Language of Letting Go - June 6
Nature Girl
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: By The Lake
Posts: 60,328
Language of Letting Go - June 6
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go
The Gift of Readiness
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
--Step Six of Al-Anon
We progress to the Sixth Step by working diligently, to the best of our ability, on the first Five Steps. This work readies us for a change of heart, openness to becoming changed by a Power greater than ourselves - God.
The path to this willingness can be long and hard. Many of us have to struggle with a behavior or feeling before we become ready to let it go. We need to see, over and over again, that the coping device that once protected us is no longer useful.
The defects of character referred to in Step Six are old survival behaviors that once helped us cope with people, life, and ourselves. But now they are getting in our way, and it is time to be willing to have them removed.
Trust in this time. Trust that you are being readied to let go of that which is no longer useful. Trust that a change of heart is being worked out in you.
God, help me become ready to let go of my defects of character. Help me know, in my mind and soul, that I am ready to let go of my self defeating behaviors, the blocks and barriers to my life.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.
The Gift of Readiness
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
--Step Six of Al-Anon
We progress to the Sixth Step by working diligently, to the best of our ability, on the first Five Steps. This work readies us for a change of heart, openness to becoming changed by a Power greater than ourselves - God.
The path to this willingness can be long and hard. Many of us have to struggle with a behavior or feeling before we become ready to let it go. We need to see, over and over again, that the coping device that once protected us is no longer useful.
The defects of character referred to in Step Six are old survival behaviors that once helped us cope with people, life, and ourselves. But now they are getting in our way, and it is time to be willing to have them removed.
Trust in this time. Trust that you are being readied to let go of that which is no longer useful. Trust that a change of heart is being worked out in you.
God, help me become ready to let go of my defects of character. Help me know, in my mind and soul, that I am ready to let go of my self defeating behaviors, the blocks and barriers to my life.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.
Nature Girl
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: By The Lake
Posts: 60,328
Steps 4 and 5 were all about housecleaning, examining my past and my life and the resentments that I had stored over many years and were very intense to work through but absolutely necessary to my recovery.
But this Step, Step 6, was one I really liked, it was as if I was just taking one last look at the garbage before I put it out to the curb (in Step 7) and asked the Higher Garbage Collector to take it away forever.
I had grown quite attached to some of these defects of character, they had been part of my survival gear in the past....but I no longer needed them because they had been replace with better recovery tools like honesty. faith and prayer.
Step 6 was like a breath of spring for me and one I return to when I find old defects slipping in the back door.
Hugs
But this Step, Step 6, was one I really liked, it was as if I was just taking one last look at the garbage before I put it out to the curb (in Step 7) and asked the Higher Garbage Collector to take it away forever.
I had grown quite attached to some of these defects of character, they had been part of my survival gear in the past....but I no longer needed them because they had been replace with better recovery tools like honesty. faith and prayer.
Step 6 was like a breath of spring for me and one I return to when I find old defects slipping in the back door.
Hugs
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