Praying to Complete AA’s Seventh Step

Step 7:  Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

So, I wrote down a list of character defects (4th step).  I discussed it with my sponsor and my wife (5th step).  I thought long and hard on these traits of mine (6th step).  No, none of these issues caused me to drink.  None of them triggered me to crave alcohol.  I drank because I liked drinking.  I craved alcohol because I had alcohol in my system, and THAT caused me to want more. But I do have issues.  These issues make me less of a great person to be around.  Maybe since I’m not drinking anymore, it’s a good opportunity to make some more changes and become an even better person!

So, who is the person I want to be?  With a couple of months of sobriety under my belt, my eyes are open to who I was and who I will be. My eyes are open, and I’m more realistically experiencing my emotions.  They say that you stop emotionally developing when you start drinking.  Maybe that’s why I act like a 14-year-old most of the time.  With a better handle on what I’m feeling, I’m more emotionally capable of feeling what others are feeling.  Now I just need to become mindful of what I’m feeling.

A List of Emotions

I read an interesting article about how you should write down a list of emotions to refer to when you’re feeling emotional.  The list is helpful to pinpoint HOW you’re feeling, and that will help you decide how to deal with your “emotional” state.

Here’s my list:

• Anger
• Fear
• Sadness
• Disgust
• Surprise
• Happiness
• Excitement
• Joy
• Anxiety
• Love
• Amusement
• Guilt
• Shame
• Contempt
• Contentment
• Gratitude
• Pride
• Boredom
• Envy
• Loneliness
• Relief
• Anticipation
• Compassion
• Depression

Once you can recognize how you’re feeling, then you are better able to properly handle it.  As alcoholics, we never learned to deal with how we were feeling at any one point, so we never paid any attention to how we were feeling.  If we didn’t like how we were feeling, we just self-medicated.

A New Way to Be

“How are you?” is a common greeting.  But how many times have you stopped to consider how you are actually doing?  Probably a quick, “Fine.  How are YOU?”  That’s nice for pleasant conversations, but you should stop and consider how you are actually doing.  What is your emotional state right now?  Can you stop during the day and look inside yourself and ask yourself, “How are you?”  How are you doing?  Why do you feel that way?  Is it affecting others? Check your list! Maybe you didn’t even realize how you’re feeling right now.  Do you want to feel way?  Is there another emotion you would rather be experiencing right now? Is there another emotion you SHOULD be feeling right now???

Step 7, Humbly…

Humility is a modest view of one’s own importance.  Being humble is about pushing aside our self-importance and replacing it with self-awareness.   In the past, we did the driving, fueled by our emotions.  Those emotions were either fueled by alcohol or numbed by alcohol–not a good way to travel!  Step 7 is about letting God do the driving.  Hand over the keys, get in the backseat, say a little prayer, and enjoy the ride!

Let’s take a break from our old drunk-driving! No, I’m not talking about having a few and getting behind the wheel.  I’m talking about letting our emotions get the best of us and driving our actions! Take an occasional break during the day to stop and take a look inward and take a quick inventory of how we’re feeling and why.  Ask yourself, is it time, right now, to let go and let God?  Right now, are we more capable than God to decide our next action, our next move, or our next turn?  Probably not.  We’d be much better letting Him take the lead and showing us how to be who we should be.

“God, I humbly ask that you please lead me on the best path forward.”

Let this be your mantra.  Be aware of your emotions, yourself, and your actions.  Maybe you are new at controlling yourself and doing the next right thing, but if you keep your eyes open and fake it until you make it, you’ll be making progress until you can reach perfection.