TWELVE STEPS OF A SPONSOR

1)                  I will not help you stay and wallow in limbo

2)                  I will help you grow, to become more productive, by your own definition

3)                  I will help you become more autonomous, more loving of yourself, more free to continue becoming the authority of your own living

4)                  I cannot give you dreams or “fix you up”, simply because I cannot

5)                  I cannot give you growth, or grow for you.  You must grow yourself, by facing reality, grim as it may be sometimes

6)                  I cannot take away your loneliness or pain

7)                  I cannot sense your world for you, evaluate your goals, or tell you what is best for you in your world;  You have your own world

8)                  I cannot convince you of the crucial choice of choosing the scary uncertainty of growing over the safe misery of not growing

9)                  I want to be with you and know you as a rich and growing friend, yet cannot get close to you when you choose not to grow

10)              When I begin to care for you out of pity, when I begin to lose trust in you, then I am toxic, bad and inhibiting for you, and you for me

11)              You must know – my help is conditional.  I will be with you, hang in there with you, as long as I continue to get even the slightest hints that you are trying to grow

12)              If you can accept all of this, then perhaps we can help each other to become what God meant us to be…mature adults, leaving childishness forever to the little children