Aug. 5, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, Aug. 5, 2013

“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.” - Step 11

Today, I need to revisit the 11th Step with the understanding that this Step is the logical extension of the Third - “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him” - and it, like all the Steps, are daily maintenance tasks and never a one-time shot. I am living in the Program on a day-by-day reprieve from the gutter and am not guaranteed anything more regardless of the number of sober 24 Hours I have. While one person’s recovery Program differs from that of another person, all have at least one common thread: the surrender of self-will to the Higher Power of our individual understanding, and Step 11 is the one that compels us to hand over our self-will and ask for the will of our Higher Power over our own. And by daily seeking a power greater than our own, we may be at the same time improving our conscious contact with our Higher Power. Today, I remind myself that I have to hand over my self-will daily because to take it back and try life my way is the formula for a slip or relapse. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013