Quote:
Friday, June 6, 2014
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go
The Gift of Readiness
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
—Step Six of Al-Anon
We progress to the Sixth Step by working diligently, to the best of our ability, on the first Five Steps. This work readies us for a change of heart, openness to becoming changed by a Power greater than ourselves - God.
The path to this willingness can be long and hard. Many of us have to struggle with a behavior or feeling before we become ready to let it go. We need to see, over and over again, that the coping device that once protected us is no longer useful.
The defects of character referred to in Step Six are old survival behaviors that once helped us cope with people, life, and ourselves. But now they are getting in our way, and it is time to be willing to have them removed.
Trust in this time. Trust that you are being readied to let go of that which is no longer useful. Trust that a change of heart is being worked out in you.
God, help me become ready to let go of my defects of character. Help me know, in my mind and soul, that I am ready to let go of my self defeating behaviors, the blocks and barriers to my life.
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In all things I have to come to a place of readiness or the program doesn't work. That is when I have to pray for the willingness to be willing.
I came to the fellowship(s) and found people doing what I had been trying to do my way for 8 years. They carried a message to me. The program works if I am willing to work for it. Through them I learned to trust the program, and through the program, I learned to trust the God of my understanding.