Step 4

A business that takes no inventory goes broke. You wouldn’t know what to get rid of and what to replace with new stock, what was stolen or needed. Jo and Charlie

A View Intersite Samples:

A Few Good Examples For You

Example of listing a resentment

4th step prayer

Fears

Many More Resources

Try to Leave the Committee Behind while you do your 4th! Make sure you go to meeting as often as possible, and talk to another recovering person at least once a day! Remember to open and close your 4th with something positive about you!

Resentment = to fuel, this is sort-of like a instant replay. Resentment eventually works it’s way into self-pity. Playing these things over and over again have tendency to distort them.

2 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT PRAYER - START AND CONTINUE!

Interesting Stuff to see:

1 Dr. Bob’s Fourth Step List; in “He Sold Himself Short,” (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 292)

2 Seven Deadly Sins (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 48)

3 Clarence Snyder’s Fourth Step List (one of the original 40 members of AA, see “Home Brewmeister,”

Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 297-303)

4 Boy Scout Law, Robert Binkey's The Official Boy Scout Handbook (10th edition, 1990)(so? . . . what? . . . )

How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just how we shall act. ...how well does it actually work?
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William Wilson, page 37.

"...apply these principles in all our affairs."

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

The first time that I did a fourth step, I did it just as the Big Book says. My sponsor gave me a few examples and explained any question I had and she told me to put pen to paper and THEN I would be on the fourth step. I did! It wasn't awful. It was hard...time consuming, but not by much. Overall, it was worth it! The Big Book Bunch is my favorite. They have downloadable "How To's" and sheets for you to use, just like in the Big Book. Check Out Their Link Below!

The best way to teach someone how to do a fourth step is to share your experience, strength and hope. How did you do it? What helped you? How would you do it different? I know that I, myself, first did the fourth step from the big book, and then my new sponsor wanted me to do one from the 12 & 12. WHEW! It was hard, but I learn my character defects, and saw my patterns before my eyes. I was able to realize them, and them begin to work on the negatives and build on the positives. Give your sponsee's yourself. Your own experiences. Send them to their grandsponsors, and others who have experience, strength and hope to offer them. I will try to supply several downloads of the 4th step sheets in many different forms. Find the ones you used, or will use first, and then teach your sponsee's how to do it. (If I give my sponsee's a new assignment I haven't yet had, I do it with them and we learn together.) Good Luck!

Big Book Bunch

The Big Book Bunch is old school! I like it done by the book. They offer some great downloads, also. Check them out! Big Book Bunch

FOURTH STEP PDF WORKSHEETS

COMING OUT OF HIDING - 4th Step Worksheets

BIG BOOK FOURTH STEP SHEETS

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With all the sheets offered on the internet, it can get overwhelming. I like the big book examples of how to do it, and the 12 & 12 questions (if your really in for a challenge).

Step 4 Presentation - The Big Book Bunch has a Microsoft Word Document you can download for free that will take you through the 4 – 6^th steps. This is great and “Big Book” style.

12STEP.ORG Step 4 Worksheets:

	Questions in word for the childhood part of the fourth step Or, Printable Format.
	Adolescence Questions in Word Or, Printable Version.
	Adult questions. Or, Printable Version.
	www.12step.org - Great 12 step Guides.

The Seven Deadly Sins Homepage - A humorous romp through the ruination of us all. (No Internet savvy fourth step would be complete without a visit to this page.)

A FEW GOOD EXAMPLES FOR YOU:

Example of listing a resentment (grudge). Big Book Page 65

I'm resentful at:

The cause:

Affects my:

Ms Brown

She's a meanie!

Emotional security

She got restraining

Self Esteem

order

Material Security

Ambitions

Personal relations

Sex relations

In the 12&12, Bill W. divided security (BBp65) into Material and Emotional.

Include the headings of 4 categories of basic flaws are: Selfish; Dishonest; Self Seeking; Frightened? (Big Book page67. 3rdEd.)" The 12&12 added specific manifestations of the basic four. These are the seven cardinal sins. But note that the 12&12, again, does not repeat but adds to understanding of the earlier Basic Text. The forward of the 12&12 comments on this important point. The two books are not either or but are both together for the entire AA 12 step process.

As we write the Fears in the preceding section, AA's Big Book suggests the "Fear Prayer" BB p 68.

"We ask God to remove the fear that
........plug in the specific fears one at a time here.............
and direct my attention to what you would have me be."

4th step prayer – Big Book Page 66

This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to ourselves, "This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done. We avoid retaliation or argument.

"FEARS" from BB p 67

As we write the Fears in the preceding section, AA's Big Book suggests the "Fear Prayer" BB p 68.

It doesn't matter who your Higher Power is, as long as it isn't you!

"We ask God to remove the fear that
........plug in the specific fears one at a time here.............
and direct my attention to what you would have me be."

"At once we commence to outgrow fear ! "

"Now about sex." - From Big Book page 68

"ASSETS (12&12 p46), and other status."

"...with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die."

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 66

Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances!
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 100.

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This Website was last updated on: January 26, 2007

Disclaimer: This site is NOT endorsed nor sponsored by Alcoholics Anonymous or any group and is not intended to offer specific advice to persons in recovery or contemplating recovery. This site DOES, however, attempt to follow the 12 Traditions of AA. Contact your local Alcoholics Anonymous Intergroup Office for direct info on AA, for info on meetings in your area, and if you'd like to speak with someone regarding alcoholism. This site is produced in the spirit of AA's Twelfth Step - to carry the message. When reading the experience, strength and hope on this site, we remind you that AA's "public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films."

"We ask God to remove the fear that ........plug in the specific fears one at a time here............. and direct my attention to what you would have me be."

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"We ask God to remove the fear that
........plug in the specific fears one at a time here.............
and direct my attention to what you would have me be."