One of the rewards for our staying sober is in the Ninth Step. The promises. The result of our efforts in cleaning house. But like the BB says, only if we work for them. They come, but they’re not necessarily free.
I was thinking about this today. By the time we’ve worked our way our way through that Step, a lot of things happened. Not just the promises, but a whole lot more.
For one thing, I remember, was that my conflicts with my resentments vanished in a second. I had just finished one of my amends with a man I really had anger and resentments toward. I was almost boiling, when I left that office, though I had formally gone through my amends with him. I stepped out of his office and was approaching the elevator and all of a sudden all my resentments, including the one I had against him, vanished. If one of those people had stepped into view I wouldn’t have been able to remember them.
The two promises I was thinking about this noon were: knowing intuitively how to handle situations which used to baffle us and God doing for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. That was because we were talking to a woman, whose mother is in critical condition and possibly near the end of her life.
I also thought, from my own experiences, not to take a drink. No matter what the situation in our lives, it’s still about alcohol. Still about sobriety.
I could have thrown in the promise that fear of economic insecurity will leave us, but that was personal to me early this morning. Something I was able to regain after prayer.
Anyway, I was thinking about this this evening. How blessed I am to be sober and have pretty much all this program can give to me. I know there’s more. There always is. All I have to do is sit quietly and it will show itself. Either in solitude or at a meeting.