“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”
Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous World Service®, All rights reserved.
I would have rather taken a beating with a horse whip and been dipped in brine than take a look at myself. Fear. The unknown is all that stopped me. I didn’t want to know. Whatever I buried deep, I wanted it to stay there. It had hurt me once, I didn’t want to feel the pain again. The unknown part was in how I though that people would react if the truth be known.
The only shield that I had was truth.
The Big Book only touches on one part of the Fourth Step; what went wrong. It totally ignores what went right. To do a total inventory, one must take a look at the whole and complete picture.
Many a business would fold if they did not look at their liabilities and assets. By doing so, many business’ are surprised that they are in better shape than they think they are. The reverse is sometimes true and sadly, some are woefully surprised into taking drastic action.
The wrongs have to be addressed first, because that is why I drank, but having done a thorough inventory of my liabilities, I was ready to build upon the foundation of what was right in my life. I also drank because I was unwilling to acknowledge what was right in my life. I always looked at the negative.
Step Four is about discovery. Step Four is about honesty. Step Four is about self-awareness.
Step Five |
