SCOTT@SharingTheBurden.cahttp://sharingtheburden.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/sharingburden
www.SharingTheBurden.ca
step 1- We admitted we were powerless over others-that our lives had become unmanageable.
Powerlessness is mighty!
Recognition of this fact and awareness of the underlying meaning is everything!
If I recognize my powerlessness, where do I get the power to go on?
If I accept my powerlessness, the tremendous burdens of my challenges can be released!
In my state of powerlessness, where will I look for direction?
If I am powerless what is ticking inside of me, what are some of the answers to "who am I?" or "what is my purpose?" and how do I accomplish anything in a relationship without power?
These are some thoughts/questions I ponder as I try to think back to the original look at step1. Now words like "keep coming back" given as an answer to questions, starts to make some sense. This is especially true today as i see the 12 step program as fully Spiritual from 1 thru 12. How could any person really answer a question that requires a Spiritual answer? Maybe the only answer is "if you keep coming back-and take all of these steps, we believe you will discover Spiritual solutions to your problems, because the original 12 steppers and the millions who followed them, tell us that they all did!"
So as we say @ Sharing The Burden-if you want Spiritual solutions to your dilemma and want to join us in another year of 12 step healing/renewal, come on along and join us in our "search and discovery of Spirituality 2010" trip.
Step 1 has become bigger with every other step along the way . At step 12 I find myself needing that sense of powerlessness more than ever in order to share my story of Spiritual growth with newcomers. To believe; to really believe in a God who is in charge, I must accept my part as being simply aware, being prayerful and following the Spiritual direction that I believe to be answers to that prayer. My program is simple, not easy!
12 Steps to Spiritual Recovery!
1- We admitted we were powerless over others-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 that Power.
4- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5- Admitted to this Power, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6- Were entirely ready to have this Power remove all these defects of character.
7- Humbly asked the Power 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 this Power, praying only for knowledge of His/Her 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 and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
(Many 12 step programs use the word God where we have written Power)
Various Claims of Promise from 12 Steppers
1-We will find ourselves worthy of love and able to love others. We will not lose ourselves.
2-Courage and fellowship will replace fear.
3-Our lives will yield hope to share with others.
4-We will come to know the vastness of our emotions without being in slavery to them.
5-Learning to forgive, we will no longer be bound by our secrets to live in shame.
6-Serenity and peace will have meaning for us.
7-We will allow our lives and the lives of those we love to flow day by day with spiritual ease, balance and grace.
8-Attitude and outlook will be renewed.
9-Intuition will guide us to handle situations that were impossible in the past.
10-We will not regret the past recognizing its value for other sufferers.
11-Selfish interests will fall away as we gain interest in others.
12-Faith and gratitude will replace fear as we realize that a Greater Power is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
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