The Twelve Steps: A Spiritual Journey

Goal: Peace with God

Step One

is about recognizing our brokenness.

 We admitted we were powerless over the effects of our separation from God – that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step Two

is about the birth of faith in us.

 Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step Three

involves a decision to let God be in charge of our lives.

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

Goal: Peace with Ourselves

Step Four

involves self-examination.

 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step Five

is the discipline of confession.

 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step Six

is an inner transformation sometimes called repentance.

 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step Seven

involves the transformation or purification of our character.

 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Goal: Peace with Others

Step Eight

involves examining our relationships and preparing ourselves to make amends.

 Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step Nine

is the discipline of making amends.

 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step Ten

is about maintaining progress in recovery.

 Continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Goal: Keeping the Peace

Step Eleven

involves the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation.

 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step Twelve

is about ministry.

 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 

Next: Common Behavior Characteristics

12 Steps | Common Behavior Characteristics | Milestones in Recovery | Peace

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