When asking God, or anyone, for something, try asking with humility. Step 7
Remember, we are asking and not demanding. There is a difference and knowing the difference is, many times, the difference between receiving or not. So, with this in mind, let’s move on.
STEP 7 says “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” Recently, when talking about the 6th Step, we referred to character defects and today we say shortcomings. “OK, what’s the difference?” Nary a thing!
When Bill W. wrote this, he didn’t want to have anyone to get turned off by using repetitive language. We had been turned off for a long time by folks repeating ideas endlessly. Now it was difficult to even listen.
Most of the repeated words were NO, DON’T, and WHY. I believe that the use of these two terms is just another tool that Bill used to have more people engage in conversations, many for the first time.
REQUESTING V. DEMANDING I have heard for years when discussing the 6th and 7th Steps, “What is the difference?” and then everyone puts in their two cents worth. This is exactly what I am doing right now.
NOW, ENTER FEAR We have discussed how this is a simple program for complicated folks and so I look for the simple in all of AA. In the Big Book, when referring to the inventory and defects of character, it places the word FEAR in parentheses after each and every defect.
Many times we did not even know where the fears were coming from. Just by working our programs each and every day to the best of our ability, our fears slowly melt away and are replaced by feelings of peace and serenity.
THIS IS A WOW! “I have been working my program to the best of my ability for a week now and it has been a couple of hours since I last thought of a drink.” “I have been working my program to the best of my ability for a month now and so and so got into my face and I just dismissed it or smiled instead of smacking him.”
All of these little things add up, and much faster since we started taking the fearful attitudes out of our consciousness. When I finally worked the 7th Step properly, for the very first time, I got immediate results.
REALLY! People who I had thought were a-holes suddenly turned into either nice people or at the very least tolerable. I began sleeping all night long. I was thinking of how I could be productive instead of how to retaliate against someone who had, real or imagined, done me wrong.
Serenity was no longer just a word to be studied but a feeling that I was receiving. I began to understand what others meant when they said that I should not learn the AA Program with my head but with my gut and heart.
WATCH OUT, THOUGH Look at the many who can recite the Big Book chapter and verse and still not have the sobriety that we would want to have for ourselves. I was feeling much better about myself so naturally, I felt much better about others and these feelings were becoming reciprocal.
THIS IS IT! As long as I always ask my Higher Power for guidance in all my affairs, I am continually getting more peaceful and comfortable. Don’t be afraid of living. Be happy with the fact that you can now truly live and enjoy life.
If you didn’t drink or drug today, you now have choices, maybe for the first time. Do you choose to be miserable or do you choose to be Happy, Joyous, and Free? The choice is yours and nobody else’s. Choose wisely! Thank you, God!
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