Step 06

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

1. Primary principle(s): willingness, hope, surrender
2. Other principles: forgiveness, open mindedness, hope, surrender, commitment, honesty, patience

Readings:

• Big Book p. 76
• Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions pp. 63-69
• “Step Six: Obligated to Go Forward” June 2005AA Grapevine
• “Rededication or–” September 1951AA Grapevine
• “We Are Not a Bunch of Religious Fanatics!”, November 1995 AA Grapevine

OK, so this is the step that “…separates the men from the boys…” (12×12 p. 63). That being the case, why did it warrant only a paragraph in the Big Book?

Bill W. was often asked why he didn’t include the Oxford Movement’s Four Absolutes (absolute love, absolute purity, absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness) in AA’s program of recovery since it was deemed so important with those who had recovered in our early history. Bill’s response was said to have been, “…have you considered steps six and seven?”

I managed to squeeze the hour that is recommended at the end of the 5th step on page 75 into about a 9-month long process on one trip through the steps. It was a thorough (exhaustive?) review if how I had used the character defects that I’d discovered in step 5 in my life until that time.

Drunk and sober. Young and older. There was that corrosive thread of my spiritual malady that was expressed in my character defects. While this process, on reflection, probably had precious little to do with the working of the steps as outlined in our Big Book, it was undeniable after that effort that my life, as ruled by my core beliefs grounded in those character defects, had not only not worked, was grounded on lies and beliefs that would only lead to my ultimate demise.

I can still remember the morning (now more than 15 years ago) when I was sitting in a Saturday morning meeting and I looked at the steps on the wall. I realized that I was at the same bottom with my character defects then that I’d been at with booze ~10 years earlier. I truly couldn’t imagine life without these core beliefs that had “served” me my entire life, but, I also couldn’t imagine going even one more day with these lies, these distortions, these character defects running my life.

I think that day I was entirely willing…

My life has not been the same since.

I’ve yet to find the step or the promise in our Big Book that says “…and then we rendered pure as the driven snow…” I’d like it to be there, I truly would.

But it’s not…

So, I’ve made acknowledged spiritual progress and I still have as my “standard” spiritual perfection.

That’s the best that it gets…