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#27 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 75,455
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Big Book Study - Post #27
Sorry about yesterday - wasn't able to access Yahoo! Groups for some reason... Good Morning! We are at the bottom of page 80. The next several paragraphs, through the end of paragraph 1 on page 82, deal with the problems associated with sex outside of marriage. This is an especially difficult area for alcoholics. If we have been unfaithful we have to face up to it, if we continue to be dishonest with ourselves and those about us, we are setting ourselves up for failure. The last paragraph on this page, and the first on the following page, underscore the fact that we have to do more than stay sober in order to make effective amends: "We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough. He is like the farmer who came up out of his cyclone cellar to find his home ruined. To his wife, he remarked, "Don't see anything the matter here, Ma. Ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin'? "Yes, there is a long period of reconstruction ahead. We must take the lead. A remorseful mumbling that we are sorry won't fill the bill at all." Reading through to the last paragraph on page 83, we see that we are going to have to take definitive action when taking Step 9, particularly with our families. Now the promises that everyone likes to talk about: "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. "Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them." It is important to note where these particular promises are in the book - at the end of Step 9. At this time we have completed our initial "house cleaning." Once complete, we shall receive God's grace. The promises begin to come true for us. "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through." "This phase" is the Steps 4-9 phase. "The Promises" are wonderful and they give us alot of hope, with one caveat: page 84 paragraph 1 - "They will always materialize if we work for them." We don't get them by osmosis. They just don't fall into our lap, we have to work for them. The whole process of Steps 8 and 9 is geared to prepare us to be of service to God and our fellows. When we complete this phase of our development we can look the whole world in the eye. This is when we can truly live one day at a time. With our next post we'll start at paragraph 2 on page 84 and our discussion of Step 10 in the book. Stay tuned, we have more promises to come. Have a wonderful day, Jim
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![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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