Step Eight - Taking Responsibility

We were created to find contentment and satisfaction in life through relationships – relationship with God, with others, and with ourselves. 

Step Eight of Alcoholics Anonymous addresses our behaviour in our relationships and so it’s one of those challenging steps.  It tells us:  “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”

Now I suppose the easiest part of this step is the first part – making a list of all persons we had harmed – though it has its own challenges because we get blocked out from seeing our own need for responsibility taking as we remember the pain connected to the events.  We so easily can identify and remember – forever – ways people have hurt and harmed us.  But, it’s so much more difficult to realize that either in anger or fear or just indifference, we have hurt and harmed others by our actions and inaction.

Jesus said:  Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. John 13:34, Luke 6:36-3 

And what do we do with that phrase, “and become willing to make amends to them all?”

To truly become willing to make amends we have to see God in the middle of each painful and fearful circumstance or memory, receive His comfort and care, and then choose with God’s help to face whatever needs facing, trusting that the God who knows, who cares, and who heals, can and will make something good out of even the most traumatic events. 

Heavenly Father, Thank you for creating us to live in relationship with You and others.  Thank you for Jesus, whose death on the cross for our sins made loving relationships with You and others possible.  Your word says there is no fear in love, and we believe Your perfect love can cast out the fear we so often recognize in our own hearts and minds,  and can also help us to build and live well in healthy relationships. 

We want to live reconciled to a loving relationship with You and then with others.  Give us the courage to admit where we’ve been wrong and help us to become willing to make amends to anyone we have hurt.  Amen

Let’s make whatever small or large steps we can today to become willing to make things better in our relationships.