MY ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON STEP TWO
"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could
restore us to sanity."
1. What can we believe in?
Well
I do believe I was powerless over alcohol and change was possible if a power
outside myself could help me to stay sober and my life could again become
manageable I was reduced to a state hopelessness filled with fear and despair
not knowing how to stop drinking I needed a power greater than the sick
egotistical self righteous fearful self that I was My first belief in a higher
power was a group of drunks I met at my first meeting
2. Does A.A demand belief in anything in order to get sober?
Alcoholics
Anonymous does not demand that we believe anything the steps are but
suggestions to get sober and to stay sober all I needed to do is become willing
with an open mind to looking at how a power greater than myself could help to
keep me from a drink today at this point I still did not trust
The condemning vengeful
God of my understanding at that point in my sobriety
3. Are the Twelve Steps only suggestions to live by?
Yes
they all pointed me in the right direction to become willing to change my old
habits of living and willing to become open minded to change in my attitudes
and they showed me a way to find that power greater than myself this was still
the group of drunks because of my desperation I had to accept they were right
because they seemed happy and full of life
4. How Important is an open mind to recovery?
Open
mind for me was an absolute if I were to be able to sit at meeting after
meeting learning how to listen to speaker after speaker tell me how they
changed their lives around and have become usefully whole I knew they had
something I wanted But when I closed my mind to change it put me back in charge
of my own life doing things my way once again but I still was not able to trust
God as I saw Him at that time
5. What are the Varieties of ways we can use to find faith?
I
had to become less defiance and start trying to ask what God’s will was for me
instead of telling Him what it ought to be for me belief did mean reliance not
defiance After all I was spared from alcohol's final catastrophe death I did
see others calmly accept impossible situations not running or
Trying to get even this
was because of their faith and it did work for them under all conditions Yes I
had to find some humility to go forward toward the find the God of my new
understanding
6. Can we Substitute A.A. for our Higher Power?
Well
I know I did in the beginning of my recovery and for quite some time AA thru
that group of drunks I started to believe in were truly my higher power at the time
if I did not believe in what they were telling me I would never have gone on
with recovery in AA I would have gone back out but I did need more than this
wonderful group so I started to do that prayer thingy must admit when I did The
desire to drink left me
7. What are the Problems of intellectuality and self-sufficiency?
Intellectually
self-sufficient person that’s me far too smart for my own good I did use my ego
to blow up everything into that prideful balloon carefully hiding this from
others so I thought pride would not let me think other wise knowledge is
powerful if it is used fro the good of all but when it is used for selfish
purposes it always brings me down
8. What is the relationship to positive and negative thinking in
recovery?
This
is a question of faith I did not yet have every time I looked into my past it
was always to look at what others did to poor little Al it was so easy to blame
others for all my troubles sure I played the victim right to the limits on my
own reasoning false reasoning but never the less true to me at the time AA
taught me to look at myself and what part I played in the mishaps of my life
looking towards a solution to the problems not dwelling in the negative like I
did so many years
9. Is defiance is an outstanding characteristic of alcoholics
I
did not have any idea how irrational I was until thru the steps I saw my own
irrationality this was very to face just the suggestion that I was in fact
mentally ill I was totally blind to the
fact I so defiant I did not understand
the difference between sane drinking and alcoholism "Sanity" is
defined as "soundness of mind." Looking at my destructive behavior
and insane attitude toward all who I perceived harmed me well I could not claim
I was in soundness of mind
10. Is Step Two a rallying point to sanity and recovery?
Therefore, Step Two is the rallying point for all of us.
Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand together on this
Step. True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith, and every A.A, meeting
is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate
ourselves to Him this is that doorway into Step three making the decision to
turn my life and will over to my new found God
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