Steps 10 and 11: The ones you just can't check off the list.

I thought these fit well together, and while other steps also pair together well, these are different in that they both are things you need to do to maintain recovery for the rest of your life.  And I just need to get this blog caught up to where I am in the program.

Step 10 daily accountability - continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it. This isn't something you do once and then you're done with it. Doing it today still means you have to do it again tomorrow. You can't just brush your teeth once and be done the rest of your life. Every day we are accountable for what we used that day to do. Are we productive with the time we receive that is a gift to us every day?  Every evening we should take some time to reflect on the day and how we used it.  Any mistakes we made or goals we failed to achieve we can commit to doing better the next day.  This is especially important to maintain the progress we have made and keep from relapsing back into our addiction.  If we do not focus daily on becoming better it is easy to fall back into old habits. 

This is something I personally struggle with.  I have never been very good at taking the time before bed to ponder, reflect, and pray.  My husband likes to watch shows together before bed, and when we decide to go to bed I typically feel too tired to do this.  So this is something I will be working on, and will likely work on for a very long time as I can see that it will be something I should do for the rest of my life, and I don't know when this will become a habit that is easy for me.

Step 11 personal revelation - seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord's will and have the power to carry it out.  This is how we should begin each day, with a prayer seeking to know the Lord's will for us for that day.  He will not tell us everything, otherwise this life would not be a test.  But if we are not seeking to know His will, then when we need His guidance it will not be there for us.  Just as I will be working on step 10 for a long time I will likely also work on this for a long time.  I think both these things will be easier to incorporate into my life when my children are not quite so young.  If I don't at least try now then I will be missing out on strength and blessings that I could really use right now. 

It's that endure to the end concept.  Okay now that I've changed my heart, and overcome so many obstacles and am no longer absorbed in my addiction I need to take steps to insure that I stay as strong as I am now, and continue to progress on my journey.