HFF Step 7

 

Hope for Freedom Society
Step Writing Guide and Worksheets

 

 “We Humbly asked Him to Remove our Shortcomings”

• Read Step Seven out of the “Basic Text”, every day before writing.

• Look up each word individually, and write about the difference between your definition of the word, and the dictionary definition.

WRITE ABOUT WHAT EACH PART MEANS TO YOU:

• We Humbly

• Asked Him

• To Remove

• Our Shortcomings

• Write on an event or experience where you were afraid to be yourself

• Look up Humility. Write about how an attitude of humility may have, or did, allow you to be yourself

 

SPONSOR/SPONSEE SEVENTH STEP WORKSHEET

Lets talk about “shortcomings” before we get into this step. Are shortcomings the same as defects? The answer is both yes, and no. As strange as it may seem, it is true. We say they are the same, because shortcomings have their roots in defects. We say they are different because a shortcoming is the “acting out” of a defect. Let’s take the defect of impatience as an example. You are waiting to pick someone up for a meeting, and you are doing him or her a favor by going out of your way. You arrive on time, but they are not ready yet. You now have waited 20 minutes, and they are still not ready, and it seems that you are going to be late. At this point, many of the shortcomings of the defect impatience are about to be acted out. You may get angry, frustrated, and resentful. These are some of the shortcomings born of the defect of impatience. Many of the same shortcomings come from different defects.

In the Sixth Step we become entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. In the Seventh Step, we will see how God does this, when we humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings. Before we actually learn how to apply this step, lets look at what the Seventh Step says.

The Seventh Step begins with; “We Humbly Ask Him”. When we recognize the fact that we are responsible for our shortcomings, even though we are not responsible for our defects, we are becoming humble. In the First Step we learned that we are not responsible for having the disease, and the defects are part of the disease. The defects will always be there, but they can be arrested, and in turn, the shortcomings are removed.

Understanding our shortcomings, or “acting out” on our defects, is our responsibility. We become humble when we accept this fact. What we do, is simply apply the First Step to our shortcomings, and when we see the insanity of acting out our shortcomings, we decide to act differently. In deciding that we are going to act differently, we apply the Second Step to our shortcomings. Finally, we turn our lives and our shortcomings over to the God of our understanding. This will give us the strength and the courage to act mature and responsible, since it applying The Third Step to our shortcomings. The solution to all of our problems can be found in the steps. The first three steps become the foundation of our solutions, and the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Steps are the way to keep our solutions working. This is a lifetime process because our disease is always with us, waiting for us to let our “Spiritual Guard” down, so it can strike at us. This is why we go to meetings for the rest of our lives, and stay close to A.A./N.A. people, so that we can stay green. Remember, when you are green you are growing. When you are ripe you begin to rot!

• What is the difference between defects and shortcomings?

• How do we become humble?

• What are shortcomings?

• How do we keep our disease from resurfacing?

• What are defects?

• Why do we have to go to meetings as long as we live?