Made a searching a fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

[weaver71]

The fourth step seems to be the one most struggle with. I was okay with it at first, then my sponsor gave me all these lessons to make me dig deeper and deeper. I have way to much to deal with in one try, so I stopped where I was on it and moved on. I have done it again, but it was driving me crazy living in the past for so long. I had to get back to the present. I finished up my 4th step by writing down all the moral inventory that I liked about myself and focused on that. It will take years for me to walk through all my life, I haven't even begun to remember all of it yet. The biggest thing I took from working this step the first time was, I am not the man I intended to be or thought I was. That man is in me, but it will take time to really reach that. I keep going through the steps, taking a little longer each time. That is working for me. That is the thing I think should be stressed here, make sure to take a complete moral inventory, not just the bad stuff. Most of us have some pretty great qualities, and it can be just as hard to accept those as the bad ones.

[Heather8448]

I just finished my 3rd step I know this is old but thank you for posting this, as I start mine soon
kinda anxious

[MYoungAtHeart]

Another thing we learn from our inventories is that the past does not have to continue into the future, and that forgiveness of the human condition is also another important point to think about.  With our inventories we also see how we hold near and dear some of the negative qualities we may say we don't like, but continue to use over and over again.  

We struggle so much with this step, sometimes driving ourselves crazy, when it is more important to remember that we need to clean up the things in our lives that drive us back to using.  This is the addicts and alcoholics
main area of Stinking Thinking and The Quicksand Pit of "regrets" and "should have beens" and "should haves" and "did nots" and "could nots" and wishes long gone  needs to be dealt with not just once in our 4th step, but every day.  

M