This is the phrase that separates the men from the boys, or the serious from the pretenders, if you prefer.
I often hear who I refer to as ,"eloquent slogan slingers"; every room of Recovery has at least one of these who can recite all the neat tidbits of wisdom, that are traditional to AA & NA.
Speaking the words are one thing, but performing the actions that correspond, are quite another.
Although 12 step recovery is a simple program, the disease of addiction is an extremely complex matter.
This is why we incorporate real life coping skills into the traditional 12 step method.
Just staying away from a drink or drug is only the beginning; from that juncture comes the task of really living clean and sober. Once again it take honest appraisal of our behaviors, attitudes and actions. The meetings and literature provide an outline and a guide, to attempt to implement into our daily lives.
The book, "Living Sober" is a good example of the teachings of the Big Book and 12 Steps, applied to everyday life situations.
Through my attendance at thousands of meetings, I have developed a keen bullshit meter.
At this stage of my recovery, I can recognize the sincere folks, from the good talkers who don't actually practice what they preach.
I caution newcomers to the program to be careful who they emulate; and to watch what the person does, not just what they say.
8 comments:
The slogan slingers make me uncomfortable - actually they make me want to run! They remind me of a lot of evangelicals I know who can throw up chapter and verse but when you look at their lives, there is no action. You know the folks - they go to church "praise jesus" but are evil, bitter and mean when you meet them on the street!?
Someone tonight used a phrase that makes a lot more sense to me...."walking the talk" which is practically the same thing you are saying!
Sorry...dont mean to be bitchy in someone elses blog...having a not so good day!
Have a safe night!
Kindly,
Kathrin
HORROR
Three years ago I was wandering around [mental hospital] completely shattered physically, emotionally and spiritually. The mental torment I was experiencing was absolutely terrifying. Every waking second, I was having horrifying images from my past. I thought I was being punished for my past sins. My whole life flashed before my eyes and I felt I had failed miserably in my journey through life. The whole experience was an awakening [THE LONG DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL] a metamorphosis. God was slowly penetrating the shield I had put up all those desperate years. I had no “I” - that is what God wanted for me, to become Christ cantered, not “I” cantered [in retrospect]. There is nothing in this world, but the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He eventually delivered me from my HELL; when I got down on my knees and asked Him for mercy and forgiveness for my sins. Praise the LORD!!
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY
Anonymous Said:
i just find it ironic that everyone that is against AA on this page uses very hateful terms, very judging and condemning. Everyone that is in AA does just the opposite. I don't know about anyone else, but I try to let people do their own thing, if it works for them go for it.
Micky's Comments:
Greetings Anonymous
I felt some pain reading your comments [meaningless words]. What is, IT? What is a HATEFUL TERM? I imagine you are in a lot of pain and you are projecting it onto anyone who challenges the FALSE DOCTRINE, which is AA. Your process is not about AA or anyone else, but unresolved issues from your childhood. Do you think you might be a RAGEAHOLIC and CONTROL FREAK, Anonymous? Were you abused as a child? I love you (agape) and I pray that you recover that “little child”, who I imagine you abandoned quite a long time ago. How do you feel?
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY
WAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
Don’t take the 12 STEPS away from me
Don’t leave my SPONSOR in misery
We are a FELLOWSHIP of ZOMBIES
If you go then I’ll have to CHAIR A MEETING
‘Cause WAKING up his hard to do
Remember when you held my BIG BOOK
And you 13th STEPPED me all through the night
Think of all the CRAP, we’ve talked
Our HIGHER POWER will be mad
WAKING up Is Hard To Do
They say HOW IT WORKS, is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it’s true
There are no DUES or FEES
Our PRIMARY PURPOSE
Is to be, BILL WILSON CLONES
WAKING up is hard to do
I wish we were ENGAGING IN CONTROVERSY
I beg of you, to be FEARLESS & THOROUGH
Can’t we give our OLD IDEAS another try
Come on baby, let’s do a STEP or TWO
WAKING up is hard to do.
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY
Kordic says…
I happen to be jewish and not one person in any meetings I goto have ever tried to convert me to anything else.
