CAME TO BELIEVE THAT A POWER GREATER THAN OURSELVES
COULD RESTORE US TO SANITY.
1. None but a Higher Power can remove our obsession (acquired defects of character and the controlling old thinking mind).
2. Step Two is the beginning of the end of our old life (old ways of thinking -- false self), and the beginning of our emergence into a new way of life (transformation of the false self through elimination and change of our old ways of thinking).
3. Prerequisites for Step Two:
a) Alcoholics Anonymous does not demand that we believe anything.
b) To get sober and stay sober, we don't have to swallow all of Step
Two right now.
c) All you really need is a truly open mind.
4. When we stop arguing over a Higher Power, Step Two will gently and very gradually begin to infiltrate our life.
5. The road blocks of indifference, fancied self-sufficiency, prejudice and defiance will, if we allow them, impede our progress in Step Two.
6. The dilemma of the wanderer from faith is that of profound confusion (the old thinking still controlling our lives).
7. Humility and intellect can be compatible, provided we place humility first (the thinker is meant to be God's servant, not our master).
8. Remember, winners are always positive, and losers negative.
9. Defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an alcoholic (so it's not strange that we have defied God also).
10. At few times had we asked what God's will was for us; instead we had been telling God what it ought to be.
11. Belief means reliance, not defiance.
12. We supposed we had humility when really we hadn't.
13. We remained self-deceived (praying, if we did, for our wishes instead of "Thy will be done") and so incapable of receiving enough Grace to restore us to sanity.
14. "Sanity" is defined as "soundness of mind". Yet no alcoholic, soberly analyzing his destructive behavior, can claim "soundness of mind" for himself.
15. True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith which is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to God.
16. The main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.
17. Lack of power is our dilemma. We need to find a power by which we can live, and it has to be a Power greater than ourselves.
18. We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and ex¬press even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results.
19. Self-sufficiency can not solve all our problems (the thinker can get us into situations but cannot get us out of them).
RECOMMENDED READING:
1) Alcoholics Anonymous (big book), Chapter 4 & chapter 5 through p.63, 1st
paragraph.
2) Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions, Step Two.
3) Came To Believe.
Part two of step two coming in a day or two.....
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