Sunday, June 3, 2018

Step 6 from "Side by Side - the Twelve Steps and A Course in Miracles"


       Have you ever had to clean out a closet or even a whole house and got stopped by something you found that you knew would take up too much room in the future, but you just couldn’t throw it away? You knew it had to go, but you just stubbornly didn’t want to take that step. Well, this is what Step 6 in “Side by Side – the Twelve Steps and A Course in Miracles” addresses. Only it’s not about your closet or your house, this it about those deep dark ugly parts of your subconscious and those really nasty prejudices against yourself and others. 

            “… Each step has brought us closer to the deepest and darkest areas of our mind. Here the refusal to forgive over a lifetime, perhaps many lifetimes, resides. Here is where we must look at the anger and fear and turn each painful thought over to the Holy Spirit Who knows what to do with these.

          Never will the Holy Spirit condemn or punish. Only will He show us the spiritual truth about ourselves. Here, as the light is thrown on the dark recesses of our being, will we see the glory that has been hidden by our fears and defense mechanisms. Our dark thoughts hid not only our own glory but the beauty of our brothers also. Now we are being given a way to find the truth once more and free ourselves by freeing our brothers through the forgiveness of all those errors we have done and seen.

          This process is slow, but is sure! We cannot leave one dark cornerstone left in our mind without turning this over to Him for correction. This step takes constant vigilance, and though at the beginning we feebly walk ourselves through this new path, each attempt brings some success building upward to a greater and greater ability to be self-honest and willing to trust the One Who knows. We must do our part, but we must also allow Him to do His.



(you can find “Side by Side” the book in the left column as well as its companion “Hand in Hand – Recovery and Miracles”)




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