Meditations on "Inventory"

Step 5 of the 12-Step program of A.A. asks that we admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

In “How It Works” we read and hear the following words read regularly at meetings: Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.

Step 10 of the 12-Step program encourages us to stay on track in our recovery with the following words: “We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

To stop using our substance of choice is a great beginning in recovery but God knows that unless we deal with the underlying root of our habits and addictive practices, we will remain doomed for failure.

As our time increases in recovery one of the enemies we need to be aware of and guard against is becoming complacent.

As we prepare to do the steps in a recovery program, who among us enjoys doing a Step Four inventory or writing out the last 90 days of our addiction?

A character defect that most of us have is self-centeredness.

Step-10 encourages us to regularly take personal inventory and when we are wrong about anything to promptly admit it.

To some degree, all of us rely on ourselves to do those things that are important for life and happiness.

In Step-7 we come to God and humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 5 is often a tough step to complete. With great apprehension we have made a fearless moral inventory of ourselves and now we must admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

God created man and woman in His own image and together they lived in loving relationship with Him and with each other.