when we retire at night we constructively review our
day where we resentful selfish dishonest or afraid
do we owe an apology have we kept something to ourselves
which should be discussed with another person at once
were we kind and loving toward all what could we have done better
were we thinking of ourselves most of the time
or were we thinking of what we could do for others of what we could pack into the stream of life
but we must be careful not to drift in to worry remorse or
morbid reflection for that would diminish our usefulness to others
after making our review we ask God's forgiveness and
inquire what corrective measures should be taken
you
over on page 86 he tells us what to do when we go to bed at night here it is now in step 11 he said
women retire at night we constructively view our day where we resentful selfish dishonest
or afraid I believe that step 4 again isn't it do we owe an apology that must be steps 8 or 9
again and we get something to ourselves which would read this discussed with another person
at once and I believe that step 5 again where we kind of loving toward all what could we have done
better where we're thinking of ourselves most of the time or are we thinking what we can do
for others and while we could pack into the stream of life but we must be careful not to drift into
worry remorse or morbid reflection for that would diminish our usefulness to others after making
our review we ask God's forgiveness from quiet while corrective measures must be taken there
step 6 and 7 again so what the book is really suggesting is when we go to bed at night we
sit down and can't take another little inventory step 10 which during the day when we're disturbed
step eleven's before we go to bed at night we made up a little sheet here you could use you
can use anything you want two main things is do we inventory or not one side of the sheet
we took the basic character defect selfish self seeking dishonest frightened in consideration
we took all the other defects in the 12 and 12 which are the offshoots of those first four put
them on the left-hand side of the sheet and call them the personality characteristics of a self
will person we tried to find the opposite and put them on the right-hand side of the sheet call that
the personality characteristics of a God will person now all we're trying to do is get from
the left-hand side of the sheet to the right-hand side and I can sit down at night with this little
sheet and run down through it making a few check marks that shows me where I've been that day shows
me what I need to continue to work on never do I find myself on either side of the sheet the
checkmarks change locations from time to time but I'm beginning to notice that I'm marking more of
them right than I am on the left and slowly over a period of time we continue to become a different
human being now I've learned one thing about my sobriety I am going to inventory I've got one
or two choices I can put it off and put it off and put it off and put it off until I'm so sick
that I'm almost drunk and then I start trying to dig myself out from under that mess or I can take
just a few minutes each day and by doing it a few minutes each day I'll keep myself in reasonably
good condition and I'm in much less chance of drinking I find that it takes less energy to do
it on a daily basis then it does to wait till I'm almost drunk and then start trying to dig myself
out from under it a very definite valuable suggestion here is where the author's very
clearly describe the evening revue and they give us a hint now remember we are at step 11 correct
in the book right and this is the very next paragraph when we retire at night that's a clue
so if I'm going to retire at night and these are the questions I'm going to ask myself in
my evening review I'm going to ask the same four questions that I ask myself as I go through the
day as I go along in step 10 where we resentful selfish dishonest or afraid there's a question
mark that means it's the stop sign I'm gonna stop I'm going to answer those questions do
we owe an apology there's another question mark and we kept something to ourselves which should
be discussed with another person at once another question mark were we kind and loving toward all
another question mark what could we have done better another question mark were we thinking
of ourselves most of the time or were we thinking of what we could do for others or what we could
pack into the stream of life that does not mean do as much as you possibly can and complete as
many cats as possible that has not been my understanding of pack as much as I came into
stream of life what I'm hearing from that is where was i helpful who did I help but we must
be careful not to drift into worry remorse or morbid reflection here's the warning you know
we're not here to beat ourselves up simply do a constructor review of my day for that
would diminish our usefulness to others so you see I'm not useful to other people though you
simply sitting there beat myself up I'm simply reviewing my day per these questions okay here
are the instructions after I do my review the authors are asking me to do two things in the
next sentence after making our review we ask that sounds like a prayer doesn't it we ask
God's forgiveness in other words you know yeah I was thinking mostly myself today God please
forgive me for doing so Noah wasn't kind of loving towards Allah please forgive me and
then and then there's that word and and which means in addition to that means I'm going to
do something in addition to prayer inquire what corrective measures should be taken so if I'm
going to inquire what corrective measures should be taken that implies I'm going to listen in other
words after I do my evening review I'm going to pray and meditate we talked about that last week
how central it is for me to meditate in addition to pray you see if all I'm doing is praying I'm
not completing step 11 in its entirety notice the wording of step 11 sawed through dozens a sought
through prayer to improve my conscious contact so see if all I'm doing is praying and not meditating
am I going to improve my relationship with God am I going to receive the knowledge of this will the
power to carry it out my experience has been known if my friend Scott here calls me up and
invites me to his house for a party and I hang up the phone before I can receive directions I'm
not going to know which way to go to get there that's what prayer without meditation is like
I've created a lot of unmanageability in my life and sobriety a result of not meditating
on something but rather praying I had made decisions based on self which later placed
me in a position to be heard that's how essential it is for me to practice daily
meditation so is this beautiful they're giving us a specific outline of how to do evening review
and they're giving the instructions to pray and meditate when I finish my evening review