12 Steps to SerenitySýnishorn

STEP 4

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Denial acts to prevent our completion of a thorough fourth step inventory. Our hearts may know profound areas of pain that need to be acknowledged and grieved for. However, our “puffed up” words will tend to minimize and discount the gravity of both the wrongs we have committed against others and the wrongs we have suffered at the hands of others.

How do we deceive ourselves with “puffed up” words? The adult child of workaholism may minimize the pain of an absentee parent. The abuser of prescription drugs may discount the growing addiction, because “the doctor ordered it.” The relationship addict or sex addict may rationalize countless violations of the boundaries of others by saying these things are done in the name of love.

A.A. literature warns that recovery is within the reach of all except those “who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves” (Alcoholics Anonymous, p.58). The kingdom of God is attainable to those who will utilize the power of confession.