Step Three

The Third Step Decision Is Just That, A Decision

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him

“Being convinced we were at Step Three, which is we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood Him.” (page 60 in The Big Book).

This is a lofty goal for alcoholics and addicts. We have been living only to benefit us and our addictions. Turning our will and life over to a God that we may or may not have a relationship with is far from easy. We have made many decisions — time and time again we decided to stop drinking or using for good. We made a decision to only drink or use so much before we would stop and go home. We made a decision that if we did certain things we would go to a treatment center. We made decision after decision and never followed through with the action required to consummate these decisions.

It has been our experience that while working the steps, individuals are in and working Step Three when they start writing inventory. They have done the first two steps, the reading, and the writing, and they see how they have been consumed with selfishness and self-centered fear. They have prayed The Third Step Prayer earnestly in whatever fashion suits them and launched on a course of vigorous action. A rocket launches, and that is how we like to see individuals approach step work, with the same explosive intensity. In the work lies a conscious contact with God so much better than any high we could ever imagine. All of us have spent years and enormous amounts of money searching for the perfect chemical mixture that would relieve us from the bondage of self. Just like everything that is truly priceless, you do the work and It shows up. The action taken in steps 4-9 turns our will and lives over to the care and direction of the God we discover when we follow up our decision with a course of deliberate action. The step work confirms our Third Step Decision.

– Anonymous