IISAA’s 2010 – 2011 Theme
The Twelfth Step of SAA states that: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other sex addicts and to practice these principles in our lives.
In Chapter 3 of our basic text, Sex Addicts Anonymous, we learn: For some of us, this awakening may be a sudden and dramatic gain in awareness. For others, it may be slow and gradual, and we may not even realize we’ve had one until we reflect upon the changes that have occurred.
In Step Twelve we put our awakening into practice by serving others. With spiritual awareness comes the responsibility, the desire, and the need to help other suffering sex addicts, just as help was freely given to us. This impulse springs from selfless love and gratitude, it is also essential to our own sexual sobriety and spiritual growth. Carrying the message to our fellow addict is as important in maintaining our own recovery as it is in helping others find theirs.
In Step Twelve we put our awakening into practice by serving others.
When we carry the message directly to other sex addicts, we connect with them in a way that non-addicts cannot.
Any service we do that helps bring our message to other sex addicts is in the spirit of Step Twelve. There are always ways we can help, regardless of how much experience in recovery we have.
We carry the message to our fellow sex addicts with every act of encouragement, support and service.
However we do service, we receive much more than we give. We grow as we practice generosity, empathy, and humility. We break out of the isolation and self centeredness of our addiction. We forge new bonds with others that nourish and sustain us. And, we experience the joy and satisfaction of giving something of ourselves to a larger cause.
Opening these gifts brings about our spiritual awakening. Continuing to apply them on a daily basis keeps us spiritually fit and growing in recovery.
We realize that everything we have been through helps us to be of service to others. (Sex Addicts Anonymous, 2004, pp. 58-61.)
When we work the service aspect of Step 12, what we give the addict who still suffers—both among and apart from us—is Hope. What we get in return is the Serenity that the program promises.
As we move through the IISAA fiscal year, we will explore the impact and importance that service work can play in our own recovery. The topic will form the basis for our discussions at the fall retreat, the spring workshop and in featured articles in The Check-IN.
The material quoted from our basic text would seem to make three things clear:
- Service is not an option in working a 12-Step program.
- Those who are served benefit greatly.
- Those who serve benefit even more.
Tags: Gifts of Recovery, service