Life and times of a new farmer/homesteader
The Twelve Steps, and the Promises. {
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Monday, January 22, 2007
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This is here for me, but it may be good for anyone who has or knows someone who has a problem with addiction.Some I have known wonder how I got away from drugs and alcohol. Really, it's a long story, which I will tell someday. But to begin, it would be good to mention the Twelve steps, and the Promises. It's good to know that all is not hopeless for us addicts, and anyone who has been touched by addiction (directly, or indirectly,) should be aware of the twelve steps. The word alcohol in the first step (the only place alcohol is mentioned,) can be replaced by drugs, gambling, food, sex, or just about anything. I think you will get the jist of it. Italics are from the original text, not my edit. I didn't edit this at all. Twelve 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 a 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 others, and to practice these principles in
all our affairs. ------------------------------------
My favorite part of any meeting (and I
have been to alot of them,) is the reading of the promises, from the
Big Book of A.A., pages 83-84:
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development,
we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know
a new freedom and a
new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish
to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we
will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will
see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness
and selfpity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things
and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear
of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will
intuitively know how to handle situations which used to
baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us
what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They
are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes
slowly. They will always materialize if we work
for them. ------------------------------- If you know someone with alcohol or drug
problems, get a copy of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and put
it somewhere they can find it. When the time is right for them,
they will find it, they will read it, and hopefully they will begin the
path to recovery.
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