Micky Said:
Gretings Kordic
Your AA BRAINWASHING is happening unconsciously. As you listen to the DRONING STEPPERS, your brain is slowly being altered. The critical thinking section of your brain, shuts down, and your facial features start to change. You will eventually get that 12 Step LOOK – “shift shaping reptilian look’. When you walk into a 12 Step meeting you are inviting SATAN into your life, not JESUS CHRIST.
Peace Be With You
Micky
Noah Said:
While I find that AA is very challenging to my sense of self, and my atheistic relation to a society of Believers, I am sober because of it. I would not wish to live any other way. Before AA, if I was sober I was miserable. After AA, my life is moe enjoyable than I ever imagined.
Micky Said:
Of course your life is more enjoyable – you are a classic AVOIDER – you have a conscious fear of intimacy and an unconscious fear of abandonment. Your enjoyment comes from analysing everything and believing you are right about AA. I imagine the other STEPPERS are impressed with your vocabulary and the way you express yourself. I get a sense you are quite a dangerous person who is completely shut down emotionally because he is too terrified to face his DEMONS. Noah, you are just another Bill Wilson Clone [ZOMBIE].
PEACE BE WITH YOu
MICKY
Anonymous said...
I cannot tell you how many AA meetings I left, thinking that if my choices were to be in AA or drink, I'd choose drinking.
I went to my first meeting 30 years ago. I am most qualified to speak for AA.
Micky Said:
Greetings Anonymous [Emotional Coward]
I imagine that your brain has been completely altered with Bill Wilson’s anti – Christ propaganda [AA]. I’ll let you into a little secret, Anonymous [SHIFT SHAPING REPTILE], one can stay sober without the need for AA meetings – I have!! The only qualifications you have, Anonymous [Bill Wilson Clone], are the qualifications you received from SATAN, when you abandoned yourself to him, 30 years ago [AA].
Peace be With You
Micky
BILL WILSON'S PACT WITH SATAN
From Bill's Story:
Co - founder of AA, Bill Wilson's story has been in every edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous.
With ministers, and the world's religions, I parted right there. When they talked of a God personal to me, who was love, superhuman strength and direction, I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory.
To Christ I conceded the certainty of a great man, not too closely followed by those who claimed Him. His moral teaching -- most excellent. For myself, I had adopted those parts which seemed convenient and not too difficult; the rest I disregarded.
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"
That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would! Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view. The real significance of my experience in the Cathedral burst upon me. For a brief moment, I had needed and wanted God. There had been a humble willingness to have Him with me -- and He came. But soon the sense of His presence had been blotted out by worldly clamors, mostly those within myself. And so it had been ever since. How blind I had been.
At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens.
There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then I understood Him, to do with me as He would. I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch. I have not had a drink since. Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all. These were revolutionary and drastic proposals, but the moment I fully accepted them, the effect was electric. There was a sense of victory, followed by such a peace and serenity as I had never know. There was utter confidence. I felt lifted up, as though the great clean wind of a mountain top blew through and through. God comes to most men gradually, but His impact on me was sudden and profound. For a moment I was alarmed, and called my friend, the doctor, to ask if I were still sane. He listened in wonder as I talked.
Finally he shook his head saying, "Something has happened to you I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it. Anything is better than the way you were." The good doctor now sees many men who have such experiences. He knows that they are real.
While I lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given me. Perhaps I could help some of them. They in turn might work with others.
There is no mention of JESUS CHRIST in the BIG BOOK or the 12 STEPS. Wilson was used by SATAN to delude millions of people.
John 3:16 (chapter 3, verse 16 of the Gospel of John) is one of the most widely quoted verses from the Christian Bible. It has been called the "Bible in a nutshell" because it is considered a summary of some of the most central doctrines of traditional Christianity:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
A typical interpretation of the verse might go as follows:
· For God so loved the world... - God is a God of love and this love motivates his action in the rest of the verse
· ...that he gave... - there was God giving something, his son as a sacrifice
· ...his only begotten[1] Son... - the human Jesus of Nazareth is also the Son of God, and also the Second Person of the Trinity
· ...that whosoever... - that salvation is open to all who will believe
· ...believeth... - being saved is based on belief or faith, rather than based on human works.
· ...in Him... - the belief being in Jesus, the Saviour
· ...should not perish... - implies the fate of those who do not believe, that is the doctrine of hell
· ...but have everlasting life. - shows the reward of those who believe, that is the doctrine of heaven
Peace Be With You
Micky
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