Aug. 30, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today

Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012

Just for today, I will take Step 10 for the first time or retake it because it is one of the Program’s most integral maintenance Steps: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” The 10th is the logical extension of the Fourth in which we “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” We cannot and should not believe that our personal inventory and admission of our wrongs is a one-time exercise: not only can those wrongs be resurrected in recovery and even after we’ve asked our Higher Power to remove them, but “new” defects can and do evolve in recovery. But why should we look in the mirror even long after our last drink or use? To do so risks old character defects to slip in again, possibly undetected, and a fearless honesty will likely tell us that our active addiction was fueled by those defects. And a relapse, even a so-called “slip,” is too high a price to pay for neglecting our maintenance of the progress we achieve in the Fourth Step. Today, I have to muster the honesty required of a continued personal inventory - my recovery is too precious a gift to risk. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012