Saturday, May 13, 2017
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Maturity doesn't come with age or intellectual wisdom, only with love.
-- Ruth Casey
We may have thought being mature meant being "grown-up." This meant acting rationally, showing good judgment, no longer exhibiting childish behavior. It's doubtful that we ever considered the expression of love as an act of maturity. However, we are learning that the key to sustained growth is the ability to love one another and ourselves.
It seems so much easier to focus on others' faults than on their assets. In childhood we learned to compete with our classmates, and this taught us to be critical of one another. No teacher tested us on how we expressed love; rather, we worked on spelling and multiplication tables, and we were pitted against other students for the gold stars.
Now we are discovering how much more comfortable life is when we all get gold stars. We are handling every situation more sanely now that we have realized the gift of serenity that accompanies our expression of love.
My growth, my maturity in this program, can best be measured by my attitude today. Am I loving, or am I still competing with the others?
Maturity doesn't come with age or intellectual wisdom, only with love.
-- Ruth Casey
We may have thought being mature meant being "grown-up." This meant acting rationally, showing good judgment, no longer exhibiting childish behavior. It's doubtful that we ever considered the expression of love as an act of maturity. However, we are learning that the key to sustained growth is the ability to love one another and ourselves.
It seems so much easier to focus on others' faults than on their assets. In childhood we learned to compete with our classmates, and this taught us to be critical of one another. No teacher tested us on how we expressed love; rather, we worked on spelling and multiplication tables, and we were pitted against other students for the gold stars.
Now we are discovering how much more comfortable life is when we all get gold stars. We are handling every situation more sanely now that we have realized the gift of serenity that accompanies our expression of love.
My growth, my maturity in this program, can best be measured by my attitude today. Am I loving, or am I still competing with the others?
You are reading from the book:
A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey. © 1994 by Hazelden Foundation
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