The Gamblers Anonymous Program’s Fourth Step suggests that we make a fearless moral and financial inventory of ourselves. For so many of us, especially newcomers, the task seems impossible. Each time we take pencil in hand and try to look inward, Pride says scoffingly, You don’t have to bother to look. And Fear cautions, You’d better nor look! Eventually …
From time to time when I see the slogan There, but for the Grace of God Go I, I remember how I used to mouth those words when I saw others whose gambling addiction had brought them to what I considered a hopeless and helpless state. The slogan had long been a cop-out for me, reinforcing my denial of …
My gambling addiction was like a thief in more ways than I can count. It robbed me not only of money, property, and other material things, but of dignity and self-respect, while my family and friends suffered right along with me. Gambling also robbed me of the ability to treat myself properly, as God would …
You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.—Dag Hammerskjold. If I want to keep my garden tidy, I must …
One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self, a renowned philosopher once wrote. Of all mines of treasure, one’s own is the last to be dug up. The Gamblers Anonymous Twelve Steps of Recovery have enabled me to unearth my own self, the one that for so long was buried beneath my desperate need for approval from others. …
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well, wrote La Rochefoucauld. The Gamblers Anonymous Program is of inestimable value for those of us recovering compulsive gamblers who want to know ourselves and who are courageous enough to seek growth through self-examination and self-improvement. If I remain honest, open-minded, and willing, the GA …
There’s a world of difference between the idea of self-love and love of self. Self-love is a reflection of an inflated ego, around which—in our distorted view of our own self-importance—everything must revolve. Self-love is the breeding ground for hostility, arrogance, and a host of other character defects that blind us to any points of view but our own. Love of self, in …
Before I admitted my powerlessness over gambling, I had as much self-worth as a peeled zero. I came into Gamblers Anonymous as a nobody who desperately wanted to be a somebody. In retrospect, my self-esteem was shredded, seemingly beyond repair. Gradually, the Program has enabled me to achieve an ever stronger sense of self-worth. I’ve come to …
There are countless ways by which my progress and growth in the Gamblers Anonymous Program can be measured. One of the most important is my awareness that I’m no longer compelled, almost obsessively, to go around judging everything and everybody. My only business today is to work on changing myself, rather than other people, places, …
Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the rewards that would be mine when I first contemplated turning my life and will over to the care of God as I understood Him. Now I can rejoice in the blessing of my own recovery, as well as the recoveries of countless others who have …