May 20, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, May 20, 2018
Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Treat your friends as you would a bank account – refrain from drawing too heavily on either.
–Samuel Johnson

“You know,” somebody admitted, “I’ve never really allowed myself to have good friends.

“I always put myself in two extreme roles. Either I think it’s my duty to ‘save’ everyone, or I think it’s someone else’s function to ‘save’ me. I set myself up for very dissatisfactory relationships that way. I don’t grow very much nor do the people I’m involved with grow much. We get locked into Parent-Child, Teacher-Student, and Counselor-Client kinds of roles.

“I’m tired of empty and lopsided friendships. I want good friends, not parasites or Messiahs running my life. I want friends I can just be me with and not worry whether I’m one-up or one-down on them. I want friends who will accept me as I am and not expect me to have all the answers for all the questions all the time.”

TODAY I will examine what I expect of myself and my friendships. As a friend, do I expect myself to give all the advice and have all the answers? Do I expect my friends to take care of me, and give me all the answers? If my friendships are not satisfactory, I will work on enlarging my concept of what a friend is. I will also work on improving the quality of my own friendship.

You are reading from the book:

The Reflecting Pond by Liane Cordes. © 1981 by Hazelden Foundation

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