Post by THE SEVENTH PROMISE on Mar 1, 2004 4:43:36 GMT -5
The seventh promise of sobriety is, Self-seeking will slip away. This promise becomes one of the benefits of sobriety, when we are aware that we ahve made spiritual progress.
Before recovery, we always insisted our drinking was nobody's business. Our attitude constantly put us ont he defensive. We were sure we had to protect our rights. Self-seeking and self-indulgence seems wholly justified.
In recovery, we realize self-centeredness created that stubborn denial that kept us from surrendering. We realized how much help we need. Our grandiosity has to go.
It was natural while we wer drinking to exalt our egos. If we are self-made successes in a professional field, we can easily begin to worship oru creators - ourselves. Egotists devote little time to character growth. any potential change for the better is restrained by a lack of humility, even when a drinker grows tired of misery. An active alcoholic lacks open-mindedness. Though often wrong, drinkers never doubt they are right. Only when admision and acceptance show them they are just human, no more or less, are they ready to welcome helping hands.
Acceptance in recovery is without reservation, but never with the feeling we are simplysresigned to our disease. We see self-seeking as only an inferiority complex turned insde out. As our self-centeredness slips away, humilty will make a quiet entrance. The recovering alcoholic becomes teachable and will never stop learning new truths.
As our self-seeking diminishes, humility allows us to listen. Arrogant persons are not ready to learn. Unless we hear we cannot grow. One early lesson for us is that sobriety does not make A.A. members "fellows in virtue" but sharers of character defects who are helping one another lose those faults.
We find that change is a must for us. Without it, we cannot take the vital inventories that identify our shortcomings. Without change, old ideas will dominate our lives. All change must come from within ourselves. Nobody else can alter us. Not even A.A. plays that role; it simply gives us the tools to change ourselves.
Results depend on how much we want to change, how had we are willing to work, and how open to advice from experienced friends our minds are. If we take the suggested Steps of recovery, it will be impossible not to change. In making changes, it is well to remember the adage, "You must fist empty the old, dirty water from the pitcher before you can fill it with new, clean water."
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I have found that these promises are true for those who are dry drunks, people who have just put the plug in the jug, and can also happen to me if I become complacent and lose my daily vigilence.
Not only acceptance of our disease but of our life is needed to bring about that spiritual change which moves us ahead in our recovery.
Before recovery, we always insisted our drinking was nobody's business. Our attitude constantly put us ont he defensive. We were sure we had to protect our rights. Self-seeking and self-indulgence seems wholly justified.
In recovery, we realize self-centeredness created that stubborn denial that kept us from surrendering. We realized how much help we need. Our grandiosity has to go.
It was natural while we wer drinking to exalt our egos. If we are self-made successes in a professional field, we can easily begin to worship oru creators - ourselves. Egotists devote little time to character growth. any potential change for the better is restrained by a lack of humility, even when a drinker grows tired of misery. An active alcoholic lacks open-mindedness. Though often wrong, drinkers never doubt they are right. Only when admision and acceptance show them they are just human, no more or less, are they ready to welcome helping hands.
Acceptance in recovery is without reservation, but never with the feeling we are simplysresigned to our disease. We see self-seeking as only an inferiority complex turned insde out. As our self-centeredness slips away, humilty will make a quiet entrance. The recovering alcoholic becomes teachable and will never stop learning new truths.
As our self-seeking diminishes, humility allows us to listen. Arrogant persons are not ready to learn. Unless we hear we cannot grow. One early lesson for us is that sobriety does not make A.A. members "fellows in virtue" but sharers of character defects who are helping one another lose those faults.
We find that change is a must for us. Without it, we cannot take the vital inventories that identify our shortcomings. Without change, old ideas will dominate our lives. All change must come from within ourselves. Nobody else can alter us. Not even A.A. plays that role; it simply gives us the tools to change ourselves.
Results depend on how much we want to change, how had we are willing to work, and how open to advice from experienced friends our minds are. If we take the suggested Steps of recovery, it will be impossible not to change. In making changes, it is well to remember the adage, "You must fist empty the old, dirty water from the pitcher before you can fill it with new, clean water."
========================================
I have found that these promises are true for those who are dry drunks, people who have just put the plug in the jug, and can also happen to me if I become complacent and lose my daily vigilence.
Not only acceptance of our disease but of our life is needed to bring about that spiritual change which moves us ahead in our recovery.
. I will be back looking for Lin and others.