Forming And Sustaining Relationships

        
         The chapter on Step Four in "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" describes our dysfunctional relations well, "But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most.  We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them.  The primary fact that we failed to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being."
          I went through my entire life unable to interact with others on an intimate level. I was incapable of allowing others to experience me as I truly was and I was unwilling to allow others to share with me their true self.  I would present to the world what I thought the world needed to see about me so I could feel good about myself.  In the past, the relationships I did have were of the type which, when I was done taking from them what I wanted and they were done taking from me what they wanted, the relationship was over.  I was incapable of FORMING AND SUSTAINING RELATIONSHIPS in an honest and caring way with other human beings.
        The greatest gift I have received from developing a personal relationship with God through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is the ability to interact with other human beings at an honest and true level - therefore FORMING AND SUSTAINING RELATIONSHIPS that are caring and loving.  This occurs when we are the human being God created us to be, thereby maximizing our human potential