FAMILY OBLIGATIONS

Daily Reflections - June 11

. . . a spiritual life which does not include . . . family obligations may not be so perfect after all.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129

I  can  be  doing  great  in  the  program—applying  it  at meetings, at work, and in service activities—and find that things have gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand, but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress, but they don't—unless I show them. Do I neglect their needs and desires for my attention and concern? When I'm around them, am I irritable or boring? Are my "amends" a mumbled "Sorry," or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I preach to them, trying to reform or "fix" them? Have I ever really cleaned house with them! "The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it" (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83).