Experience, Strength And Hope
can't change what others do or say, only my reactions and my responses to them. I play the game of responding with love, even though I don't always feel that love right away. I play the game of telling the truth, about myself , what I perceive and how I feel, even though I would rather turn my back on the harsh realities of life at times. I do this because I know that what I face, honestly, openly, ceases to be a threat and becomes a healthy challenge. I play the game of facing each challenge with good humor and a willingness for change, for I have learned that if you desire change, you must open the door to it and accept it with happy anticipation. Sometimes those changes bring hardship and struggle, but with humor and acceptance I have found that I have the strength and the hope to trudge on and discover happy endings and a happy destiny.
If you want what I have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it then you will need to take these simple steps that those of us in recovery have discovered not only work, but work wonders if you honestly and thoroughly work them:
- 1.We admitted we were powerless over all our addictive behaviors, 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 others who still suffer, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.