I am amazed at how God is working in my life. I meet someone who is a recovered addict that goes regularly to AA meetings. We shared our stories with each other and had a real in-depth conversation. I really feel that God led me to meet this person at exactly this point in my life. She told me how they also have Al-Anon meetings (this is for anyone that has been affected by someone else's drinking and addiction) and asked if I wanted to go. I said yes. Like I've said before, I'm ready to cross those oceans and climb those mountains in my life journey. So this past Friday I went to my very first Al-Anon meeting. I was a bit nervous and definitely out of my comfort zone. I cannot share the stories I heard from the people who were there but I can say this: It was painful to hear yet strangely comforting to know i wasn't alone in my pain. I shared a piece of my story and when It was all over I knew I wanted to come back. I went to find a book about the 12 steps they were talking about. I have never heard these steps in my life before. There were many books but I decided on The 12 Steps For Adult Children.
I know I have the right tool in hand to deal with the unresolved issues in my life. I am so grateful to God for leading me exactly where I needed to go. I think these steps and this process can be helpful to anyone who has been affected by addiction, whether it be directly or indirectly. I want to share this journey through these steps with the hope of helping others to find healing in their lives as well. Here are the 12 Steps:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amens to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
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