, expose ourselves, and be vulnerable.

Tolerate our need to occasionally feel superior, to sometimes feel ashamed, and to occasionally share love as an equal. Tolerate the way we progress - a few steps forward, and a couple back.

Tolerate our instinctive desire to control and how we reluctantly learn to practice detachment. Tolerate the way we say we want love, and then sometimes push others away. Tolerate our tendency to get obsessive, forget to trust God, and occasionally get stuck.

Some things we do not tolerate. Do not tolerate abusive or destructive behaviors toward others or ourselves.

Practice healthy, loving tolerance of ourselves, said one man. When we do, we'll learn tolerance for others. Then, take it one step further; learn that all the humanness we're tolerating is what makes ourselves and others beautiful.

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Tolerance & Acceptance

Tolerance is a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.

Tolerance is a virtue. It is a version of the golden rule in that, insofar as we want others to treat us decently, we need to treat them decently as well.

Acceptance in human psychology is a person's assent to the reality of a situation, recognizing a process or condition (often a negative or uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it, protest, or exit.

Acceptance goes a step beyond tolerance. If a sign of tolerance is a feeling of “I can live with X (behavior, religion, race, culture, etc.),” then acceptance moves beyond that in the direction of “X is OK.” You can tolerate something without accepting it, but you cannot accept something without tolerating it.

~ Jefferson M Fish

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Just a Few Quotes

"Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them." ~ Joshua Liebman

"Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others." ~ John F. Kennedy