Feb. 26, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

The Serenity Prayer

Step by Step
Friday, Feb. 26, 2016
 
Today, understand we cannot take Step Seven of asking a higher power to "remove our shortcomings" without first surrendering completely to the Sixth Step of being "entirely ready." If we cling onto some character defect such as fear, resentment, anger, self-pity or remorse, we probably have not been thoroughly honest in our Fourth Step of "a searching and fearless moral inventory ..." Some - if not all - of those character defects likely triggered our drinking, at first abusively and eventually compulsively, and holding onto them even with an honest desire to let go of them may threaten the quality of our sobriety - maybe sobriety itself. An "honest desire" to surrender our defects, then, is not sufficient. Because the program is one of action, we must be active in releasing our defects and not taking them back. Our thoughts, feelings and actions of yesterday influence our subsequent tomorrows; thus, what we do today may well impact tomorrow, and a history of carrying from yesterday into tomorrow is one of self-destruction. Today, if we are mired in defects that we know contributed to our drinking, let's review our Fourth to see if it wasn't as "searching and fearless" as it should be. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016