Thursday, August 03, 2006

homegroup hangover

Boy oh boy... having trouble getting firing on all cylinders this morning for some odd reason... Little goofy fumble-itis sorta "self gremlin" things going on this morning... I am hoping that my fog lifts, he he I have plenty to get done today...

We had a killer home group meeting last nite, as is quite often the case. One of my favorite recovery books is "The Little Red Book" from Hazelden. After having spent my formative years with my nose firmly planted in the BB and the 12X12, it's nice to have a different look at the 12 Steps. Same principles, just explained a bit differently... Since we're coming out of months 6 and 7, and I never kicked around those two Steps as chairman of my HG, I thought maybe we could kick them around last evening and here's a bit of what I shared with the group:
"The several objectives of Steps 6 and 7 are: 1.) To become honest and humble. To willingly seek God's help without reservation. 2.) To perfect ourselves in the practice of unselfish prayer. 3.) To be aware of our defective character traits. 4.) To desire their removal. 5.) To surrender completely all defects of character. 6.) To believe God can remove them. 7.) To ask Him to take them all away. The results we expect from pursuit of these objectives are: 1.) A reconciliation to God's way of doing things. We become fed up with our way and with further practice of trying to run the show ourselves. 2.) A willingness to work out a plan for suppression of self-centeredness through faith and a conscious contact with God. 3.) To experience dissatisfaction as a result of our alcoholic practices and to seek a spiritual inspiration that will bring us an inner sense of peace and security. 4.) Increased faith, clean hearts and minds, ability to offer unselfish prayer. 5.) A spiritual courage that is fearless in its outlook onlife; a desire to make restitution to those our drinking has harmed. 6.) A desire to quit bluffing and honestly give God a chance to remove from our lives all that stands in the way of our usefulness to Him and to others. True humility. 7.) Elimination of our defective character traits, acquisition of peace of mind, and sobriety." -The Little Red Book" Hazelden

Wow, those are some pretty serious objectives and expectations. I am grateful to be able to say that I am definitely enjoying some of those results in my life today. We had a great discussion in the meeting last night, mostly as these Step pertain to relationships with others... It was really inspiring to hear the other men share humbly about their gratitude for their successes and their failures in relationships with others.

Prayer for the day:

God/HP, please help me not give up this day to the fog and gremlins who seem to be bent on giving me the opportunity to be all bitchy and detached from your Spirit. Thank you for another day sober, and all the numerous Blessing You continue to share with me. Thank you for helping me to realize that all I have to do to live in Your light is ask for and seek out Your Will today. I pray for Your Will and Grace in the lives of all my family and friends, especially those suffering through life's difficulties whatever they may be. I also pray for Your Protection and Courage for those people fighting wars around the world. I pray for Your Peace to fill all their hearts, no matter their cause or what side they fight for.

P.S.- Thanks for Your inspiration to Claude Debussy, enabling him to write such an incredible musical work as "La Mer". It's a wonderful backdrop for blogging this morning...

Peace to you all...

1 comment:

dAAve said...

I think we all have the opportunity to be bitchy and detached. Those are reactions to our situations and circumstances. Today, with our HP's help, we can choose to react differently.
Good stuff, Scott.