from the AA '12 Steps and 12 Traditions' book:

Step 3 - "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."

"... In the first two Steps we engaged in reflection. We saw that we were powerless over alcohol, but we also perceived that faith of some kind, if only in AA itself, is possible to anyone. These conclusions did not require action; they required only acceptance...

"Like all the remaining Steps, Step 3 calls for affirmative action, for it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God - or, if you like, a Higher Power - into our lives. Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means shall we be able to let Him in? Step 3 represents our first attempt to do this. In fact, the effectiveness of the whole AA program will rest upon how well and earnestly we have tried to come to 'a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him...

" Fortunately, we who have tried it, and with equal misgivings, can testify that anyone, anyone at all, can begin to do it. We can further add that a beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness. ..

" Every person who has joined AA and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step 3... Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by AA... Now if that is not turning one's will and life over to a newfound Providence, then what is? ...

" Let's examine for a moment this idea of dependence at the level of everyday living. In this area it is startling to discover how dependent we really are, and how unconscious of that dependence. Every modern house has electric wiring carrying power and light to its interior. We are delighted with this dependence: our main hope is that nothing will ever cut off the supply of current.  By so accepting our dependence upon this marvel of science, we find ourselves more independent personally. Not only are we more independent, we are even more comfortable and secure...

" But the moment our mental or emotional independence is in question, how differently we behave. How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just how we shall act... This brave philosophy, wherein each man plays God, sounds good in the speaking, but it still has to meet the acid test: how well does it actually work? One good look in the mirror ought to be answer enough...

" Should his own image in the mirror be too awful to contemplate... s/he might first take a look at the results normal people are getting from self-sufficiency. Everywhere s/he sees people filled with anger and fear, society breaking up into warring fragments. Each fragment says to the others, 'We are right and you are wrong.'  Every such pressure group, if it is strong enough, self-righteously imposes its will upon the rest. And everywhere the same thing is being done on an individual basis. The sum of all this mighty effort is less peace and less brotherhood than before. The philosophy of self-sufficiency is not paying off...

"Therefore, we... can consider ourselves fortunate indeed. Each of us has had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better. ..

" We realize that the word 'dependence' is as distasteful to many psychiatrists and psychologists as it is to alcoholics. Like our professional friends, we, too, are aware that there are wrong forms of dependence... This very form of faulty dependence has caused many a rebellious alcoholic to conclude that dependence of any sort must be intolerably damaging, but dependence upon... a Higher Power hasn't produced any baleful results...

" It is when we try to make our will conform with God's that we begin to use it rightly. To all of us, this was a most wonderful revelation.  Our whole trouble had been the misuse of willpower. We had tried to bombard our problems with it instead of attempting to bring it into agreement with God's intention for us. To make this increasingly possible is the purpose of AA's 12 Steps, and Step 3 opens the door...

"In all times of emotional disturbance or indecision, we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say: 'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."