In the Step Book it says and this is paraphrased, a continuous look
back at our liabilities and a real desire to grow by this means are
necessities for us. We alcoholics have learned this the hard way. More
experienced people of course, in all times and places, have practiced
unsparing self survey and criticism. For the wise have always known
that no one can make much of one's life until self searching becomes a
regular habit, until one is able to ADMIT AND ACCEPT what is found.
Through my daily inventory I can now admit and accept that my character
defects are a part of my human nature, a part of my nature that cannot
manifest itself if I am living in the will of God. I have come to
understand that my human nature is defected and I must accept this about
myself.
In the program of Alcoholics Anonymous it
is often said "let go and let God." The let go is turning from the
incessant prompts of our human nature and the let God is living in and
thereby manifesting the will of God. In the will of God, the nature of
God, our character defects cannot be manifested in our behavior and it
is here that our nature has been perfected as we have become the human
being that God created us to be.
Self survey is a powerful tool of recovery.
The first admission to my innermost self was that I was an alcoholic. Unable to stop drinking even though I knew it was a manifestation of powerlessness and self-loathing. That admission and acceptance was the first step in my recovery. Through the Twelve Steps, I have come to know, love and trust that God's will for me is to live in His Will. It is only there that I can live in peace regardless of the outer circumstances of my life. That, I believe, is the spiritual awakening that is the result of incorporating The Steps into my life. Reliance has proven to be a far better way than defiance.
ReplyDeleteMichael Bill W in the chapter of the Big Book titled Bill's Story states "simple but not easy a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self centeredness. We had to turn to the light in all things." Through self survey, our Tenth Step, one discovers how the self centeredness is manifested in our behavior even though we don't want that to occur. But the continued occurrence brings us to a place where we become willing to surrender to the will of God....Thank You...Armand
ReplyDeleteMy human nature has been running wild since I have gotten away from the program. There are days I can bite my teeth and force my way through it. There are nights I toss and turn because I can not control the thoughts my human nature puts in my head. I have been sober for months but dry can be just as bad as drinking. I need to get god back in my life.
ReplyDeletePaul my prayer for you is that you surrender your human will to the only force that can heal you. As it says in How It Works "that One is God may you find Him now."...Thanks...Armand
ReplyDeleteThis comment is from A Grateful Recovering Alcoholic
ReplyDeleteArmand,
For this alcoholic, it bears repeating that the 12 Steps of AA are not so much the assimilation of yet another form of human pedagogy added to the ever expanding and overly burdensome "rules of life." That understanding only delivers me into a new form of slavery powered by white knuckle determination and sheer force of will. Didn't work before, won't work now... The 12 Steps of AA is the overwhelming effervescent witness of those who had come, in abject desperation, to the end of themselves and made a Divinely inspired choice to accept the one true relationship that God had been lovingly offering since before the first moment of conception in their mothers womb.. It is the true witness of the journey, boldly proclaimed by those early members who accepted this universal call, "Come to Me. All you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest." and continued to walk with Him one day at a time until they finally met Him face to face. To that miraculous journey I say, Amen...
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic
A Grateful Recovering Alcoholic The Tenth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous is one way for us to observe our behavior and if needed to rectify through the Steps of AA. One can know that our human power is of no avail in the altering of our behavior yet continue to act as if it is. This Step shows me that the surrender is incomplete and to seek God in a way I had not before...Thank you...Armand
ReplyDeleteThis comment is from Ira
ReplyDelete"Admit and Accept"-- Looking back, and now that I've re-committed my self, and my life, and my Will to God and the Program, I think I admitted my character defects, but never really "accepted" them. Now, being here, I've "accepted' my character defects, and know that I have to live in God's will for me, and not live out my own Will. I want to be the person that God created me to be.
Ira