In turning my will and my life over to the care of God (as I understood Him) isn’t always an easy thing to do. I keep taking back control - or did I never fully give it up to begin with?
If I need accounting advice I go to my accountant. If I need legal advice I go to a lawyer. And if I need cooking advice, I go to Ms. Ray.. lol. But if I need advice on beating this drinking thing, on becoming recovered from the state that I was in, from escaping death that I was living. Then I go to someone who knows how to count, leagize, cook and get sober. Period.
Do you rely compleyely on self sufficeincy? Or do you have aworking knowledge of the 12 Steps and have you formed a relationship with a Higher Power that works miricals in your life?
If you don’t have the faith, that God is everything, and without Him you have nothing (this is what the steps and the Bog Book teaches us) then you wil continue to hold on to your way, your thinking, and your ego, and you won’t get this. You will go back to you drama and chaos and live a life of futility and misery - ultimately getting dunk or blowing your brains out. This is not the fate that God wants for His child, He wants you to live, be happy, joyous and free, and experience all that He has made for you ioon this life.
If discussion strays from the step being studied, the chairperson will remind you of the purpose of this meeting. It is not the group’s intention to be intimidating or insulting to anyone. We only know that if you are talking about the problem, you cannot possibly be talking about the solution. We reserve the right of the chairperson to limit discussion to he step being studied tonight.
Good evening, everybody, this is the usual ________ night’s meeting of the _______ Men’s (and Women’s) Big Book Step Study Group and we will open the meeting in the usual manner with a moment of silence to do with as you wish.
Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn’t so. Personally, I’ve had moments where I’ll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I’ll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.
Having no reservations or no lurking notions of any kind. The process that brings us to purpose of being free, the freedom from self, the bondage of self. The self is the selfish needs of a person living in fear, the fear of not getting what we want or what we think we need, a fear that a loving God won’t fulfill these needs if we were to have a faith that works in our life.
This process is not easy, adversely it is not difficult, if you are willing, honest and open minded. If you are Not Willing, it is difficult. If you are Not Honest, it is Difficult. If you are Not Open Minded, it is Difficult. In fact, without these factors, it will be almost down right impossible, but since I’ve seen so many miracles in this program, I would be amiss to even suggest that, because with God all things are possible.
Two opposites cannot inhabit the same person simultaniously. Happy/Sad, Angry/Friendly, Depressed/Elated. So when we are working selflessly with another Alcoholic, and giving of ourselves, our time and our energy without any desired compensation, then the selfishness that used to encompass the whole of our character slowly begins to die off.