1. How do I feel about turning my life over to a Higher Power for guidance?

I was afraid at first. I'm a control freak fromt the word go, and letting go of the control was scary. However with the realization of how messed up my life was from doing step 1, I figured I didn't have much to lose. So for starts, I gave up just a few things and watched the results. After seeing that my Higher Power made those things easier to live with, I was willing to turn my whole life over to HP.

2. How do I know who or what my Higher Power is?

That's the beauty of this program; you can define your Higher Power. The God I was taught as a child was to be feared and unforgiving if I messed up. Here, in this program, I began by asking myself, "If I am to turn life over to a God as I understand him, what would that God be like?" He is kind, caring, understanding, empathetic, patient, easy to talk to, one who listens, one who has a sense of humor and one who is always there, no matter what I do. This God of my understanding is one to whom I can trust and turn over my will and my life.

3. How might Step Three help me keep my hands off situations created by others?

I think one of the hardest things I had to learn was to stop trying to control. The slogans work here for me. I use "Let go and let God" and "Live and let live". I know that the way I was doing things wasn't working, so I had to learn to let others learn by their mistakes and life experiences. I can't help them, I can only help myself. My sponsor said to make a God box. Here I write down on a piece of paper what's bothering me, pray to my Higher Power about it and put it in the box. By physically letting it go, giving the problem to God, it helped me stop the insane practice of doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

4. What can I do to try to see others as God sees them?

I had to learn to stop judging people. It's kind of like taking their inventory. It doesn't do me any good because I can't change them, so why even take their inventory? I also quit expecting things from others. My expectations were always being unfulfilled, and that lead to resentments and anger. So I quit judging, and I quit expecting things. All I can do is say a prayer to my Higher Power to help them. I also learned to separate the disease of alcoholism or the affects of alcoholism in their life, from the person. I started seeing the good in people instead of just focusing on the disease of drugs/alcohol.

Hugs,
Tavie