8 Desemba

Our Gray Book tells us: "We should approach old defects with patience and understanding, for they served us well in days past. " What that means is that these defects were developed to save our lives in active addiction. Many of us would have killed ourselves if we didn't use. We couldn't face Life without the use of drugs.

We needed these defects to continue to use. Letting go of character defects is like letting go of an old friend.

This old friend is not conducive to our Recovery. So there is some grief involved, but it's time to let go in order to move on.

We no longer need these old survival skills. Today we are doing much more than just surviving and existing, we were finally Living. In the Sixth Step, we are asked to become Entirely Ready and Willing to let go of these defective traits.

Our Gray Book states, "We are trying to achieve adequacy, not perfection " The purpose of the Seventh Step is to replace these defective traits with new Spiritual Traits. As a result of working and Living the previous Steps we became Entirely Ready for this Spiritual Surgery. Part of this readiness is to Accept ourselves with both Assets and liabilities.

Part of Self-Acceptance is also acknowledging what we were lacking. With this readiness we make God an Action Figure in our Lives. As long as we Practice these Spiritual Principles embodied in the Steps and Traditions our defects will be minimized and at best they can lie dormant.

In This Moment: We will let go and acknowledge that our defects served their purpose. Today we are Living with Spiritual Principles and not just surviving.