MASTERING RESENTMENTS

[majestyjo]

As Bill Sees It



MASTERING RESENTMENTS, p. 286

We began to see that the world and its people had really
 dominated us. Under that unhappy condition, the wrongdoing of
 others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill us, because we
 could be driven back to drink through resentment. We saw that
 these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish
 them away.

This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us
 were perhaps spiritually sick. So we asked God to help us show
 them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would
 cheerfully grant a sick friend.

Today, we avoid retaliation or argument. We cannot treat sick
 people that way. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful.

We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 66-67

We are advised to pray for someone we resent.  Pray every day for two weeks and at the end of that two weeks, if the resentment hasn't gone away, pray for another two weeks.  The person may not change and get better, but we will.

[caressa222]

Remember standing on the corner, a block from home and my best friend's ex-husband went by in his van. He abused her and her son. I stood there completely paralyzed. I couldn't move, I was just seething. I had never met the man. I allowed him to rent space in my head. I finally went home, had 3 people that had come home with me from the morning meeting, and I asked them to leave. It took up the whole day. The only good thing was I didn't pick up. If my friends had stayed, I would have been using them to get rid of my feelings. I need to feel the feelings in order to let them go.

[caressa222]

Resentments can be stumbling blocks. Besides praying for the person we resent, we need to look at our part. What action on my part got me into the scenario that caused the resentment in the first place.

What could I have done or said differently? What lesson is there for me to learn?