Starting My Fourth Step - Recovery Progress

Meeting with my sponsor...

Yesterday, I met with my sponsor to do some "book work" from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. We went through the Third Step and said the prayer associated with it. If you are not familiar with the third step prayer, it is on page 63 of the Bog Book and it goes like this...

God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!

After saying the third step prayer, the Big Book states:

Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action, the first step of which is a personal housecleaning, which many of us had never attempted.

And that is where a person starts his Fourth Step!

Step Four...

In the Fourth Step of A.A., again, the Big Book says that we:

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

This can be something quite intimidating! Imagine taking a look at all of your behaviors, good and bad, maybe for the first time really ever! Talk about something most people do not want to do right? Well, in the program, it is where "the rubber meets the road," so to speak. It is where you go from thinking about doing something, to actually doing it...

So, time to start!

My sponsor told me to get started, so that is what I am going to do! It will take me a few weeks with working, but I plan to put a little bit of time in every day, making my list and working on it. I know that in order for me to get my head right, this is the next step to do. You may ask how do I know it will work, and the answer is, the many many people it has already worked for in the past.

Something to think about...

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