|
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly
followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who
cannot or will not completely give themselves to this
simple program, usually men and women who are
constitutionally incapable of being honest with
themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at
fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are
naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of
living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are
less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from
grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do
recover if they have the capacity to be honest
Our stories disclose in
a general way what we used be like, what happened, and
what we are like now. If you have decided that you want
what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get
it—then you are ready to take certain
steps.
At some of these we
balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way.
But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command,
we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very
start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas
and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal
with alcohol—cunning baffling, powerful! Without help it
is too much for us. But there is One who has all
power—that One is God. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed
us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His
protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we
took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
| 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.
|
Many of us exclaimed, "What an
order! I can't go through with it!" Do not be discouraged.
No one among us has been able to maintain anything like
perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints.
The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual
lines. The principles we have set down are guides to
progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than
spiritual perfection.
Our
description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic,
and our personal adventures before and after make clear
three pertinent ideas:
-
(a) That we were alcoholic and could
not manage our own lives.
-
(b) That probably no human power
could have relieved our alcoholism.
-
(c) That God could and would if He
were sought.
|
