Against Our Vices We See Our Virtues



“Folks who have no vices have few virtues.”
Abraham Lincoln

It’s important to own our vices. In recovery, we refer to them as “character defects,” which seems a bit harsh to me. I’m not sure that there’s a nicer word for them. We could refer to them as “vices” or “flaws,” I suppose. But the truth is that they are the imperfections that emerge from our dark side.

Every human being has a “light” side and a “dark” side. We are all part Dr. Jekyll and part Mr./Ms. Hyde. And we need to accept this fact. There is no such thing as a perfect person. No one is all light-- and no one is all darkness.

What we often don’t understand is that light and darkness need each other. Think about a flashlight. Flashlights are worthless on a bright sunny day. It’s impossible to tell if the flashlight is on or off in the midst of sunlight. A flashlight is dependent upon darkness to make its light seen—and so are we.

When we work Step 4 of the 12 Steps, it gives us the opportunity to recognize the darkness that is within us. It also gives us the chance to embrace that darkness. By embracing the darkness, by owning it, we are one step closer to learning from it. In the midst of our personal darkness we begin to better understand how we work as humans. We gain knowledge and wisdom about ourselves.

By embracing our darkness, we better understand ourselves and we are now better able to change ourselves in positive ways. We find light in the darkness. Against our vices we see our virtues.

This is why it’s so important for us to own our vices or character defects. They help us to grow into being better humans and more virtuous people.

So working Steps 4 and 5 are not about beating ourselves up. They are not about having to admit they we are worthless because we can’t be perfect. These Steps are about being real.

Acknowledging that we are imperfect, that we do have faults and failings, is essential. Steps 4 and 5 are a positive reality check.  They are about finding our light and our virtues within our faults and failings. These Steps place us closer toward honestly becoming exactly who we are: imperfect reflections of the image and likeness of God.

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another person the exact nature of our wrongs.

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