Relieve me of the bondage of self…and that’s sometimes one of my problems. Thinking somehow that I’m in charge. I’m not. In fact I’m grateful for my old sponsor and others, who reminded me of the fact that I never could be.
For instance, that First Step, when I ran into myself, thinking I was in charge. The truth was that I did not stop drinking on my own. I asked my God to take the alcohol away. And that’s what exactly happened. I woke up the next day and alcohol was gone. In fact, so far, it has never come back.
And then I thought I was in charge. And that was wrong also. That is when my sponsor told me that I thought I knew what was going on and the truth was that I didn’t know. I only thought I did. I still had the mind of an active alcoholic, being run by my negative emotions. I was going to have to learn how to change.
And, over a long time in here, I have. I learned how to think in the right way, and how to remove these negative emotions, which were in charge of my alcoholic mind. But I didn’t do that. It all began to happen when I was given the Second Step. A spiritual way of life to begin with, and then my relationship with my Higher Power began. Plus my old sponsor and those old timers freely showed me how to make these changes, plus how to work these Steps.
And that’s where that prayer, relieve me of the bondage of self, comes in. I need to continue to learn how to do my Higher Power’s will. To help not only myself, but all those who need what was freely given to me. I need to freely give it to others.
Hopefully, from time to time, others might become part of that prayer, the relieving of the bondage of self, which goes on. The rest is that I ask my Higher Power to remove my faulted thinking and I can be an example, which some will come to witness God’s love, his power, and his way of life.
And all of this is testimony of the fact that none of us are saints. We are human alcoholics, who are open to stumbling, and bumbling, and tumbling until the day we die. We have to learn to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and go back to our Higher Power, and continue to stay sober a day at a time.
Anyway I have to be grateful for all I have been given by my Higher Power. I need to thank Him and all those, who have helped me to grow in here. And again, to continue to stay sober.