6th month thoughts

Reflection of Step 6 work for June 09

75 % success rate for the original 12 steps www.aabacktobasics.com Seems to me that taking the step the way it worked so well in the past is still a good way to do it!

Spiritual work requires spiritual relationship to both God and other spiritual workers. Two way prayer done with a partner is far more successful than prayer done without one (Scott's experience anyway). The human accountability factor comes in here for me. I need to be challenged and when I embark in partnership in any spiritual area, I am far more likely to see it through than if I do it on my own.

Acceptance is Freedom: wherever I am at the end of the 6th step work is OK, with or without my problems having been removed. I trust that Gos will do exactly what needs to be done in my life and that whatever I am left with at the end of it is what I need for the rest of the journey. Because I am not alone in my Spiritual quest, I do not have to blame myself for its outcome. IT IS RIGHT!!

ESTEEM or ADDICTION, is it possible to have both (I mean healthy self-esteem)? If I am not satisfied with my life, what am I clinging to or grasping for that I feel will relieve the dissatisfaction. Whatever it is (material, lifestyle, financial security, love, sex, relationship, substance, power, prestige etc), am I READY (step 6) to accept life with or without it and have I prayed for this READINESS (step 6). Is there anything along these lines that could be construed as a defect or flaw; anything that is being IDOLIZED? Would I feel better about me (less shame-more esteem) if I was not hungering for these things?? Go easy Scott, Rome was not built in a day!!!

Thorns can work there way out. I do not have to give up hope because I must retain one or more(thorn(s)/flaws) for this moment in time. I must once again remember, there is but this moment and my only job is to live it to its fullest disregarding the previous and the next moments.
Yesterday... Today... and Tomorrow
There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of these days is Yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word said. Yesterday is gone.
The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow's sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds - but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.
This leaves only one day - Today. Any man can fight the battles of just one day; it is only when you or I add the burdens of those two awful eternities - Yesterday - and Tomorrow - that we break down.
It is not the experience of Today that drives men mad - it is the remorse or bitterness for something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.
Let us, therefore, live but One Day at a Time.

Step 7 SPELLS HUMILITY.......................! Get ready to humble!

scott@SharingTheBurden.ca
http://sharingtheburden.blogspot.com/
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