There is a line in the 12x12 that says "Having opened our channel as best we can..." (pg 102 step eleven)
This passage is referring to prayer and basically how to do it. I always want to point out "as best we can" and how important that is when going into step eleven. Years of sponsees reasoning if they can't do it right or perfect that they just won't do it at all has led me to use the phrase "as best we can" a lot.
We do step 4 to the best of our ability, we do not wait until our ability is better. We do the best we can on any given day and my experience is that "my best" fluctuates considerably. We need to learn to be OK with that. Our best does not mean our all time best record.
At work yesterday, I could not finish a single thing. I worked hard for nine hours, I did not goof off, I applied my self consistently but I still missed one of my deadlines. I drove off at the end of the day in peace because I knew in my heart that I gave my very best for that day. If my best is not good enough then that is out of my control.
Let's just do today, as best we can.
5 comments:
Needed that a lot. Thanks
One old guy told me that I could work all of the steps "to the best of my ability today." Not tomorrow's ability, not someone else's ability - just mine, today. And when my ability was better, I could do better. But I still had to do whatever I could, no matter how inadequate it seemed.
I am still sick but am doing my best to get things done. Feeling like crap doesn't help.
This understanding of my efforts being "to the best I can" changed my whole relationship with God. That whole concept, understanding that my HP does not expect perfection, but only the best I can manage at any given moment...broke my heart in a good way and made room for me to trust and let my Hp work with me. Thanks for bringing that to mind today.
I got sober nine months before my wedding and lived my life as a married woman and mother as a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous, working the program, and just basically doing the best I could on a daily basis.
At the end of my marriage there was a lot of finger pointing on his behalf where he would point out all of the things I did wrong. My mantra to him was, "I am doing the best I can." If that wasn't good enough, then there wasn't much else I could do.
Thank you for this post. I needed to be reminded.
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