The Twelve Steps

[lildee]

The Twevle Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that
our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves
could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over
to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human
being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these
defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or
others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we
were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. 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.

12. 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.

[tired]

Dear Lildee I have been sending posts from eor to my son at the very least I know hes reading them thanks for this post If you can finf the time it would be great if you could give a brief explanation for each as how to start to work each step i will also send to him thank you love tired

[lildee]

Hi Tired,

Unfortunately there is no brief explanation , whole books have been written about the Steps. Two of the best. The Big Book from AA and the Steps We Took by Joe McQ.

Love Arlene

[tired]

Dear Lildee thanks for answering actually i read on and your next post gives some food for thought thanks love tired

[caressa]

Dear tired,

Many peoplee think they know the way the Steps should be worked. I feel that it is something between the person and the God of their understanding.

I remember asking for directions, and people saying, "keep coming back."

Personally, I had to read the Steps, get to know my disease, to apply what I read to my life, and just try to the best of my ability, one day at a time.

As I kept coming, I started to heal. As I healed, my awareness grew and my ability to apply these tools to my life grew and I was able to practice, practice, practice.

To me it is a living program, there is no end. When I get to Step Twelve, where do I need to go?

For me I do the Step One, Two, Three every morning. I can't, God can, just for today I choose to let Him.

Steps Four to Nine, I practice when my past shows up in today. That mean writing and sharing my feelings and emotions as they appear and make themselves known. Most of it was rooted in my childhood, and through the years gained compounded interest, today I try to make payments by applying them to the principle instead of the arrears.

Steps Ten to Twelve I try to live on a daily basis, no matter what. They are my daily maintenance.

I was told to keep it simple. Don't use, go to meetings and work the Steps into your life.