A Recovery Booklet
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Stepping Free was birthed in 1992 when I was in graduate school. The assignment in my theology class was to write our statement of faith. Newly in recovery from alcohol and prescription drug dependence, I asked if I could use the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as the framework for my response. My professor Dr.
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Addiction is a power greater than ourselves that results in bondage. This bondage destroys the alcoholic, the addict, and families in a cycle of inter-generational self-perpetuation. Addiction as a bondage is characterized by the loss of choice over one’s desires, beliefs, and actions: the insanity of being unable to “just say no.” Historically, the Christian
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What is Christianity? There has always been Power: Good Power and Evil Power. They coexisted in a place called Heaven. Then Good created angels as helpers for Good and they also were very clear that they chose to acknowledge Good as their Boss. However, at some point Evil began to convince some that Evil was
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History of Alcoholics Anonymous In the early 1930s, the drunks of the day were shunned, locked away and discarded because it was assumed that they were choosing to drink. Dr. Silkworth was Bill Wilson’s doctor, and he was the first to realize and state that he believed that there are some people who have what
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Introduction 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
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1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. Discovery 1-3: We admitted we were powerless over X and our lives had become unmanageable. And helpless, no matter what we tried, we still remained unable to stop our behavior. We could not “just say no.” And so, we became
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2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Came to believe… THAT a power great than ourselves could restore us to sanity. We come to a place in our personal journey when we are forced by circumstances to look somewhere other than ourselves to find what we don’t
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3. Made a decision to turn our will and out lives over to the care of God as we understand Him. Make a decision! The choice of our will. Ignore the feelings of doubt and confusion, the mental gyrations about how it can work, just decide to act as if this will work and see
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4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Inventory: Purpose of inventory: – acquire deeper self-knowledge that can lead us to self-acceptance. To face the truth about our behavior. To identify our behavior patterns so we can surrender them to God and ask Him to make lasting changes in us. Can’t change what
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5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. This Step breaks the shame cycle and exposes false guilt. The miracle of change happens when we muster the courage to confess to someone what we have uncovered in our Fourth Step. Then, and only then, can God’s