STEP TEN
Continued to take personal inventory and
when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
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Essay God, you accept me just the way I am. I don’t have to lie to impress you or to feel good about myself. Dear God, please stay close to me throughout the day. I know you love me with my fault and defect, and I will do my best to be your servant, do your will and to see the world through your eyes. When I get caught up in my own selfishness and pride, please gently guide me out of it and fill my heart with the love, tolerance and tenderness only you can provide. I am for that thankful! Talk to your sponsor everyday! If you think you have "nothing to say", write her/him anyway! Step Ten principle is perseverance! "Power of Repetition" The reading for July 22 from For Today says, "Repetition is the only form of permanence that nature can achieve" (George Santayana). This is the single most important principle behind the success of my program. It is the daily action that keeps me well one day at a time and to which I owe my year-long, back-to-back abstinence. After many years of struggling with on-again/off-again abstinence, I finally realized that I had to take action every day and not just when I felt like it. Even doing it most days isn’t enough, I have to do it every day. My daily program of action involves using at least four tools a day, and these, in turn, help me work the Steps. These are some of the actions I take regularly: - praying and meditating for a few minutes in the morning and evening - reading an OA story from our books in the morning and at night - making at least one phone call every day (people calling me doesn’t count) - I have to reach out - Writing every day, even if I just tick off the four tools I completed that day - Attending at least one meeting a week - Calling my sponsor, who lives in another city, at least twice a week and e-mailing her in between - Sticking to my food plan guidelines each day and following a written food plan when I am going through difficult emotional times - Doing service as our intergroup chairperson and being a contact person on the answering machine. The daily actions don’t’ take a lot of time, but they make a large difference to my program. Having a well-established recovery routine gives me a safety margin I can rely on during times when I previously would have turned to food. After all, the best time to fix a leaky roof is when the sun is shining - not during a thunderstorm. If works if I make the effort each day, one day at a time. -S.P., by e-mail (from Lifeline, august 99) Summary questions:
Step 10 guarantees: This is a way of life, not a quick fix. When you have achieved the skills to live one minute - one hour - one day at the time, doing Gods will only, and instantly making up for your self will mistakes as you go along throughout the day, you will have an everlasting, lifetime solution to a way of life with peace, growth and comfort, even with this disease. Because it works, when YOU work it! All the best to you, Mariam |
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