August 31
After the Complaint
A member criticizes the way we handled something. Their tone is sharp, and several details are wrong. It would be easy to dismiss the whole complaint. Yet tucked inside it may be one fact we need: someone was left uninformed, a promise was forgotten, or a decision reached further than we realized. Their manner does not settle whether that fact is true.
Service sometimes asks us to separate an unpleasant delivery from useful information. We do not have to accept insults or agree with every accusation to acknowledge a specific mistake. Nor does one mistake establish that everything we did was careless. Prayer and a little time may help us hear more accurately. If a correction is owed, we can make it without requiring the other person to become gracious first. The work benefits when truth is allowed to arrive through an imperfect messenger.
What part of a criticism deserves attention even though I dislike how it was delivered?
God, help me hear the part that is mine.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX, p. C-30.