Update....Again

I know you guys are probably sick of hearing about my brother but it is just hard to blog about anything else when this has been the biggest thing going on in our lives. Thank you for all of the prayers. We continue to be amazed at Justin's progress. We visited with him again today and he keeps a positive attitude. He is working on step 4 (see below) so he is hitting some pretty hard stuff. I am amazed at the emotion he is showing. I have seen him brought to tears just talking about how much his family means to him.

I learned about the 12 steps of AA in nursing school but had forgotten how much they are rooted in spirituality. Speaks volumes that such a successful recovery program is so deeply rooted in the Lord.

Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. 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.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.