nandm

Step Three ~ Part 1: Questions

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood him."


1. Do I need to have a clear concept of HP to do this step or can I act "as
if"?

2. How do I feel about turning over my will to the care of a HP?

3. How do I feel about turning over my life to HP's care?

4. Why is the phrase "made a decison" an important part of this step?

5. How does my self-will get in the way of my personal growth?

nandm

Step Three ~ Part 2: Questions

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood him."


1. Why do I need to follow this new path?

2. Am I ready to give up my self-will? How will I do it?

3. What will it take for me to really work step three?

nandm

Step Three ~ Part 3: Questions

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood him."

1. Am I willing to accept who I am today and adopt a whole new attitude
about alcohol?

2. Am I ready to give up my self-will with regard to alcohol?

3. What does living one day at time mean to me?

4. How does willingness to turn our will over to HP free us from
limitations?

nandm

Step Three ~ Part 4: Questions

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood him."


1. What do I do now when faced with decisions.?

2. If my way of making decisions hasn't been working, what can I do to
change things?

3. What do you consider the "bondage of self"?

4. What can I do when I'm feeling unstable?

5. What would freedom be like?

nandm

nandm

:atv

chancho9965

Where are these "feeling" questions coming from? Let God be God and me be His child. Sit with that, what would my life be like with God as my Director?

CarolD

I think the questions are from a Step 3 workbook

I never needed a workbook for this Step.
...I happily returned to my childhood God of love.

lostnfound1961

1. Do I need to have a clear concept of HP to do this step or can I act "as
if"?
Yes we need a clear concept or there is no one to turn your life over to.

2. How do I feel about turning over my will to the care of a HP?
I have trust and commitment issues but I know that if I don't do this... all is lost.

3. How do I feel about turning over my life to HP's care?
Again, it's hard but I know I have to do it.

4. Why is the phrase "made a decison" an important part of this step?
Because it has to be (my) choice

5. How does my self-will get in the way of my personal growth?
My self will is what got me here and if I only go by my self will then there can be no change, no groth and no recovory

lostnfound1961

1. Why do I need to follow this new path?
because without my higher power I am lost.


2. Am I ready to give up my self-will? How will I do it?
Yes, through meditation and prayer.

3. What will it take for me to really work step three?
A willingness to question my thoughts and feelings and say the serenity prayer a lot. Take a time out to talk to my higher power.

lostnfound1961

1. Am I willing to accept who I am today and adopt a whole new attitude
about alcohol?
Yes.

2. Am I ready to give up my self-will with regard to alcohol?
Yes.

3. What does living one day at time mean to me?
With each bad day comes a good one and if I can hold out just one more day then I can do it for yet another and in time reach the countless days the when even bad are better than when I was drinking.

4. How does willingness to turn our will over to HP free us from
limitations?

God can do, what I can only imagin.

lostnfound1961

1. What do I do now when faced with decisions.?

2. If my way of making decisions hasn't been working, what can I do to
change things?

3. What do you consider the "bondage of self"?
The unwillingness to let God and let go.

4. What can I do when I'm feeling unstable?
[B]meditate and pray, go to a meeting or call another alcoholic/ your sponcer [B]

5. What would freedom be like?
Joy and serenity

sugErspun

From Alcoholics Anonymous

"Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God. Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach and to effect a contact with a Higher Power."

Alcoholics Anonymous :

In my experience - if I had to have a clear conception of "God", it would have limited my experience. The concept of God was rather vague to be honest - erm, inadequate seems about right.

Could you expand on this? I am probably missing something.

lostnfound1961

I'm not saying your consept must be GOD but that if you don't have a clear consept of a higher power then how can you have a higher power at all? I take (clear concept) as a real beleife in something. Not that he has red hair and is six feet tall, or the car is green. I just know he is real and so is the car. I hope that clears up what I ment to say.
D

BP44

I had no clear concept of God or a higher power at step 2 or step 3. However, I was open minded and willing. Like sugar said, for me it was a beginning. I had to start with a concept of my very own. And AA was the first place that allowed me to do that. Every other place had demanded I accept and embrace their conception of God. So I had to make a very small beginning. It came in the form of a God list which was open ended. Several lines long, in fact. Through the process of the steps that conception has grown and evolved. Today I am conscious of the presence of God, my conception clearer, but not clear because it continues to grow as my spiritual life continues to grow. Had I been told that the requirement to proceed to step 3 was a clear conception, I would have been doomed. Step 3 was merely a decision. I was not able to truly begin practicing it in earnest until I had taken the course of action in 4-9. I simply didn't have the power. At 2 & 3 I was agnostic, which means I did not know God. The remaining steps bring me close to God and He is revealed to me. Steps 1 & 2 are simply considerations with 2 questions in mind, is this you, and is it possible that this might work? Step 3 is a decision. No real work has been asked of us at that point. It is the work that develops my conception every single time I do it.

terrapin

I am so grateful for this info and this web site!

mkeroark

Big Book

August252015

I didn't have a problem with step 3 either- I believed in God, I had just gone LEGIONS away from a Christianity based relationship with him - note: I have found my upbringing in more traditional Methodism enhanced and matured as I have learned a LOT from Friar Richard Rohr.

These questions are interesting - yet in a way I find them distracting, and possibly dangerous, as they are all about our "thinking"....which will keep us from recovering. There is a leap of faith in Step 3 and without surrendering ourselves deliberately to the concept that a higher power of some kind does exist....we do not begin to learn the tools, and cannot proceed through the steps to see promises coming true, learning how to handle situations that used to baffle us and keeping "Thy (God's) will be done" as a central tenet rather than our own will or need to control and direct our lives.

Overcomplicating things is a risky endeavor, IMO and IME - hence the "simple program" [we] have outlined.

WMJ1012

I had nothing left to discuss or debate when I got to step 3.
I was suicidal and drowning.
I had no understanding of God at all.
I turned my will and my life over to the care of the process.
That's my experience anyway...

mfanch

I was (and am) a non-theist.

The Power that I need to plug into is omnipresent. I decided to move forward in the process of the steps and trust the infinite vs the finite (me). No workbook needed.

TBH, it was really in step 6 that I felt that I was actually DOING Step 3 ---> "This is the exact point at which we abandon limited objectives, and move toward God's will for us." (12+12 pg 69)

mfanch