Good Morning Everyone! Thanks to karen for helping out yesterday
while I attended Ozzie's funeral in Vermont. He was buried in the
same graveyard as Bill and Lois by the way.

Page 76 - Let's look at the first paragraph - Believe it or not
there is a prayer for the 6th Step too: "Can He now take them all -
every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask
God to help us be willing." We pray for willingness in Step 6. Much
like the process in Step 3 we are really making a decision to become
willing to have God remove these defects/shortcomings. And, much
like Step 3 there is a definite action associated with the decision.
We employ right action to fulfill our decision, we do the opposite
of our defects, we act our way into good thinking.

Step 7 - "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of
me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single
defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you
and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your
bidding. Amen." Our 7th Step Prayer. We have noticed that "defects"
appear instead of "shortcomings" in the prayer. Bill, who prefered
not to repeated himself, used a synynom: defects of character =
shortcomings = wrongs.

There is more work to do to clear the channel between us and our
Higher Power. "Faith without works is dead." How are we to do this
work, also known as God's will, if we are still a prisoner to the
past? How do we walk out from here and attempt to do His will if we
aren't able to look everyone in the eye? Two tremendously vital
steps that enable us to live happy, joyous and free are all about
amends.

Still on page 76, let's look at paragraph 3: "We have a list of
persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We
made it when we took inventory" [during the step 4 and 5 process].
Here is where the term "amends" is defined: "Now we go out to our
fellows and repair the damage done in the past." "...repair the
damage," not apologize - we are attempting to right a serious
wrong. Remember, also, this step has it's roots in the Oxford Group
concept of "Restitution". Restitution is a synonym of amends.
Through it we accept responsibility for our part and we make it
right. "I'm really sorry" isn't what we are looking for here.

The prayer for Step 8 - "If we haven't the will to do this, we ask
until it comes." I needed to ask God for the will to face all these
people and without His help it was too much for me. I brought my
list to my sponsor to review and determine my best course of action
to achieve these amends. Today I am grateful for having done so for
I received many helpful suggestions. He emphasized that I was there
to clear my side of the street, that the wrongs of the other party
were not the focus of the discussion.

With our next post we'll discuss Step 9 in depth. We'll begin at the
bottom of page 76.

Have a great day, everyone!

Jim