Step 4: Distinctions Between Selfish and Self-Seeking in AA
Looking for the difference between selfish and self-seeking? Read this…
Looking for the difference between selfish and self-seeking? Read this…
When tied is a good thing.
It’s so tricky to diagnose that I had friends telling me I couldn’t be alcoholic, even though I knew I was.
When I first quit drinking, I had a friend in AA that would wish ‘pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization’ on his drinking buddies.
Some people just naturally know what their NRT is. Do you?
It’s not my role to direct others. It’s my role to love them, support them by listening, and pray for them to find God’s direction
My life lesson plan was handed to me with my bed tray at the age of 23!
The way out was to get a clue! I thought I was supposed to be in charge of my own life, so I was.
Bill’s principles of AA… I laughed out loud when I heard this. (Learn what hit the editor’s floor.)
My life wasn’t happy, but I felt like I was in control. For some reason, that made sense to me.
I don’t understand the intricate workings of denial, but I’m at the same time, well-acquainted with it.
Here’s the confession: When I’m doing well, it’s not really me doing it. It’s the power within.
Jot these questions in your cell so you’re prepared.
Should you be a sponsor?
She said, “Heidi, I don’t know why anyone calls you when they’re having problems.”
What do you mean, alcoholic?
Are we keeping the gate closed?
WHICH WAY?
Pick up a broom and give it a whirl!
I no longer feel I have to ‘prove’ anything to you or to me
There’s a lot of ‘holding’ going on during the last three points.
Can you find something that weighs on your mind?
My life would make a better movie than it does a life.
So what do we do if we can’t trust our thinking?
Putting out of our minds the wrongs other had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes.
Ya but… (wheeze) the other guy is the problem! You’re just the victim, here.
So, what’s wrong with being a Tattletale?
I was not. I’m still learning. At one time I thought I had the perfect life but it was built upon the proverbial shifting sand of illusions about myself. The […]
Now that we have the first column naming people, institutions and principles we can move on to the second column.  (Refer to the Not Scary Resentments Worksheet of Step 4 in […]
Do you have an inexplicable feeling of pending doom? Do you feel deep down lonely…
Take a good look at anything that riles you. What are your pet peeves?
Everything was dirty, broken, piled up and rusty. I kept gagging…
as soon as you’re ripe, you rot! There’s a lot of ripe ones out there…
I have the clearest memory of childhood discussions and a collection of bunkhouse adventures with God. This skinless friend was more real …
What keeps you awake at night?
Step 3 is not the action of turning our will and lives over, it’s deciding to do so. Let’s get specific. Which decision making elements do you usually use?
There is something in me that rebels against familiar authoritarianism. Do I really want someone else to tell me what to think again? I hope not.
During early sobriety it seemed that all the characters around the table except me had a secret password that allowed them to log into a new life of peace and serenity. I’d never seen anything like these hooligans.
Do I miss drinking? Sometimes. I miss it to the extent that I’m still insane. I was not created for self-destruction but alcohol is a one way ticket to that insanity. It waits.
The question I should have asked when I dropped into AA was, Is there a difference between step 3 and salvation for a Christian?
This is my prayer corner. The colored pencils are from Iowa. I bought them at an art supply store when I started coloring during prayer. Bear with me. I can explain…maybe.
Before I got sober at the age of 55, I was trapped by an ice storm at an abbey near Dubuque, in NE Iowa. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. […]
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. That’s Step 4, perhaps the scariest few words Bill W strung together in this 12 Step program. It seems to me […]
My addiction started harmlessly.
I agree with Chaz and his Unconflicted post. I am unconcerned about Bill’s personal life. He was a tool for getting the Biblical principles into our hands. I was not […]
It’s 12 Steps, not 2. The Old Timers I love and respect are those who have serenity gained from taking all 12 and continuing to live in the principles.
Peace started for me during Step One when I admitted I was not all-powerful; that alcohol had me by the throat!
You call it love. For years, all I wrote was bad, tragic and tearful poetry. Then life got better because I got sober and I gave up poetry. Suddenly, this […]
The truth will set you free, to the extent that you recognize it and cooperate with it.
Mary Johnson befriended the man who murdered her only son and then invited him to come live next door