Meditations on "Inventory"

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

Human beings are wonderfully complex creations of God.

The following words from a Psalm by King David were written after he had allowed his lust for a woman to lead him down the path of sexual immorality and murder.

Step 10 advises us to continue to take personal inventory and, when we are wrong, promptly admit it.

When we turn our will and our life over to God’s care and trust in the new life Jesus gives us, does that mean we should never reflect on guilty feelings?

Many people who come into recovery seeking victory over drugs and alcohol often find themselves relapsing when they refuse to obey God’s teaching on sexual purity.

Steadily moving forward in recovery is not easy. As we awaken out of the haze of years in addiction our minds are often filled with memories of things done to us and things we have done to others.

Feelings cannot always be trusted. They often point us to an incorrect perception of who we are, who God is, and what is happening in our circumstances.

When we begin a searching and fearless moral inventory, we often list the obvious things we know that are not in keeping with God's will.

Those who make steady progress in recovery are those who remain focused and give careful attention each day to what works.

At many points in our recovery journey the character defect of evasiveness may begin to surface.

Becoming willing to live each day in a new way is a challenge for those of us who are used to running our own lives and doing our own thing.