421 Practicing Self-Inventory

Step Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

A blessing of the program is that when I feel bad, instead of immediately looking to find out who has harmed me or blaming God for putting yet another perceived obstacle in my path, I respond by questioning what is wrong with me.  What character defect of mine is once again manifesting itself? What might I have done that requires amends? What do I need to surrender?

As I practice self-inventory, my judging and condemning attitude changes.  I not only learn to accept others, but also to better accept myself.  I am an addict.  I’m defective.  I mess up.  As I learn to identify my defects sooner, I mess up less and less often! The more I practice admitting when I’m wrong, the less I have to.  The more serenity I get by taking inventory, the less I begrudge the time spent doing it.  I practice self-inventory – not to shame myself or to feel guilty, but to more quickly identify what character defect is currently blocking me from God so that I can surrender it.

Higher Power, thank you for giving me an occasional taste of the much-prized gift of wisdom.