June 27, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Thursday, June 27, 2024

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” — Step Four

“If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies …We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 5 (“How It Works”), p 70.

Today, if the Fourth I took yesterday is not “a lot,” chances are I have not been honest and thorough. More likely, I have been dishonest by not wanting to accept responsibility for damage I inflicted or by seeing myself as I hope instead of how I am. But putting to paper our misdeeds and injury to others is not sufficient. We are asked to perceive our defects as futile and fatal and begin to understand their damage. Further, we are compelled to begin learning “tolerance, patience and good will toward all men …” and become willing to clear the wreckage. If I do not understand all this, the Fourth I took yesterday may have been premature and dishonest. Today, I seek the understanding and gut honesty to do Step Four as it is intended. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024