Step Four

[MajestyJo]

Recovery is about change. Changing the old patterns and behaviors that kept me sick for a very long time.

How can I know what to change if I don't take an inventory to see what needs changing. What doesn't stand me in good stead in today. Over the years, I have developed new patterns and behaviors and they too have had to go. Just because something is comfortable doesn't mean it is for my higher good.

Defects and characteristics can block my way from the growth I search for in recovery. All I am asked to do is be the best me I can be today. I can not move on in my recovery without self-honesty. The blanket of denial keeps me in the past. My inventory took me out of my past so I could move forward in today.

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
“If, however, our natural disposition is
inclined to self-righteousness or grandiosity,
our reaction will be just the opposite… We
shall claim that our serious character defects,
if we think we have any at all, have been caused
chiefly by excessive drinking. This being so,
we think it logically follows that sobriety
- first, last, and all the time - is the only
thing we need to work for. We believe that our
one-time good characters will be revived the
moment we quit alcohol. If we were pretty nice
people all along, except for our drinking, what
need is there for a moral inventory now that we
are sober?”

© 2005, AAWS, Inc.;
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 45

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
“The sponsors of those who feel they need
no inventory are confronted with quite
another problem. This is because people who
are driven by pride of self unconsciously
blind themselves to their liabilities. These
newcomers scarcely need comforting. The problem
is to help them discover a chink in the walls
their ego has built, through which the light
of reason can shine.”

© 2005, AAWS, Inc.;
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 46

- Just For Today -

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.

"But in A.A. we slowly learned that something had to be
done about our vengeful resentments, self-pity, and
unwarranted pride. We had to see that every time we
played the big shot, we turned people against us. We
had to see that when we harbored grudges and planned
revenge for such defeats, we were really beating ourselves
with the club of anger we had intended to use on others.
We learned that if we were seriously disturbed, our first need
was to quiet that disturbance, regardless of who or what we
thought caused it."

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 47

Fom AA's Big Book and 12 & 12

[MajestyJo]

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

The readiness is all.
--William Shakespeare

Newcomer

I went to two different Step meetings this week, in different parts of town, and both of them were on the Fourth Step. I keep hearing that "there are no coincidences." Does this mean I'm supposed to start the Fourth Step now? How do I know if I'm ready?

Sponsor

First of all, I'm glad to hear that you're going to Step meetings, and I encourage you to keep it up. Your willingness has brought you a long way already, and it continues to be the key.

In approaching a new Step, I find it useful to ask myself if I've taken the Steps that precede it in a complete, whole-hearted way.

I review Step One and remember why I'm on this path of recovery in the first place: addiction brought me to spiritual depths I don't want to sink to again.

Reviewing Step Two reminds me that I'm not alone, and that I have faith that I'll be given what I need to become a whole and free person again.

Step Three reminds me that I've made a decision. I'm willing to do what's necessary for recovery and to trust the process. I remember that I only have to do my part; my progress in recovery isn't entirely up to me. My Higher Power will do the rest. When I reach Step Four, I trust that in the process of writing about the events of my addictive life, I'll be taken care of.

Today, I bring willingness and an open mind to the next stop in my recovery. I relax and trust that I am not alone.

You are reading from the book:

If You Want What We Have by Joan Larkin

This happened to me, only in regards to Step 10. I went to four meeting in one week and all of them were Step 10, one being a Big Book Meeting who was reading Step 10. Finally at a NA meeting I was aked to chair the Step Meeting. It was Step 10. The message In finaly received was that I was working the Step at the end of my day instead of working and living it all day long.

At a NA meeting I shared that I had done three Fourth Steps. Two young men were shocked and one said, "My God, you must be about perfect by now!" LOL. One day at a time, I do get better. I was one of the really sick ones. God and I are still working toward it! When I got here I thought I was now that I quit drinking and using. The more I stayed sober the more I realized how much of my life was full of insanity. I have to work on my emotional sobriety (soundness of mind) for the rest of my life.

[MajestyJo]

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.

Step Four is our vigorous and painstaking effort to discover
what these liabilities in each of us have been, and are. We
want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires
have warped us. We wish to look squarely at the unhappiness
this has caused others and ourselves. By discovering what
our emotional deformities are, we can move toward their
correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this,
there can be little sobriety or contentment for us. Without a
searching and fearless moral inventory, most of us have
found that the faith which really works in daily living is still
out of reach.

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pages 42-43

It was important for me to have the self-honesty and really look at myself. It was also good to balance the liabilities with good characteristics so I didn't beat myself up. It was important to know that I wasn't a bad person trying to be good but a sick person wanting to get well.

AA Recovery Steps 4, 5, 6, and 7.

How can I change if I don't take an inventory of what is in the moment. When I take that inventory, we can take it to our sponsor, clergyman, counsellor, etc. to share my finding and they can give me new insight. Remember it is a fearless inventory, if the fear is there, go back to Step 3. Pray for the willingness to be willing.

Step 6 for me in my thoughts and the thinking behind my dis-ease. The shortcomings, is acting them out and not trying to change. All I am asked to do is try, the failure isn't doing and failing, but in not trying. As we grow in recovery, we have a new perspective, a new awareness, new self-honesty, and a more humble spirit, instead of looking at my life with humiliation.

I am not my disease. It is a one day at a time program. Each day I get a new opportunity to practice and become a better me.