Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help them when no one else can. You can secure their confidences when others fail. Remember they are very ill.
Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends--this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.
chapter 7 "Working with others"
pp 89 Alcoholics Anonymous
The joy of living is the theme of AA's Tweltfth Step, and action is its key word. Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress. Here we experience the kind of giving that asks no rewards. Here we begin to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety. When the Twelfth Step is seen in its full implication, it is really talking about the kind of love that has no price tag on it.
12x12 pp 106
cheri said
May 6, 2005
Step 12 has been what kept the program alive for me. As I worked the steps the first time, I wondered what Creator wanted me to do in my life. My questions were " What is a spiritual awakening? How do I carry the message?"
For me, the spiritual awakening came slowly. I had an understanding of a higher power, and trusted that feeling. I started to pray in the morning that I be able to speak not my words, but God's. Before I spoke, I started asking God what would you like me to say? Little by little, I realized that my life and the chaos around me had begun to calm down. I had a way to live my life without reacting to the BS. I realized that God was doing for me what I could not do for myself.
I try to carry the message of AA in all that I do. When I chair a meeting, make a pot of coffee, or empty ashtrays at the end of a meeting I am carrying the message. I have become willing to do what is asked of me without expecting anything in return. I have attended meetings in correctional facilities and treatment centers. I have been asked to pick up people from jail and take them to meetings. I have put my name on phone lists. When someone asks me how I got sober, I tell them. All of this is 12 step work to me. But it's just being a member of AA. It's doing the same thing as I saw when I came in, people willing to help others,without hesitation.
And I try to take this step outside the meeting room. If I behave on the outside the same way I behave in the rooms of AA, I am practicing these principles in all my affairs. I don't shout from the rooftops that I am a member of AA, but the people I work with know I don't drink. They know that when they ask me to do something, I will either commit to doing it or tell them I am not able to at the time. I have become a member of society. I don't scream at people from my car or get impatient when standing in line anymore.
I think step 12 is just joining the world, living as others do, but always being aware that I am an alcoholic and that in order for me to stay healthy, I must be willing to help others.
lostone said
May 17, 2005
I'am new here and working THE progam I must say you have given me some insight this is awesome! Thankyou!
Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help them when no one else can. You can secure their confidences when others fail. Remember they are very ill.
Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends--this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.
chapter 7 "Working with others"
pp 89 Alcoholics Anonymous
The joy of living is the theme of AA's Tweltfth Step, and action is its key word. Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress. Here we experience the kind of giving that asks no rewards. Here we begin to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety. When the Twelfth Step is seen in its full implication, it is really talking about the kind of love that has no price tag on it.
12x12 pp 106
Step 12 has been what kept the program alive for me. As I worked the steps the first time, I wondered what Creator wanted me to do in my life. My questions were " What is a spiritual awakening? How do I carry the message?"
For me, the spiritual awakening came slowly. I had an understanding of a higher power, and trusted that feeling. I started to pray in the morning that I be able to speak not my words, but God's. Before I spoke, I started asking God what would you like me to say? Little by little, I realized that my life and the chaos around me had begun to calm down. I had a way to live my life without reacting to the BS. I realized that God was doing for me what I could not do for myself.
I try to carry the message of AA in all that I do. When I chair a meeting, make a pot of coffee, or empty ashtrays at the end of a meeting I am carrying the message. I have become willing to do what is asked of me without expecting anything in return. I have attended meetings in correctional facilities and treatment centers. I have been asked to pick up people from jail and take them to meetings. I have put my name on phone lists. When someone asks me how I got sober, I tell them. All of this is 12 step work to me. But it's just being a member of AA. It's doing the same thing as I saw when I came in, people willing to help others,without hesitation.
And I try to take this step outside the meeting room. If I behave on the outside the same way I behave in the rooms of AA, I am practicing these principles in all my affairs. I don't shout from the rooftops that I am a member of AA, but the people I work with know I don't drink. They know that when they ask me to do something, I will either commit to doing it or tell them I am not able to at the time. I have become a member of society. I don't scream at people from my car or get impatient when standing in line anymore.
I think step 12 is just joining the world, living as others do, but always being aware that I am an alcoholic and that in order for me to stay healthy, I must be willing to help others.
I'am new here and working THE progam I must say you have given me some insight this is awesome! Thankyou!