[nandm]

2-5

We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all---every one? Should we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us to be willing.

These are the directions for Step Six. They are simple and straightforward. Are we willing to abandon our selfish, self-centered way of life and adopt fully a life guided by God? We have discovered many character flaws. Have we admitted that these things are the truth? Are we willing to let go of our old ideas, attitudes and actions? Are we willing to adopt this new outlook on life? Are we willing to pray for willingness in those areas at which we balk? If we are willing, we will continue to the Seventh Step.

6-9

When ready, we say something like this: "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.

The Seventh Step prayer is an expression of humility. We are acknowledging our need to have God's help in overcoming our defect of character. We have analyzed our character and admitted to God, ourselves, and another person, what it is in us that blocks us off from God. By doing this, we become ready to have God remove our defects of character.

This is not a self-help program. If we were able to live up to our ideals, we would have done so. We are powerless to bring about the total rearrangement of our ideas, emotions, and attitudes that is necessary if we are to live this new way of life. We adopt as a new guiding principle for our lives, the search to find and do God's will. We place ourselves in the position to recieve God's help by making a conscious decision to abandon our old idea that the application of self-will would produce happiness and satisfaction.

By allowing God to make use of all aspects of our characters, our strengths and our weaknesses, we more completely abandon self-seeking and self-centeredness.

We allow God to determine which aspects of our character are most useful. What we perceve as a weakness may make us more approachable to others. What we perceive as a strength may diminish our usefulness. We let God decide.

If we were able to do God's will we would. By practicing the principles of this program we learn how to access this Power greater than ourselves. One of the techniques we use is to ask for help in prayer.

We do not seek God's help to accomplish our self-seeking objectives. The new focus of our lives is to find and do God's will for us. Our seeking will result in our finding God's will for us. God's power is available to us for the asking, with it we will be able to overcome the temptation to act in self-seeking ways.

10

We have then completed Step Seven.

The steps are not magic tricks that fix us at first try, but rather techniques for living life successfully.

11

Now we need more action without which we find that "Faith without works is dead."

True faith will result in works and works will keep our faith alive. For our faith to be life giving we must act upon it. By acting upon our faith we acquire spiritual experience. Faith is not an intellectual exercise, we must re-establish our lives upon a spiritual basis if we are to live. Being guided by the principles of love of God and love of our fellows, our actions bring our faith to life.

13-15

We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We made it when we took inventory. We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal.

DEFINITION:
Amend: to change for the better.

These are the directions for the Eigth Step. We use the names from our fourth step lists, however, we may need to include others. We may want to examine our relationships with any additional people we add to our list in the ways we have learned in the fourth step. We have become willing to make amends to these people as we now can clearly see the harm we have caused.

The commentary on the book entitled: "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" contains detailed instructions for a thorough examination of harms done to others. That text suggests we analyze our actions and motives as a way of determining exactly which of our character traits are the source of the harms we cause others.

Our appraisal is of ourselves, not the other person.

We falsly believe that by avoiding our responsibility to right our wrongs we have escaped punishment for them. When we think of many of the people we have harmed, we feel the cringe of guilt and hope never to see them again. This self-imposed punishment is far worse than the humiliation or judgment from others we fear we will receive when we admit our mistakes. the replacement of our fear with the feeling of release brought about by our amends is proof positive that this spiritual way of life works. This is spiritual experience that we can draw upon when faced with fear and doubt of what to do when we are in conflict with others.

17

We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated our of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves.

The debris caused by our misapplication of self-will blocks us from God, hinders our progress, and chains us to the past. We must clear up these matters to be free to live our new lives. Not dealing with the harms we caused in a timely manner allows them to build up. This piling up of neglected responsibilities makes the load we carry in life unbearable. In the Eigth Step we learn how to right our wrongs and in the Tenth Step we learn how to prevent them from beginning to pile up again.

18

If we haven't the will to do this, we ask until it comes.

Asking in prayer for the willingness to face up to our past will work if we do it. Remember, we are no longer operating solely on our own limited power and courage, but we now have access to the limitelss power of God. God can do for use what we are unable to do for ourselves.

19

Remember it was agreed at the begining we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.

"If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it---then you are ready to take certain steps" (58:9). Victory over alcohol and a spiritual experience (79:5) are the "it" we are willing to go to any lengths to get. Step Nine is one "length" we must go to if we are to realize these goals.


Source:
The Annotated AA Handbook
Frank D