Monthly Reflections on the 12 Steps from EAI Board

STEP 7: HUMBLY ASKED HIM TO REMOVE OUR SHORTCOMINGS.

"Daily stresses make it easy to forget to be humble. Asking our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings instead of simply asking HP to change people and/or circumstances takes practice and strength. If I don't regularly ask HP to remove my shortcomings, I risk falling into the stinking thinking of blaming everyone and everything around me when things don't go 'my way'. I attend meetings regularly to power up each week through reading, sharing, and listening with peers, so that I have the strength and front of mind presence to practice Step 7." — Paul N., EAI President

"When I first started in EA the seventh step seemed to me like a vacation in the middle of all the complicated and demanding steps. Just humbly ask my Higher Power to remove my shortcomings? Simple, done! As I grew in the program I learned that “humbly asking” is not as easy as it sounds. It requires me to suspend fear and trust in turning over my defects, rather than continually dwelling on them. Step 7 also implies that I come to accept myself as I am, rather than having an exaggerated, self-centered idea of my positives and negatives. Humility means standing on solid ground, which is always the best place to be!" — Colleen C., EAI Secretary

"The revised edition of our book, the book entitled Emotions Anonymous, states on page 63 "In Step Six we became ready to have the God of our understanding remove our character defects.  We did this by becoming acutely aware of our defects and developing the willingness to let go of them... In Step Seven we continue this process by asking God to remove our shortcomings."
The spiritual principle embodied in Step Seven, would, of course, be humility. I had to humble myself. I've read one definition of humility that stated humility places one, neither above nor below anyone, on some imagined ladder of worth but, among one's fellow man. I love that definition because most of my life I've felt either superior or inferior, never equal, to my fellow man; and the constant comparing, most times, left me feeling less than and even to the point of feeling like I was the scum of the earth.

But this program, which I'll be forever grateful for and owe my life to, has made me aware of the fact that I am a child of God and He loves me in spite of me and my many shortcomings. Therefore, as a result, I can be free to love myself too. I read in one of my pieces of program literature that the main purpose of the program is to enable us to love ourselves. The Golden Rule: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Or, in laymen's terms, love your neighbor as yourself." No wonder I couldn't do that; I didn't love myself. Thank God for Emotions Anonymous! The 12 Steps enabled me to do just that."  — Derita P., EAI Treasurer