“Al-Anon is not a religious program, but it is a spiritual one. Our Twelve Steps speak of a Power greater than ourselves and a God of our understanding. We do not impose a particular image or definition of that God or Higher Power. Instead, we leave it up to the individual members to define these terms for themselves, and to find a personal, spiritual relationship that allows them to benefit from what our program has to offer…..
“We may find a Power greater than ourselves in natural law, universal love, beauty, a mountain or a thunderstorm or the many wonders of nature, creativity, and any number of other sources. Some of us continue to use the collective wisdom of our Al-Anon group as a Higher Power, noting that wonderful insights and changes take place when we avail ourselves of that wisdom. The God of understanding may be male or female, an inanimate object, disembodied spirit, or force of nature.”
From HOW AL-ANON WORKS (Step 3, p.49)
Study of these Steps is essential to progress in the Al-Anon program. The principles they embody are universal, applicable to everyone, whatever your personal creed. In Al-Anon, we strive for an ever-deeper understanding of these Steps, and pray for the wisdom to apply them to our lives.
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Reprinted with permission of Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Virginia Beach, VA.