June
“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” – Step Four
“If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies …We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can.”
– Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 5 (“How It Works”), p 70.
Today, if the Fourth I wrote down yesterday is not “a lot,” chances are I have not been thorough; more likely, I have been dishonest by not accepting responsibility in any injury I inflicted or by seeing myself as I hope instead of how I am. But putting to paper our indiscretions and injury to others is not sufficient; we are asked to perceive our defects as futile and fatal and begin to understand their damage. Further, we are compelled to begin learning “tolerance, patience and good will toward all men …” and become willing to undo some of our damage. If I not been moved to understand all this, the Fourth I took yesterday may have been premature or dishonest; today, I seek the courage and understanding to do Step Four as it is intended. And our common journey continues.
Today, if the Fourth I wrote down yesterday is not “a lot,” chances are I have not been thorough; more likely, I have been dishonest by not accepting responsibility in any injury I inflicted or by seeing myself as I hope instead of how I am. But putting to paper our indiscretions and injury to others is not sufficient; we are asked to perceive our defects as futile and fatal and begin to understand their damage. Further, we are compelled to begin learning “tolerance, patience and good will toward all men …” and become willing to undo some of our damage. If I not been moved to understand all this, the Fourth I took yesterday may have been premature or dishonest; today, I seek the courage and understanding to do Step Four as it is intended. And our common journey continues.
Step by step. – Chris M.
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