Daily
Reflections reading March 14th
The Keystone
He
is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this
concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed
to freedom. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62
A keystone
is the wedge-shaped piece at the highest part of an arch that locks the other
pieces in place. The “other pieces” are Steps One, Two, and Four through
Twelve. In one sense this sounds like Step Three is the most important Step,
that the other eleven depend on the third for support. In reality however, Step
Three is just one of twelve. It is the keystone, but without eleven other
stones to build the base and the arms, keystone or not, there will be no arch.
Through working of all Twelve Steps, I find that triumphant arch waiting for me
to pass through to another day of freedom.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My
thoughts on March 14th Reading
I was told the beginning of a spiritual way of life lays
behind the door of step three, there is only one key to open the door of step
three, it is called willingness to me without being willing to seek out this God
really trying to find him with-in myself
Trying to understand what it is that so many before me came
to believe in, looking for the God of their understanding, I was told He was
the God with-in me, I was desperate to humbly seek Him out and when I did I to
found a God of unconditional love
This for me is where I laid the foundation of my new home on
solid bedrock of the twelve steps of this awesome program, I came I came too, I
came to believe, this was the first few stones on my new home
It was going to be some time until I laid down the stone of
the rest of the steps, I had to take that
inventory of myself, big stone to pick up, then I had to
share all that I found out in my inventory with
another human being, another big stone on my foundation
Having found this God of my understanding I now was entirely
ready to have Him remove all these
defects of character, seemed simple just had to be ready for
Him to remove them all, until I found out I liked some of them. Well I was
ready to have some removed the glaring ones
Now the stone of step six has been firmly put into place, it
was time for me to move on to step seven it's all about letting Go, Once I had
become willing for God to remove my defects of character I simply need to humbly
ask Him to remove my shortcomings
This is the real letting go step, it was a big project for
me, trying to be able to let something go, it felt
like I just want to take it back again, I know I just needed
to accept, the way I look at this after all acceptance comes along with letting
go, once acceptance is there letting go almost takes care of itself
Now that stone is firmly in place I moved on to making the
list of all persons I had harmed, and I then became willing to make amends to
them all, so again like in step three willingness come into the building
blocks, one more stone now in place
Now comes the big one making direct amends to people
wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others wherever is a big word this means
this could take a life time, not
everyone gets on that list, just the ones I could think of
at the time
I did get thru that step with my sponsors help as to who to
make amends to some I could have easily hurt, one more major stone on the
building of the archway of step three, thanks God for step ten this is where I
can make the amends to theses I missed the first time
Putting in this stone was also to remember to daily take an
inventory and make amends for the
present, the stone of step ten now in place I had to seek
through prayer and meditation to improve
my conscious contact with God, as I now understood Him
Well that was the last stone to put in before I could set
the keystone in place the foundation and the
wall leading to the arch were all in place, there was just
one stone left the keystone of recovery the
last step to freeing myself from bondage
After having a spiritual awakening as the result of building
this archway for other to walk thru I now try to carry this message of hope to
other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all my affair
The message is "God can do for us what we could not do
for ourselves if we let Him"
God bless you Al M
Please feel free to mail
suggestions or comments
