[bluidkiti]

From: Keep It Simple

Pray without resentment in your heart. ---The Little Red Book

Resentment is anger that we don't want to turn over to our Higher Power.
Sometimes we want to keep our anger. Maybe we want to "get even." it's hard to be spiritual and full of anger at the same time. When we hold on to anger, it turns into self-will. We get angry from time to time. This is normal. But we now have a program to help us let go of anger. We also know that stored-up anger can drive us back to alcohol and other drugs. Instead of trying to "get even," let's work at keeping anger out of our hearts.

Prayer for the Day
I pray without anger in my heart. Higher Power, I give You my anger. Have me work for justice, instead of acting like a judge.

Action For the Day
I'll list any resentments I now have. I'll talk about them at my next
meeting. This is the best way to turn resentments over to my Higher Power.

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Letting Go of Resentments

The story is told of a merchant in a small town who had identical twin sons. The boys worked for their father in the department store he owned and, when he died, they took over the store.

Everything went well until the day a dollar bill disappeared. One of the brothers had left the bill on the cash register and walked outside with a customer. When he returned, the money was gone.

He asked his brother, “Did you see that dollar bill on the cash register?” His brother replied that he had not. But the young man kept probing and questioning. He would not let it alone. “Dollar bills just don’t get up and walk away! Surely you must have seen it!” There was subtle accusation in his voice. Tempers began to rise. Resentment set in. Before long, a deep and bitter chasm divided the young men. They refused to speak. They finally decided they could no longer work together and a dividing wall was built down the center of the store. For twenty years hostility and bitterness grew, spreading to their families and to the community.

Then one day a man in an automobile licensed in another state stopped in front of the store. He walked in and asked the clerk, “How long have you been here?”

The clerk replied that he’d been there all his life. The customer said, “I must share something with you. Twenty years ago I was “riding the rails” and came into this town in a boxcar. I hadn’t eaten for three days. I came into this store from the back door and saw a dollar bill on the cash register. I put it in my pocket and walked out. All these years I haven’t been able to forget that. I know it wasn’t much money, but I had to come back and ask your forgiveness.”

The stranger was amazed to see tears well up in the eyes of this middle- aged man. “Would you please go next door and tell that same story to the man in the store?” he said. Then the man was even more amazed to see two middle-aged men, who looked very much alike, embracing each other and weeping together in the front of the store.

After twenty years, the brokenness was mended. The wall of resentment that divided them came down.

It is so often the little things that finally divide people- words spoken in haste; criticisms; accusations; resentments. And once divided, they may never come together again.

The solution, of course, is to let it go. There is really nothing particularly profound about learning to let go of little resentments. But for fulfilling and lasting relationships, letting them go is a must. Refuse to carry around bitterness and you may be surprised at how much energy you have left for building bonds with those you love.

Received in email

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Resentments are like pissing on your own leg,
you are the only one who feels it,
and everyone else sees it.

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DAYS OF HEALING DAYS OF JOY
? APRIL 14 ?

They may not deserve forgiveness, but I do.
-AnneP.

Forgiveness is an act, not a feeling. Though it may generate feelings, forgiveness is an exercise of the will.
When we forgive, we refuse to be further damaged by the wrongdoing of others.

A refusal to forgive is called a resentment. And the victim of resentment is always the one who carries it.
The people we refuse to forgive may neither know nor care about our resentment.

To hang on to a resentment is to harbor a thief in the heart. By the minute and the hour, resentment steals the joy we could treasure now and remember forever. It pilfers our energy to celebrate life-to face others as messengers of grace rather than ambassadors of doom. We victimize ourselves when we withhold forgiveness.

Today, I win remember that forgiveness is a giver and resentment is a taker. Because I deserve it, I win forgive old hurts. I will see forgiveness as a gift to myself.

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"Hanging onto resentment is like letting someone you despise live rent-free
in your head." - Ann Landers

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You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Resentments

When we hang on to resentments, we poison ourselves. As compulsive overeaters, we cannot afford resentment, since it exacerbates our disease. If we do not get rid of our anger and bitterness, we will suffer more than anyone. Seeking revenge will harm ourselves in the long run.

Many of us have carried around old grudges which caused us to reach for food when we thought about them. We don't need the food and we don't need the grudges, either. When we give away the resentments, we are that much lighter in body and in spirit. Now that we have found OA, we have a way to get rid of the animosity and indignation which has been poisoning our system.

Taking inventory and making amends is an essential part of burying resentments. We need to first be consciously aware of them before we can give them away. These steps usually need to be taken again and again as negative material threatens our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Take away my resentments, Lord.

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A resentment is like pissing on your own leg,
everyone else sees it
and your the only one who feels it.


Resentment is from the Latin,
meaning to "feel again."


When someone's living inside your head,
you are out of your mind.


Resentment is a cup of poison
we pour for our enemy
and drink ourselves.

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Walk In Dry Places

When Resentment Returns
Inventory

It's surprising enough and even humiliating to find an old resentment flaring up, sometimes years after we thought it had been put to rest. When that happens, we wonder how thorough we really were in releasing the resentment in the first place.
The secret of handling this problem is to turn the old resentment over to our Higher Power without wasting time wondering why it came up again. We need to deal with it as if it were a brand-new problem,; and in a sense, it is.
As for questioning our past sincerity, that too is a waste of time. We are always trying to do our best with the understanding we have for each day. Being too hard on ourselves does not make it easier to practice our program. Resentments can and do return but they don't have to destroy us.

I'll realize today that I'am always susceptible to any of my ongoing problems, including resentment. Fortunately, I have my program for dealing with them when they occur.

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On the slope of Long's Peak in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree.
Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years. It was a
seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador, and half grown when the
Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. During the course of its long life it was
struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and
storms of four centuries thundered past it. It survived them all. In the
end, however, and army of beetles attacked the tree and leveled it to the
ground. The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed
the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks. A
forest giant, which age had not withered, not lightening blasted, nor storms
subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them
between his forefinger and his thumb. Aren't we like that battling giant of
the forest? Don't we manage somehow to survive the rare storms and
avalanches and lightning blasts of life, only to let our hearts be eaten out
by resentments?

A.S.A.P.