Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. In the early years of what would become the 12 Step program, the originators worked one-on-one with suffering addicts, trying to help them gain sobriety. Their efforts … Continue reading
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Some say that the Eleventh Step is the least attended in the whole program. Once you’ve passed the Ninth Step, you may be restored … Continue reading
Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. Steps 10-12 are the so-called maintenance steps because they have to be practiced everyday. The previous nine steps are revisited from time to time, as the addict matures into ever-deepening levels of sobriety. The last three steps, however, are the way of life … Continue reading
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (Jas 2:17). Up to this point, except … Continue reading
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. The more we depend on God, the more we are free. When I first heard this statement from a wise teacher, I could not get my head around it. Independence equates to freedom, I thought, not … Continue reading
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. The shadow is the underbelly of the psyche, the vulnerable and messy side, the part that we would rather not see, let alone own. It is not bad yet our … Continue reading
Seeking Union 