TURNING NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE

 TURNING NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE

 

Our spiritual and emotional growth in A.A.

does not depend so deeply upon success

as it does upon our failures and setbacks.

If you will bear this in mind,

I think that your slip will have the effect

of kicking you upstairs, instead of down.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 184

 

In keeping with the pain and adversity

which our founders encountered

and overcame in establishing A.A.,

Bill W. sent us a clear message:

a relapse can provide a positive experience

toward abstinence and a lifetime of recovery.

A relapse brings truth

 to what we hear repeatedly in meetings —

“Don’t take that first drink!”

It reinforces the belief

 in the progressive nature of the disease,

and it drives home the need for,

and beauty of humility in our spiritual program.

Simple truths come in complicated ways to me

when I become ego driven.