In sponsoring women, I have grown so much over the years. They have taught me more than I have taught them, for sure. It seems that whatever step they are on at the time, I am working that step also. Funny how that works.
In leading them in working the 12 steps that I traveled, I know that I am not giving them the answers. That’s not my job. I am pointing them to the questions they need to answer for themselves. Showing them how I stayed sober and worked my steps. The road I traveled—and continue to travel.
I am there to listen. Guide. Tell them my experience. Give them hope to know that it may be painful going through this process. But, knowing that God is transforming us along the way. Sometimes, it is in hindsight that we see our own growth and God’s hand on our step process. Or, others see it in us and wonder what has happened. What a gift to find that, not only can we survive without alcohol or drugs in our life—we can thrive.
We can retrain our brains to live a productive life again, through the work that we do on ourselves in our step work. And—being willing to have God change us from the inside out over time.
Then, as step 12 states, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry the message to others who still suffer, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
Passing on what was so freely given to me. Service.
A pastor that I know said these words to me once. To me, this is what it is to be a sponsor:
Know the way
Go the way
Show the way
"In all your ways submit to him, and he will direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:6
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