Judge Not. . .

AT times we run into disappointments. Someone who we thought was an ideal member of AA suddenly takes on a different roll. We fail to realize or remember that we are only a group of individuals and that we all have different ways of staying sober and working the program. So when we hear something about a guy who has been a leader in our organization and a guy whom we have for many years looked up to and respected, it makes it hard for us to accept some of the things that we think of in regard to our Twelve Steps. Then we suddenly realize that it doesn't make any difference to us, that the way some one else stays sober is none of our business. The only thing that should concern us is how do we stay sober and practice the principles of the Twelve Steps in our daily program. When we look in the glass that is the guy we have to satisfy and not the other guys who maybe we can't quite understand how they can do the things that they have done. So after all, why should we even so much as let the thought enter our heads that that guy isn't doing right. If he isn't, he is the guy that will know; he's the guy that he has to satisfy. If we let what he does bother us, then we are in danger of taking a drink because the old resentments must be coming back again; and they are something that all of us have been bothered with for years. Let's just be thankful that we are sober and that we have our Twelve Steps to turn to and show us the way to go on living a good kind of life regardless of the things that we hear and see going on around us. After all, who are we to judge? Maybe to some this is hard to do, but I think it is the hard things we have to do that denote our growth on the AA program which is our salvation.