Daily Reprieve

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

. . . and third, having thus cleaned away the debris of the past, we consider how, with our newfound knowledge of ourselves, we may develop the best possible relations with every human being we know.   (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 77)

As I faced the Eighth Step, everything that was required for successful completion of the previous seven Steps came together: courage, honesty, sincerity, willingness and thoroughness, I could not muster the strength required for this task at the beginning, which is why this Step reads “Became willing. . . . “

I needed to develop the courage to begin, the honesty to see where I was wrong, a sincere desire to set things right, thoroughness in making a list, and willingness to take the risks required for true humility. With the help of my Higher Power in developing these virtues, I completed this Step and continued to move forward in my quest for spiritual growth.

END OF QUOTE

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There is a repetitive process for an ideal to be transferred into the practice of daily living.  This process is not done in isolation, because we become smarter with the group conscience, and we become more intuitive in our connection with a Higher Power.  We need to develop four skills to possess the virtues we affirm as life-giving in recovery.

1.  Intellectual Development to establish and understand the ideals of virtue,

2. Imaginative Application to translate virtue to courses of action,

3. Pragmatic Expedition to chose the best course of action,

4. Habit of Task Accomplishment to link the ideals of virtue with daily life.

The virtues introduced in the Eight step have been identified as Reflection, Willingness, and Brotherly Love.  These will be maintained in good Tenth step work.  The other virtues mentioned by the contributor were Courage, Honesty, Sincerity or Integrity, and Thoroughness.  They are introduced in the moral inventory and come to play in the making of the amends list as well.

SEE:  AA Principles and Virtues

It is the water’s steady flow that carves a path through stone.

This entry was posted on August 13, 2014 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Addiction, Alcoholism, Journal, Life, Personal, Recovery, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.