My heart is restless until it rests in thee. – St. Augustine
When worked appropriately, a 12 Step program can transform our life. As we work the 12 steps we will be strengthened spiritually. Focusing on a relationship with our Heavenly Father transforms our obsessive need for others people’s approval. Feelings of unworthiness, anxiety, and inferiority diminish and are replaced by spiritual strength.
During a 12 Step program we will confront all of our relationships, our relationship with our Heavenly Father, our relationship with our family of origin, our relationships with our spouses and children, classmates, colleagues and friends. We will grapple with all kinds of issues like control, honesty, hope, trust, humility, forgiveness, reconciliation, and accountability. We will confront our pain and learn from it what we need to do.
The 12 Steps – LDS Family Services (Addiction Recovery Manual)
Step 1: Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.
Step 2: Come to believe that the power of God can restore you to complete spiritual health.
Step 3: Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Step 4: Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself.
Step 5: Admit to yourself, to your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, to proper priesthood authority, and to another person the exact nature of your wrongs.
Step 6: Become entirely ready to have God remove all your character weaknesses.
Step 7: Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove your shortcomings.
Step 8: Make a written list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make restitution to them.
Step 9: Wherever possible, make direct restitution to all persons you have harmed.
Step 10: Continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it.
Step 11: Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out.
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, share this message with others and practice these principles in all you do.
