The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
I really want to move on to Step 2, but have am still having a real problem with the "God" stuff. How does one just "come to believe" in it? I believe in some sort of energy that connects all things, but it is dispassionate. It does not care for me or anyone. I want to move further in the program, but keep getting stuck. I know it can be something other than a "God" but then turning my life over to it makes me nervous. I wish so much that I could believe. I am just a very pragmatic person. What do I do?
__________________
**Everyone is doing the best they can from day to day**
Wish i could tell you some magic formula but have none, it just occurs to me that the word belief implies that we do just that and trust is not a priori. I think we have to work on it, take that leap of faith: sight unseen."Seek and ye shall find" It's a promise and a process , not step by step perfection. I would say move on, because you can always backtrack or go another round. By the way, I find the first 3 steps harder than the last.
Hello Paint , I was told along time ago if I was stuck on a step to go back one to find my answers so far tht has worked for me.
In this case you may not truly believe that you are powerless . The steps are numbered 1-12 for a reason (that took me awhile to understand) when u have accepted one - step two wil be come perfectly clear. each step leads u to the next part of recovery. Easy Does It - Louise
This may help you , for me i didn't believe in the God thing either when i arrived here so for me the Power greater than myself was my f2f group .together they were alot more powerful than i was alone.
I started to believe the literature that I read and trust the stories of the people in my f2f meetings , trust that they were being honest . As i started to use the tools of recovery that I learned in my meetings there ws room for Sanity to be returned to my life. = thus I arrived at step 2 hope this helps.
I have very much the same problem, my spirititual beliefs are not really in a personal god, but more in something like the cycle of nature, the marvelous intricacy of science, etc. I take enormous confort in knowing that the atoms that make up me have made up many other things, animals and people in the past, and will again in the future, that I am just part of this wonderful circle.
The way I am able to tie this in, in a meaningful way, to my program, is that it teaches me that what is, is. I am not all powerful, I cannot change what has happened, I cannot make my A well and whole. For me to give away those things which are not mine to carrry, does not mean that I know who or what I am giving them to - it just means that *I* don't have to carry them, that I have only the power to change my own actions.
Because I believe that I am part of something larger than myself, it is not hard for me to accept that I do not have all the answers, and that everything that happens is not my fault or my responsibility.
Here's a twist for you..... you may not have to worry about your "God" answer until step 3.... At a course I took at one of the treatment centers my wife attended, a pastor taught us for a day on spirituality and the steps.... His opinion is that steps 3 and 4 are referring to God or a HP, whereas step 2 is really more in reference to the "power of we".
We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
This can be interpreted as the power of group, the power of sharing, of reaching out.... the proverbial two (or more) heads are better than one....
We quite easily get too wrapped up in the emotions around our particular situations, whereas there are often times where others - friends in recovery, sponsors, al-anon groups - can see things more for what they really are.
Just my thoughts...
Tom
__________________
"He is either gonna drink, or he won't.... what are YOU gonna do?"
"What you think of me is none of my business"
"If you knew the answer to what you are worrying about, would it REALLY change anything?"
hope this helps.