AGO started a post with steps 1,2,3 in 30 seconds. But this statement : They are called steps 4-12, they are what align my will with Gods will. This is a real eye opener for me. A very Key statement. Just as a boat or a plane can be on automatic pilot, my life was on automatic pilot when i was drinking. Things on auto pilot NEED to be realigned, or they crash. I am an alcoholic who needs to remember my life was all about selfish impulsive living. It was a circle of destruction, doing the same thing everyday. It was a devastating life of hurting others and myself, day after day. In AA, the steps show us how break that deathly pattern. I pray to remember to align my will with Gods will for my life on a daily basis... an hourly basis, whatever it takes. Thank you AGO, for this reminder.
jj
-- Edited by jj on Saturday 22nd of May 2010 09:55:46 AM
Mahalo JJ....very supportive post and reminder. I can and do use these shares to keep me alert or I start to relapse into old thinking, feeling and behaviors and then my old spirit returns and I feel sick all over. The steps lead to a new door and behind that new door is a new life. (((hugs)))
Had originally commented on this, saying that someone in an AA meeting shared that they thought the actual working of step 3 did not happen until we worked steps 4-12, and this made sense to me. (How do I turn my will and life- thoughts and actions- over to God? Work the Steps and find out....) I like that concept.
I don't think this conflicts with that, but there is another aspect I found in teh 12& 12, which I am reading a lot right now in working the Steps right now. It is on page 39 in the 12& 12, and I am going to do a synopsis....
"So how, exactly, can the willing person continue to turn his will and his life over to the Higher Power? He made a beginning, we have seen, when he commenced to rely upon A.A. for the solution of his alcohol problem. By now, though, the chances are that he has become convinced that he has more problems than alcohol... they simply will not budge... they make him desparately unhappy and threaten his new-found sobriety... "At first that 'somebody' is likely to be his closestA.A. friend. He relies upon the assurance that his many troubles... can be solved, too. Of coursethesponsor(wow, cool) points out that our friend's life is still unmanageable even though he is sober, that after all, only a bare start on A.A.'s program has been made... More sobriety brought about by the admission of alcoholism and by attendance at a few meetings is very good indeed... (etc.) "Then it is explained that the other Steps of A.A.'s program can be practiced with success only when Step 3 is given a determined and persistent trial... many problems besides alcohol will not yield to a headlong assault powered by the individual alone. But now it appears that there are certain things which only the individual can do. All by himself, and in the light of his own circumstances, he needs to develop the quality of willingness. When he acquires willingness, he is the only one who can make the decision to exert himself. Trying to do this is an act of his own will."
Then it goes on, on page 41, to state that in times of emotional disturbances or indecision, we say the Serenity Prayer. I guess this is what the 12 & 12 describes as the working of Step 3, and that we really need to give Step 3 a try in application, based on willingness, in order to work the other steps.... (?)
Any thoughts?
-- Edited by jonijoni1 on Saturday 22nd of May 2010 10:49:46 PM
-- Edited by jonijoni1 on Saturday 22nd of May 2010 10:52:41 PM
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
