The Promises

"If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and selfpity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves."

This excerpt from the Big Book is one that a newcomer may scoff at. It's a challenge to show the newcomer that this can be true for their lives. The only way they see that it works is through the people around them working the program. After working the steps themselves they will see a change little by little. They will see the promises coming true in their lives. Until they see it in their own lives, sponsors and those in the rooms must be an example. When you look around the room and you see someone happy and free, realize...that can be you if you just work the program whole heartedly!