Originally Posted by c'est la vie
I think I'll stumble over the step that says that something will actually take something from me. How? I can accept my shortcomings and deal with them or I can try to change some of the bad behavior. But who, what or how are they being "taken"? (sorry Blake to derail from Step 2, but thought you might have some insight)
I haven't gotten there yet, but I have discussed it at length.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
First I have to make the distinction on the difference between a defect of character and a shortcoming. A defect of charater is an internal thing like jealousy, greed, self righteousness just to name a few (that I have by the way) a shortcoming is an external thing, the acting out on a defect of character, making fun of someone to make myself feel better, buying stuff I don't need b/c I percive it elevates my staus in life, player hating
stuff like that...
I haven't worked those steps yet, but I believe (and I could be supprised by the time I get to them) the 5th step helps to bring these defects of character to light, the 6th step is about becoming aware of them and deciding on which ones are harmful (some defects of character can actually be benificial if used in a controled fashion) and need to be removed. THe 7th step is about focusing on those harmful defects and trying to not act out on them as much as possible till it becomes 2nd nature. THe god thing comesinot play for me (remember I'm using NA as my "god as I understand him") by trusting in my sponsor, calling other addicts, taking suggestions, writing about it, sharing at meetings about it, etc... NO RELIGION NESSECARY....
Teach, you sre right, just b/c we haven't been able to quantify other forces in the universe doesn't mean that there are any, but when looked at it logically one side of this argument is a whole lot less arrogant than the other, it IS possible that we know all that we will ever know about the universe, but that is just a little hard to believe for me, personally.
SMART isn't just a thing, it's a program of recovery, but even beyond that it is a community of recovering addicts, don't those addicts have a will? Isn't the collective will of those addicts focused on staying clean and helping each other stay clean? I am not that familliar with SMART so I won't assume anything else about it. NA has a will. NA has 3 parts, the program (steps & literature) the fellowship (people in NA) and my understanding of NA (my personal program). NA's message is that an addict, ANY ADDICT, can stop using, lose the desire to use and find a new way to live. NA's primary purpose is to carry the message to the addict still suffering. All that sounds like a "will" to me....at least that's how I use it.
And Marte, I'm not trying to tell you that you are following a higher power or anything like that, what ever you are doing with SMART is working in your life, so keep it up...I'm just offering some discussion.