Sunday, September 20, 2009

the twelve steps

I find these 12 steps could and should be followed by everyone who wants to improve their quality of life, not limited to addicts. Being a friend of Bill offers the fellowship support and hope which every person could benefit from (notice we). Bill's friend, Dr. Bob, offered a prescription for alcoholics in 1937 - simply this:

1. trust God 2. get clean 3. help others

It is Sunday, a perfect day to begin a new way of believing and living.

1. We admitted we were powerless over (insert here) - 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 understand 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 understand 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 others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference. Enough said. xo