What is it that drives alcoholics at meetings to ask for advice on relationships or jobs or whatever else is bothering them? Advice? From a group, which has a bad record on all of these? Or is it group therapy?
Whatever happened to the suggestions made to us in this program? Like work the Steps. My sponsor told me that I was insecure, immature, and over sensitive. Who me? Yes, me. He told me to get sober, read and study the BB. Change from what I was into what I could be…if I applied these Steps to my life.
If I needed advice, go to those more qualified. Like a doctor, a priest or minister, a therapist, an accountant, an attorney. Someone, who knows what they’re talking about and can help me.
I know. How about me talking to my sponsor and asking him?
Everyday, if I depend on my higher power, instead of myself, I just might get better. I just might progress through these 12 Steps. I just might begin to change. I just might get restored to sanity. I just might get all those things talked about in the BB.
I was told, if you want what we have, you’ll have to do what we did. Otherwise, I could go around asking advice from those less qualified and end up drunk from disappointment, because what I heard didn’t work.
Anyway, after listening to a bunch of people, who were caught up in telling someone what they should and ought to do, I finally had it and suggested they go back and read the BB and start practicing what is written there. It’s about staying sober from alcohol. If I can stay sober and practice this program in my life, I will undergo a change. A change in attitude, a change in my thinking, how I act, and a whole lot more.
The BB tells me that the spiritual life is not a theory. It has to be lived. That alone tells me what I should be doing. Guess what? That’s the advice I need. And one of those things I need to hear is, nothing is worth a drink today.
Anyway, I was thinking about why I go to meetings. To me and so many others it’s about my alcoholism. It was alcohol that drove me in here. It’s getting sober and staying sober, which keeps me here. I want to hear what I need to hear to stay sober this day. If I do, I will be able to take care of what is bothering me on any given day. But my primary purpose must take first place or I might just lose it over time.