The Promises – (Part 1) Introduction

Steps to the Spirit

I have been looking forward to these upcoming episodes on the Promises. As I have said many times, all of my references to the 12-step program text are from the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, (p. 83). In most of the current list of Promises that you will see throughout the 12-step meeting rooms will have a slightly different version of the 12 promises than that which you will see here. Most will split the promise for serenity and peace into two promises; one promise for serenity and one promise for peace. In my version, which you will see below, and the version we will be using in these episodes, combined serenity and peace into one Promise. I think this is the way it was meant to be in original text. That, of course, results with 11 promises, not 12! However, I think they can be a strong argument made or the line, “you will be amazed before your halfway through”, as being one of the 12 promises. So for these episodes, I am going to make that line the first promise of the 12.

I’m sure there are many interpretations of different parts of the, what we call, the Big Book. I certainly believe that, in the end, all versions lead to the same call for us to clean up our wreckage of the past, and in the future, say “yes” to God.

Here is my version of the Promises. In addition to making the change of the first Promise, I have converted the pronouns “we” to the pronoun “I”, the same as I have done in my version of the 12 steps. It simply works better for me.

Promises – My Version
(adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st edition, p. 83, [the “Big Book])

If I am painstaking about this phase of my development:

1. I will be amazed before I am halfway through.

2. I am going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.

3. I will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

4. I will comprehend the word serenity and I will know peace.

5. No matter how far down the scale I have gone, I will see how my experience can benefit others.

6. That feeling of uselessness and self- pity will disappear.

7. I will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in my fellows.

8. Self-seeking will slip away.

9. My whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.

10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave me.

11. I will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle me.

12. I will suddenly realize that God is doing for me what I could not do for myself.

Are these extravagant promises? I think not. They are being fulfilled in me – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if I work for them.

I hope you enjoy this series