Wednesday, June 27, 2012

June 27, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Wednesday, June 27, 2012

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

"If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies ...We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 5 ("How It Works"), p 70.

Just for today, if the Fourth I wrote down yesterday is not "a lot," chances are I have been been thorough; more likely, I have been either not honest or dishonest by not accepting responsibility for my part in any injury or by seeing myself as I would hope I am instead of how I am. But, as the passage in Chapter 5 notes, putting to paper our indiscretions and injury to others is not sufficient; we are asked to perceive our defects as futile and fatal and begin to understand their damage. Further, we are compelled to begin learning "tolerance, patience and good will toward all men ..." and becoming willing to undo some of our damage. If I not been moved to understand all this, the Fourth I took yesterday may have been premature; today, I seek the courage and understanding to move within Step Four as it is intended. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012

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