whiskerkissed

This was not done for me by any three of my sponsors, but I've heard it done, I have 3 sponsees myself I haven't done this with....but it's been in the back of my mind...why not? It's what NA is.

I got one of those "trouble calls" from a newcomer. She asked me to be her sponsor. Women with NA recovery is almost non-existent here and I find myself in a real predicament not taking on too many so as not to overwhelm myself. Still have a full-time w/overtime job. I'm the only one in 100 mile radius that has worked almost all 12 steps (going over 12 with my sponsor soon). I offered to be a temp sponsor until we can get out to some further outside meeting (my sponsor is 1 1/2 hours away) so she can find a permanent sponsor.

She wanted to use...bad. Keys in hand ready to go out the door. We talked, she felt better. It felt right to give her some busy work by studying that symbol. Take each facet of it and use the dictionary to help by learning what the parts of the symbol mean to her. I've not even done this myself. I felt guided to do that for her.

I talked to my sponsor about doing that and she was VERY nicely surprised by this. Her own son is adamant about giving this as first homework. He's in MS until tomorrow sometime so I can't ask him right now. Thought I would get some feedback here.

Do any of you do this and how do you do it if you do?

Gmoney

Yes...it is done in my area by almost every sponsorship "bloodline," and is generally a pre-step work assignment. How it's done varies - some can get pretty deep with it, but the way it was done with me (and my sponsees) was pretty much the way you suggested the newcomer to do it.

Missybuns

yes. My sponsor had me write on the symbol before starting step work. I thought it was great to help me learn more about the fellowship I was dedicating myself to. When I shared with others in recovery it was suggested to look into our symbol, one lead me to this:

Our Symbol

my sponsor asked me where I find myself in our symbol

peace,
Missy

whiskerkissed

Thanks for the replies! Missy - I will definitely have to read that page later. My monster headache won't let me read that much! I really dislike the crud...'specially when fever accompanies it...

I've talked to a couple of other people, too. They all say the same thing basically. My sponsor's son asks his sponsees then to write what the symbol as a whole means to them once the individual parts are completed.

This was so cool...and I feel like I had missed out on that part...I did the assignment myself...:-)