June 15

Some members describe Step Six as a grieving process. Character defects were the tools for the disease.

Like drugs, they were our solution for a long time. Toward the end of our bottoms, they turned against us. The drugs and defects that went hand in hand with our active addiction, were no longer needed in this New Way of Life.

We had to say goodbye to those old survival skills. Since that's all we were familiar with, it was difficult and painful to let go. But like our Gray Book states, "Letting go of character defects should be done with love.

Fear and hate cannot give us new lives. We should approach old defects with patience and understanding, for they have served us well in days past. " We must be careful not to take ourselves so serious in this process. The Spiritual Principle of Willingness prepares us here.

We have to let the God Of Our Own Understanding remove these defects or at least minimize them. God only removes what we really want Him to remove. This is why letting go of these defects must be done with our permission.

We decide the ones that are causing us and others the most pain. Those are the ones we must become entirely ready to have them removed.

We can start with our selfishness. Our Basic Text tells us that this defect has to be intolerable to us. It goes on to say that it becomes a destructive chain that ties us to our bad habits. As we practice these Spiritual Principles, we begin to replace the old with the new.

These old tools don't work in this New Way To Live. We start to see glimpses of the people we could become, without some of these defects. Our fear of the unknown is lessened if not dissipated.

Our Faith increases the more we Practice these Spiritual Principles.