Asking God for forgiveness in the steps?

[Irish Virus]

Maybe I am overlooking something obvious, but I really can't find anywhere specific that a person asks for God's forgiveness in the steps.
Where, if any, is there reference to asking God for forgiveness?

In Step 5 we admit to God our wrongs. In 6 and 7 we ask God to remove our defects and shortcomings. And 8 & 9 are the amends. Nowhere have I found an emphasis put on asking for forgiveness.

I don't know if this is because God can be anything basically in AA and Bob and Bill wanted to avoid this type of specificity. Did they want to leave this area gray as to accommodate the variety of Higher Powers that existed? Or, have I been attending AA for a year now and totally missed the boat?

Any answers or insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Peter]

Yes, Step 11 in the Big Book does mention"asking God for forgiveness"


Quote:
When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.Unquote

[Paul83]

Peter you big book thumper you

[Paul83]

Even in the Step 4 How It Works it mentions something to the effect of:

If we are sorry for what we have a done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will have learned our lessons.

This is in regards to sex relations, but as BB points out it can be interpreted as any kind of problem that we may have. Forgiveness is not as important to me as action. That's nice, I was wrong, so how can I make things better starting with this exact moment.
I think the actual 'word' of forgiveness might not be so clearly pointed out in literature because its kind of a presupposition to everything we are doing in the steps. Kind of like making a BLT - Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato - all important, yet Bread in not mentioned in the name. It comes naturally with it, plays a direct role into the entirety - yet has no reference in the sum of all parts. It's just the natural that bread would be in there, same as forgiveness. I heard a great thing at a meeting once, stating that God will forgive us for our sins if we are sincerely sorry - He will take them from our bodies and put them down into the middle of the ocean. Yet we, as alcoholics, will rent a boat, paddle all the way out there, take a net and fish those sins back up. We do not have the capacity to forgive ourselves sometimes. Which I think can be even more helpful in working the steps - cuz like I said, some things come more naturally than others. And Him forigiving us is not something I think warrants to much attention.
What are we gonna do now?

[MNGirlyGirl]

My interpretation of step 10 is asking for forgiveness.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

I admit my sins and wrongs to God and ask for forgiveness.

[nocellphone]

I'm of the belief that God's gonna forgive me anyway, but the Steps have done something that nothing else in my life has been able to do:

The Steps helped me forgive myself...

[SaTiT]

Chapter 5, How it works.

Yeah for me , it was step #4 that I learned about forgivness in a new light.
Forgiving myself was harder than forgiving others. Which required me working
more steps.

I also understood forgiving others differently. Or it became clearer or
partical . I had one of those ahha moments...getting
in touch with my emotions or feelings. A simple awareness of,
It's my feelings, my thoughts, my belief.
No one was going to feel my anger or resentments no matterwhat.
So by forgiving others or letting go, i was actually doing it for myself.
No piont caring that crap around. No religion or enlighten stuff, just simple
release.

It came to me in a form of ....There i was feeling down and sorry for myself
and my ex-wife 1600 miles away, living her life and getting laid and what
have ya and it didn't made a bit of differents no matter how **** off i was
at myself or her. An old timer knock me over the head with it of course.

The Big Book or 12 &12 explains it as others are emotionally sick or sicker
than us or everybody has emotional bagage.