Twelve Steps to Recovery - The Eleventh Step

This article summarizes the eleventh step of the Twelve Steps to Recovery. Refer to the Wimberley United Methodist Church website for a summary of steps 1 through 10. “The Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous lists the eleventh step from the original Twelve Steps as “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”

The eleventh step of the AA method of recovery, asks us to give ourselves daily spiritual maintenance through prayer and meditation. The Big Book on page 86 provides directions on how to complete STEP 11. It says that when we retire at night, we should constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. No matter how we feel, do God's will. Finally, the Big Book tells us that after making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

There are also numerous books and resources that provide prayers to use for step 11. Following is an example of such a prayer. “Lord, make me a channel of thy peace--that where there is hatred, I may bring love--that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness--that where there is discord, I may bring harmony--that where there is error, I may bring truth--that where there is doubt, I may bring faith--that where there is despair, I may bring hope--that where there are shadows, I may bring light--that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted--to understand, than to be understood--to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.”

This summary was written by the Faith Partners group of Wimberley United Methodist Church. It is part of a continuing series of articles on each of the twelve steps.