thotful

Were entirely ready to have god remove these defects of character:

I have thoroughly worked steps 1-5; on step 4, I completed several worksheets, wrote a life-story to find patterns in my behavior (200+ pages)

Then, on step 5, I read the whole story to my counselor - Steps 4 and 5 have been truly eye-opening.

However, now that I'm on step 6 - I feel stuck.

Since I'm agnostic, I have a different sense of the higher power. For me, it's the universe around me, the AA meetings, the AA members, etc. The BB says that this step, "separates the men from the boys". It feels strange because I don't see this step as highly complex or a major show-stopper.

Of course I'm ready to have the higher power removes these defects of character. It's already been happening. Fear and anxiety were on the top of my list and that stuff has been leaving me in droves. I just don't have the same timidness I've had in the past.

I'm definitely ready.

So, what magical thing am I supposed to do to say...let's move on to step 7?

(p.s. - I currently don't have a sponsor - 1st one was a much older woman who suggested that I switch to a male - 2nd one was only by phone and eventually stopped returning my calls - I don't have a 3rd one right now)

Boleo

"____________ , 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."

Tao - The Way, The Path
IDK - I Don't Know
WRTU - Whatever Runs The Uinivers
G.O.D. - Group Of Drunks
G.O.D. - Good Orderly Direction
G.O.D. - Guider Of Decisions

Tommyh

step six was 2 questions for me
1.did I think my HP could and would remove those defects I had listed in step 4?
yes
2.did i want Him too?
yes
I then went on to step 7

on step 7 here is what the big book says

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."

step 6 and 7 are simply a overview of steps 10-11 and a beginning.

step 10,continued to take personal inventory.....watch out for those 4 deadly defects that kept us sick that we saw in step 4....then step 11,prayer or desire the power and knowledge to keep living this way and growing

Soberpotamus

I'm agnostic, and so Step 6 for me is this:

I looked at my character defects and patterns from Step 4, identify the patterns I would most like to change, and ask myself what's keeping me from moving forward and changing them? Is any fear there holding me back? What are the alternatives? Is the alternative to a specific behavior pattern better than holding onto that hurtful pattern? I think, in order to change deeply set behavior patterns, we must experience the hurt of continuing in the pattern to be more distasteful than making the actual change to a desired behavior pattern. So, for me, this step is all about awareness. Awareness and readiness. Awareness of what is. Readiness to let go of the old, and faith and trust to embrace the new. Seeing what it is I want to change, identifying what sort of behavior to replace it with, seeing that it's better to do this rather than to stay in this negative pattern, and preparing myself to do just that.

Gottalife

I started this journey as an agnostic, with absolutely no feeling for any kind of higher power. And I still havent picked up on any religion, though I seem to be more interested in spiritual concepts than I used to be.

But something happened to me after step 5. As the book suggested, I had gone away to spend some time reviewing the work so far. In that process I read the 5th step promises, second para p75, and was blown away by the fact that it was describing exactly how I felt. This was the point that I really began to feel that AA was telling me the truth, and I continued with the program with more enthusiasm than ever.

I wasn't very bright, my fourth step was about 4 or 5 widely spaced pages produced over about 4 hours with the help of my sponsor. I still have it and am amazed by how accurate it was. I took my fifth with him the next day, getting all my skeletons out of the closet, confessing those revolting episodes in my drinking, the memory of which made me feel like I was the worst person ever to come to AA. This was the stuff that kept me awake at night. I have had no trouble sleeping since, and it turned out my horrible secerets were normal alcoholic behaviour, no big deal. So I lost my loneliness, and shame, and picked up a solid feeling for my HP. Not a bad deal really.

I was happy to let "Him" remove my defects. It was too big a job for me as it turns out.

Earlier in my AA journey I had resolved to stop doing the wrong things and start getting my life on a proper footing by doing the right things. The problem I ran into was that I didn't really know what was right. I was 22 with the emotional age of 13,
so I set out to put my life in order and ended up making lots of stupid mistakes and doing some really crazy things. The easier path seems to have been to bring things back to a simple daily, even hourly practice, of asking for guidance in how to react in everyday situations. And as I have gone along I have intuitively begun to behave differently without any real effort on my part. I became a thief who could not steal, a procrastinator that could not put things off. Strange but I did not feel like I had anything to do with the changes that happened. It was a natural change rather than forced.

Anyway, that's just my experience around those steps, if it's any help. I have to admit that I didn't have the intellect or inclination to look too hard at the program, and I might have been a bit gullible in believing what some of the members were telling me. But it seems to have worked out ok.