“My Character Defects and God’s Garden”
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” (Step 6 of 12-step programs.)
“Today, by the grace of my good God, I am ready to have God remove all my character defects. I am practicing this readiness on a moment-by-moment basis.” (A recent daily affirmation from yours truly.)
I continued my report with the following comment:
“I believe that I was indeed ready, and that God did help me to act on my defects. I have a suspicion that they are always there. Perhaps God doesn’t take them away entirely. Perhaps, with God’s ongoing presence, and my ongoing commitment to their removal and letting God work on me, my character defects will stay in remission.”
My sponsor responded to my email report with a question and a suggestion. “How about next time ask God to help you work on your gifts and strengths? Focus on the good within you.”
Good idea!
My lawn guy was here today. He informs me that the main thing is to keep the grass healthy and strong. “If we do that,” he says, “the grass will take care of choking out the weeds.”
My lawn guy is not my sponsor, but he and my sponsor seem to see eye-to-eye on this one. Maybe I put too much emphasis on dealing with my character defects and not enough focus on nourishing my good qualities. Perhaps asking God to grow my good qualities is the best way to ask God to remove my character defects.
What are your character strengths? How could God and you together grow those strengths even more? These are good questions for me to ask myself. Perhaps you might try asking these questions yourself.
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