Step 7

Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove your shortcomings.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this step, hence the month-long lag in getting it posted.  At first this step seems pretty easy and obvious, and in many ways it is.  We have already admitted that we, by ourselves, are powerless over our addictions.  We have admitted that God can restore us to complete spiritual health.  We have decided to turn our wills over to God.  Step 7 seems like a pretty logical step in this process, therefore.

I think that what makes this step difficult, though, is that we have to truly believe that in asking we will receive.  It is one thing to believe in the possibility that Christ’s atonement might be able to remove our shortcomings, but it is quite another to believe that He actually will.  We tend to believe that we have somehow sinned beyond our allotted amount, that the Atonement is sufficient for everyone else’s sins, but ours simply require too much of the Savior.

I appreciate that this step begins with the word “humbly.”  Humility, as always, is perhaps the most important ingredient to this step.