2-9
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Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it. Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
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Awakening spiritually does not stop us from being human. At times we willfully disregard the will of our Higher Power. We try to apply these principles in every area of our lives, but being human we sometimes fall short. The benefits of trying to lead a spiritually based life are so great that we return to the path as soon as we recognize the errors of our ways. As we progress spiritually, the time we spend in the darkness of self-will lessens and the times we spend in the Sunlight of the Spirit lengthens.
10
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Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
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We have seen the symptoms of alcoholism presented very clearly; the development of a physical craving for more once we begin to drink and a subtle form of insanity that prevents the almost certain consequences of drinking from keeping us from taking the first drink.
14
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Being convinced, we were at step three, which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood Him.
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We are not at the third step unless we are convinced of propositions A, B, and C above. We can ask ourselves, if we agree absolutely with these three ideas. If we are not convinced, we should re-read the book to this point. It is unlikely that we will be willing to do what is necessary to recover if we are not convinced.
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Just what do we mean by that, and just what do we do?
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The authors said earlier that they would tell us specifically what they had doen to recover. If we have decided to adopt the methods that were successful for them, we must meet a few simple requirements.
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The first requirement was that we be convinced that any life run on self-will could hardly be a success.
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How has the way we have been living working for us? Are we not prey to misery, depression, resentment and remorse? These things are caused by the failed basis of our lives, the basis of self-will. We have lived as though the satisfaction of our instinctual desires for sex, society and security will bring us happiness and fulfillment.
When we hear that "there are no musts in AA," many of us are relieved and think that this means we will not have to do anything to revover. But when we hear that "there is no right or wrong way to work this program," we who have admitted powerlessness over alcohol are fearful that there is nothing we can do to recover. This is a suggested program; we do not have to follow it if we do not want to. But if we do wish to follow this path there are things we must do and requirements we must meet. Should we decide to do the things that the authors did, we can expect the same results----recovery from alcoholism.
Source:
The Annotated AA Handbook
Frank D.