Recovery Is Sexy.com

The relationship between sponsor and protege in 12 Step fellowships is mutually rewarding.

1. The sponsor is both teacher and pupil. You come to be so interested in your protégé that a hole in his shoe makes your foot cold.
2. You get a thrill when you see your new boy (or girl) making the grade. This thrill is heartwarming and lasting. You will never outlive the ability to be so thrilled.
3. Speak up to your own experience but not beyond it. Do not tell someone else’s story. Your own story, told simply without exaggeration or drama carries conviction. It is the sincereness of the speaker that puts over our message, not the skilled oratory nor the well turned phrase. Only you can tell your story.
4. In 12th Step work we carry the message to the alcoholic who is still suffering. We do not carry the alcoholic. Don’t confuse 12th Stepping with baby sitting. When an infant is learning to walk, the wise mother does not insist on carrying the child. She allows the baby to learn to use its legs.
5. Encourage the prospect to speak. Learn to be silent in seven languages. What he says can be of great importance. In talking about himself, he releases tension. The writer finds this most difficult. His friends who know him understand why.
6. Do not think of yourself as changing your prospective new member. You are only the channel through which the Higher Power operates. Thomas A. Kempis said: “Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you would wish to be.”
7. Should your efforts be rewarded with success you, being human, will enjoy a great thrill, but always remember the credit belongs to the Higher Power.
8. Remembrance of this will safeguard the sponsor against disaster in those cases where the prospect does not respond.
9. No honest effort in A.A. is ever wasted.
10. Responsibility of a sponsor. No man is an island. Always remember from now an you are an ambassador for AA. Watch your behaviour carefully. A slip on your part could cause the death of your protege. Be especially careful if dealing with a member of the opposite sex. Beware lest you cause scandal with your group or about your group. Love is blind but the rest of your group is not.
11. Do not let fear of making a mistake keep you from attempting a, 12th Step call. If any man can honestly tell you, he has never made a mistake, you can bet your bottom dollar that his father could not make the same claim.
12. Expect to be criticized! Ours is a fellowship of men and women. Some of the criticism may be justified. “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for man to listen’ to the singing of fools. A Pope on criticism said “Do your best and be happy and let the sparrows twitter.”

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