I must learn to give those I love the right to make their own mistakes and recognize them as theirs alone.

Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change. And when we are right, make us easy to live with.” Peter Marshall.

While these loved ones may not meet our expectations, it is our expectations, not our loved ones, that have let us down.

In attempting to protect ourselves, we let our personalities slip away until we were emotionally numb. Struggling.

We are powerless over another’s alcoholism. We didn’t cause the disease. We can’t control it. And we can’t cure it.

We have a right to expect more from life than mere survival.

The process of turning our life and will over to the care of God in Step Three begins by working the rest of the Steps and it involves more than giving up our defects. It involves giving God our assets, too.