"Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character." — Step Six
Sometimes alcoholics skip words when we read. We're taking in information so fast, trying to get the meaning, that we can miss a vital part of what's being said.
One word that often gets skipped in Step Six is God.
Then we're right back to beating ourselves up about lust, anger, fear, selfishness, and the whole gamut of character defects that make up our alcoholic condition. It's common to hear people say, "I'm working on my character defects." And that's a great start. But Step Six doesn't say, "You get angry a lot, so go fix that yourself." It doesn't say, "Work harder on your lust," or "Try harder not to be selfish."
What it says is that we're entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.
That means accepting the fact that the anger is there. The fear is there. The selfishness is there. Then, in those moments when they show up, we lean on a Higher Power and ask for help instead of trying to wrestle the thing to the ground ourselves.
Please don't try this alone.
Once we recognize what's happening, we act as if God has removed it and go about our day. If we mess it up, we make it right and keep moving. We don't sit around beating ourselves up for three weeks. We clean it up, learn from it, and move forward.
We always keep moving.
It turns out that when we're sober, people are a lot more forgiving of us when they see us trying. And maybe that's because God has been doing the same thing for us all along.
Have you ever spent more time fighting a character defect than asking God to remove it?
