This week, Judy and I had a conversation about character defects and how to get rid of them. Of course, that highlights what Steps 6 and 7 are all about!
The 7th step prayer is:
“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”
Program is about willingness to grow along spiritual lines. God created us as human beings not saints. We claim “spiritual progress, not perfection.”
Sometimes, we have the mistaken belief that if we are recovered, we “should” never be angry or afraid. In Steps 6 and 7, we surrender — with humility and without judgment — our character defects to God. Judgment and intolerance are ego-centric and keep us blocked from change and trapped in our selfishness. We are seeking to transform ourselves from relying on self, to relying on God.
In this prayer, we respectfully pray for God to remove every single defect of character which stands in the way of our usefulness to Him and our fellows. We are not asking God to remove ALL of our character defects.
We are asking God to remove the character defects which block us off from Him and other people. This then means, if a character defect is not standing in the way of our usefulness to God and our fellows, we are not asking God to remove it.
Our goal is to let go of self-will and commit to living according to God’s will.
The daily discipline of constantly realigning our will with God’s will in steps 6 and 7 is where recovery and the spiritual transformation take place. We learn tools that over time change our character defects into character assets.
During the conversation, Judy told me about Oswald Chambers and a quote that she just received on his writings. It was so relevant to our discussion that I had to make it into the inspirational picture above.
Thank you so much Judy and everyone else in this group for sharing your experience, strength and hope!
I am so grateful to everyone for sharing this journey with me!
With blessings for recovery and peace,
Shira
Emotional Sobriety And Food 