[nandm]

We have admitted to ourselves that we are powerless over alcohol---that our lives are unmanageable. We are coming to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. We have made the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the God of our understanding. We have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Where doe we go from here?

Into Acton gives us the instructions for the next seven steps. This chapter begins by describing how the authors chose someone to discuss their inventory with (72:1-75:1). By following their example, we take Step Five (72:4-17). By being thorough and honest in our attempts at working the first five steps we become ready to let God remove our defects of character (75:16-76:4). By humbly asking God to remove our shortcoming, we take Step Seven (76:6-9). As a result of having begun the practive of the first eight steps we become willing to make amends to those we have harmed (76:13-15). We take our list of those we have harmed and proceed to make these right (76:16). The benefit of beginning this way of life is a complete transformation of our ideas and attitudes (83:21-84:12). Continuing to take personal inventory enables us to see where we are wrong, allowing us to promptly admit it (84:13-85:25). Having been restored to sanity by this process, we strive to broaden and deepen our relationship with God (85:26-88:6).

The authors have shown us what they hav done to recover from alcoholism and in doing so have given us specific instruction and clear-cut directions illustrating what we can do to solve our problem. We have been presented with a body of theory and technique that must be studied and practiced if we are to master and apply there principles to our own lives