Admitting our inability to perfect ourselves, we plead with our Higher Power to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
The 7th step, at first glance, can appear to be a tricky one. Like the reading says, this step doesn't tell us to get rid of our defects on our own, but simply to ask our HP to do it for us. Yet...our responsibility of "practicing the program" allows us the opportunity to make subtle changes in our ideas, attitudes and behaviors.
It's kinda like the Serenity Prayer says: accept the things I cannot change and courage to change the things that I can...and
there are things that I can change. The reading talks about how we experience a "shift in our perceptions of ourselves and others." This can only occur through practicing honesty, open-mindedness and willingness. Gradually, as our ideas (perceptions) change, so does our attitudes and the behaviors that result from them. As we continue to practice the prnciples of the program, over time they become second nature and require little or no thought to apply. Our character assets shine and our defects become arrested.
Somewhere in the literature it talks about how our character assets do not void out our character defects. For me, this is true because there have been numerous times when I've realized that a defect I thought was gone...wasn't. Although only our HP can remove our defects, we have the responsibility to arrest them through practicing spiritual principles.