from the '12 Steps and 12 Traditions' book:

"Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings"

"Since this Step so specifically concerns itself with humility, we should pause here to consider what humility is and what the practice of it can mean to us...

"Indeed, the attainment of greater humility is the foundation principle of each of AA's Twelve Steps... Unless [AA's] develop much more of this precious quality than may be required just for sobriety, they still haven't much chance of becoming truly happy. Without it, [AA's] cannot live to much useful purpose, or, in adversity, be able to summon the faith that can meet any emergency...

"Many people haven't even a nodding acquaintance with humility as a say of life. Much of the everyday talk we hear, and a great deal of what we read, highlights man's pride in his own achievements...

"The theory seems to be that once everybody's primary instincts are satisfied, there won't be much left to quarrel about. The world will then turn happy and be free to concentrate on culture and character. Solely by their own intelligence and labor, men will have shaped their own destiny...

"For thousands of years we have been demanding more than our share of security, prestige, and romance...

"We had gone all out in confusing the ends with the means. Instead of regarding the satisfaction of our material desires as the means by which we could live and function as human beings, we had taken these satisfactions to be the final end and aim of life...

"True, most of us thought good character was desirable, but obviously good character was something one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied. With a proper display of honesty and morality, we'd stand a better chance of getting what we really wanted...

"This lack of anchorage to any permanent values, this blindness to the true purpose of our lives, produced another bad result.  For just so long as we were convinced that we could live exclusively by our own individual strength and intelligence, for just that long was a working faith in a Higher Power impossible. This was true even when we believed that God existed. We could actually have earnest religious beliefs which remained barren because we were still trying to play God ourselves. .. That basic ingredient of all humility, a desire to seek and do God's will, was missing...

"For us, the process of gaining a new perspective was unbelievably painful. It was only by repeated humiliations that we were forced to learn something about humility. It was only at the end of a long road, marked by successive defeats and humiliations, and the final crushing of our self-sufficiency, that we began to feel humility as something more than a condition of groveling despair.  Every newcomer in AA is told, and soon realizes for himself, that his humble admission of powerlessness over alcohol is his first step toward liberation from its paralyzing grip...

"So it is that we first see humility as a necessity. But this is the barest beginning. To get completely away from our aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for itself, takes most of us a long, long time. A whole lifetime geared to self-centerdness cannot be set in reverse all at once...

"... We reluctantly come to grips with those serious character flaws that made problem drinkers of us in the first place, flaws which must be dealt with to prevent a retreat into alcoholism once again... How can we possibly summon the resolution and the willingness to get rid of such overwhelming compulsions and desires? ...

"But again we are driven on by the inescapable conclusion which we draw from AA experience, that we surely must try with a will, or else fall by the wayside. At this stage of our program we are under heavy pressure and coercion to do the right thing. We are obiged to choose between the pains of trying and the certain penalties of failing to do so. These intial steps along the road are taken grudgingly, yet we do take them. We may still have no very high opinion of humility as a desirable personal virtue, but we do recognize it as a necessary aid to our survival...

"But when we have taken a square look at some of these defects, have discussed them with another, and have become willing to have them removed, our thinking about humility commences to have a wider meaning. By this time in all probability we have gained some measure of release from our more devastating handicaps. We enjoy moments in which there is something like real peace of mind...  this newfound peace is a priceless gift. Something new indeed has been added. Where humility had formerly stood for a forced feeding on humble pie, it now begins to mean the nourishing ingredient which can give us serenity...

"Until now, our lives have been largely devoted to running from pain and problems. We fled from them as from a plague. We never wanted to deal with the fact of suffering...  Character-building through suffering might be all right for saints, but it certainly didn't appeal to us...

"Then in AA we looked and listened. Everywhere we saw failure and misery transformed by humility into priceless assets. We heard story after story of how humility had brought strength out of weakness. In every case, pain had been the price of admission into a new life. But this admission price had purchased more than we expected. It brought a measure of humility, which we soon discovered to be a healer of pain. We began to fear pain less, and desire humility more than ever...

"During this process of learning more about humility, the most profound result of all was the change in our attitude toward God. And this was true whether we had been believers or unbelievers. We began to get over the idea that the Higher Power was a sort of bush-league pinch hiter, to be called on only in an emergency...

"A great turning point in our lives came when we sought for humility as something we really wanted, rather than as something we must have. It marked the time when we could commence to see the full implications of Step 7: 'Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.'

"As we approach the actual taking of Step 7, it might be well if we AA's inquire once more just what our deeper objectives are. Each of us would like to live at peace with himself and with his fellows. We would like to be assured that the grace of God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We have seen that character defects based upon shortsighted or unworthy desires are the obstacles that block our path toward these objectives. We now clearly see that we have been making unreasonable demands upon ourselves, upon others, and upon God...

"The chief activator of our defects has been self-centered fear - primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustration...

"The 7th Step is where we make the change in our attitude which permits us, with humility as our guide, to move out from ourselves toward others and toward God. The whole emphasis of Step 7 is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Powe greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. If that degree of humility could enable us to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problems we could possibly have."