Those whom I most respect in the Gamblers Anonymous Program—and, in turn, those from whom I’ve learned the most—seem convinced that pride is, as one person put it, the root-sin. In moral theology, pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. It is also considered the most serious, standing apart from the rest by virtue of …
The mystery of ego: painful when inflated and painful to deflate, often keeping me from wholeheartedly working the Gamblers Anonymous Program. Even armed with the truth, I too often fall back on the old, familiar ideas that led me to the edge of despair. It takes such work to shrink the ego, and sometimes it …
When I’m motivated by pride—by bondage of self—I become partly or even wholly blind to my liabilities and shortcomings. At that point, the last thing I need is comfort. Instead, I need an understanding friend in the Gamblers Anonymous Program—a friend who’ll unhesitatingly chop a hole through the wall my ego has built so that …
Virtually all of us suffered the defect of pride when we sought help through the Program, the Twelve Steps, and the Fellowship of recovering compulsive gamblers who truly understood what we felt and where we had been. We learned about our shortcomings—and of pride in particular—and began to replace self-satisfaction with gratitude for the miracle …
I never cease to be amazed at how appropriate the topic at meetings I attend seems to be in relation to my life at that particular time. We can only become students in the presence of a teacher—and when a student becomes ready, a teacher will appear. We can only learn if we are being …
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. …