!Good is good and the smallest ray of hope is significant! Step one, representing the beginning of the hope trail, offers this glimmer to the hurting soul!
I appreciate the psalmist David's sentiment in Psalm 38 verse 8 where he says "....My groans come from an anguished heart". Seems he is accepting responsibility for where he is in life, yet he is so tormented by the turmoil in his heart that groans are the best prayer he can offer. Our Serenity 12 step program refers us to this scripture in reference to Step one, as David must go back to square one, let go of his foolish efforts to control his life without God's help, and admit to the awful condition that his behaviour has gotten him into. End of the line or beginning of hope, depending on whether a Spiritual solution is rejected or accepted.
Although we officially refer to step 12 as the-spreading the word step, we see here, that planting the step one seed of hope, is really where it begins. This seed can be planted by the newest member of a 12 step program, probably far more effectively than by a veteran for the simple reason that the new hope is still fresh, alive and contagious. As I keep hearing AA speakers saying "you must give it away to keep it". The more raw the hurt, the greater the saving potential of sharing the burden! "Lord help us to share our hope, as we receive it, that more may find the way sooner!"
SCOTT@SharingTheBurden.ca
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12 Steps to Spiritual Recovery!
1- We admitted we were powerless over others and our dependencies-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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