Dr. Twerski's Sober Thought - October

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October 3

Learn From Your Mistakes

'I God created humans, but human beings continue to create themselves. People are complex organisms, composed of genes that constitute the past; impressions of the environment which include our parents, teachers, and friends; and our own actions. There may not be much we can do about the first two components, but our actions are within our domain-to do or not to do. The writer Oscar Wilde said, 'It is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.' Anything we do does not remain external to us, but becomes part of our character. A good deed makes us better, and a bad deed makes us worse. The changes that our actions make in ourselves are not cast in stone and can be undone. This is why amends work and why they are necessary .Unless we make amends, we allow the effects that a wrong act had on our personality to remain. Even though we would not repeat these wrong acts, it is as though we served delicious food with dirty hands. Making amends is a cleansing process.Whatever we were created is the raw material of which we are made. With our actions we fashion ourselves into the ultimate object.