Eighth Step Promises
The last set of Step Promises we had was the Fifth Step Promises. Why? Because there aren’t any Sixth or Seventh Step Promises, according to those who’ve done the research.
There is an (yes, singular) Eighth Step Promise and its a doozy! It takes some effort to stretch your imagination around the statement being a promise and I haven’t quite made that jump yet, but its worth repeating if only for its recovery value.
The key word being “effort.”
The Eighth Step Promise from the AA History Lovers Group at Yahoo!
Now we need more action, without which we find that “Faith without works is dead.” (76:3)
I want to remember the last sentence in the Seventh Step: “If that degree of humility could enable us to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we could possibly have.”
I want to remember that last sentence because the first sentence in the Eighth Step begins with: “Steps Eight and Nine are concerned with personal relations.” If that isn’t “any other problem we could possibly have” I don’t know what could be. My hope would be that the “Promise” is that our relationships will be repaired though that has not been true for me.
Do you have an idea why this is considered a Promise?
Tags: 8th-step, alcoholics-anonymous, humility, Recovery, sobrietyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: The Eighth Step
5 opinions for Eighth Step Promises
Namenlosen Trinker
Aug 22, 2007 at 12:03 pm
“Do you have an idea why this is considered a Promise?”
Perhaps because the converse (or is it the inverse) is that with more action we will find that faith without works is alive. Makes a lot of sense to me.
Mark
Aug 22, 2007 at 8:23 pm
That also makes a lot of sense to me, thanks :)
Luis P.
Aug 24, 2007 at 10:10 pm
My experience has been that my future relationships were better. Based on the actions of “making it right” I have learned how to be a friend. I can walk down the street and look people in the eye.
Because of these actions all of my relationships past and present have seen improvement. I can’t expect instant gratification with anything I do. Especially when it comes to people.
Joe
Jul 2, 2008 at 7:13 am
I do not know that I would call that an 8th step promise. In the big book, page 69, I am instructed to subject every relationship to a set of questions. They are contained in the second paragraph on that page. Ultimately, I am to pray and meditate on my past relationships to get a set of moral and philisophical convictions that I am willing to try to grow toward. The authors then instruct me to use this same standard for “all my human problems”, these include my relationships with people, money, knowledge, etc.; this is straight from the big book in the chapter “How it Works”. It would be a stretch to make this an 8th step promise but if that works for some, OK!
Mark
Jul 2, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Thanks Joe… and Luis.
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