Step 6

Become entirely ready to have God remove all of your character weaknesses.

The most wonderful thing about Step 6 is that God can and will remove our character weaknesses.  Still, we must be ready for this to take place.

A funny thing about addiction is that, as much as I want to be rid of my addictions and all that they entail, there is a part of me that isn’t really ready for that.  There is a part of me that will be sad, in a way, to see those things disappear.  I’ve built a life, a way of coping with stress, an identity around my addictive behaviors.  They have been present for a long time.  This is where I think the challenge of being “ready” lies—ready for a life removed of the things that separate us from the Spirit, and replaced by one that is filled with It, no matter how lonely, desperate, or frightening that might seem; ready to simply allow the Lord to make of us what He will.

It seems a common characteristic that people who struggle with addictive behaviors also tend to be ones who struggle with a desire to control everything around them.  I know that this is certainly the case with myself.  This is exactly the opposite of what the Lord needs from us; He needs us to quit trying to control things, He needs us to “be still and know that [He is] God.”  Ironically, I think it is this tendency toward being in control that leads us into addictive behaviors.  I am learning that in indulging in my addictions, I am trying to create a world where I am in charge.  I use my addictions to try and control those around me.

At first, Step 6 seems pretty harmless; of course I am willing to be “ready to have God remove all of [my] character weaknesses.”  But, as I’ve thought about it, that “readiness” is really a life-long pursuit toward humility and submissiveness.

We need not only believe in the idea that Christ has suffered for our sins, but we need to believe Christ when he says that he will forgive us.  It is easy to believe that it is possible for someone else’s sins to be forgiven, it is easy to believe in the possibility of salvation, but it is quite another to believe Christ when he tells us that our sins can be (and are) forgiven.  I have always found it easy to theorize that the Atonement makes repentance possible, but have often placed myself outside of Its realm of possibility—certainly the Savior can’t forgive something as vile as what I’ve done!

I am learning more and more each day that the Plan of Salvation is so much more about learning to trust God, and learning to be patient and humble than it is about doing anything.

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