Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him
Willingness is the word that comes to mind when we speak of the third step. For so long we depended on ourselves and our ideas. The thought of anyone or anything else helping us to run our lives was impossible. When we've walked through the first two steps of the program, we have already made an excellent start. We by now realize just how powerless we are over alcohol and drugs. After the second step we start to see that there is a power out there that can help us. Even if that power is the AA or NA group as a whole, it is better than self reliance.
The third step asks us to make a decision. For so long we have made so many resolutions and trade offs, but we never made a decision. So many of us ask, "What does this decision entail? How do I do this?" Many people that have achieved long term sobriety say that the decision is that you will go on with the process laid out before us. There is a great deal of humility that applies to this step. It shows that we know and want help. It shows us that we realize that without help our demise is an alcoholic death.
One of the beauties of this program is that we do all these things one day at a time. Every day if we can practice the first three steps and realize how important they are to our recovery, the easier it gets.
This is what the Twelve and Twelve of Alcoholics Anonymous says about the steps:
A.A's twelve steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions- Foreward)
How has the third step effected your life? How did you come to make the decision?
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