Children are surely one of God’s greatest gifts and truest challenges. To share your life with a child is to humble yourself so that you may learn from them and discover with them the beautiful secrets that are only uncovered in searching.
—Kathleen Tierney Crilly—
Humility accompanies every experience wherein we let ourselves fully listen to others, to learn from them, to be changed by their words, their presence. Each opportunity we take to be fully present to another person, totally with them in mind and spirit, will bless us while it blesses them. Offering and receiving the gift of genuine attention is basic to the emotional growth of every human being.
Before recovering, many of us so suffered from obsessive self-centered pity that we seldom noted the real needs or pain of the people close to us. We closed ourselves off, wallowing in our own selfish worries, and our growth was stunted. Some days we still wallow. But a new day has dawned.
The Steps offer us new understanding. They are helping us look beyond ourselves to all the
“children of God” in our daily lives. From each of them we have many secrets to learn. I will be joyous today. Many secrets about life are mine to learn if I will stay close to all the people who cross my path.
I will be mindful they are there because they have something to give me. I will be ready to receive it.