We took STEP 6 today

A small group gathered for our Tuesday 12 step meeting and we decided to take the step 6, rather than talk about it.

We shared scripture on step 6 from The Life Recovery Bible, talked at length about the grieving involved in "letting go" of both defects and the pain we experience when doing so (emotional and often physical as well).

Next we asked the question as taught in the big book of AA. "Are you now ready to have God remove from you all the things you have admitted are objectionable?" We answered "yes" and according to the original 12 steppers, we had taken step 6. See www.backtobasics.org for info on taking the steps in this manner.

Note when taking step 6 (SEE STEP 6 BELOW) we will likely have to ask God to help us be willing to let go where we tend to cling to things. We may also find (I do anyway) that as we pray about individual problems, it is sometimes revealed to us that something greater is the real issue. Two way prayer (lots of writing and asking for clarification) is when many of us get our greatest results here!

NEED HELP WITH TWO-WAY PRAYER?
JULIA@SharingTheBurden.ca
SCOTT@SharingTheBurden.ca
http://sharingtheburden.blogspot.com/
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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 God.
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 God 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, 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 and to practice these principles in all our affairs.









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.