12^th step work is a huge part of remaining clean and sober.   Service or charity to others is how we get to keep what we have.  I cannot keep what I have unless I give it away.   When I am having a yucky sucky day the first thing my sponsor will ask me after I have wined a bit is who did you help today.  They tell you in the literature from most 12 step recovery programs that nothing ensures immunity from using and drinking like intensive work with other addicts and alcoholics.

Twelve step programs are of charity. The real meaning of the word charity is to care enough about other people to really want to help them. To get the full benefit of the program, we must try to help other alcoholics and addicts. We may try to help somebody and think we have failed, but the seed we have planted may bear fruit somewhere down the road. We never know the results even a word of ours might have. But the main thing is to have charity for others, a real desire to help them, whether we succeed or not.

Another great form of service or charity is to sponsor others, people who are maybe new or need direction as to working the 12 steps.  It gives me the opportunity to give back to my recovery program that which was given to me so freely, I can get out of myself by helping them and it helps me to insure my sobriety.   I also have found in sponsoring women that they give me way more than I give to them.  I am always honored when asked to sponsor someone.

There are so many different ways of giving back like making coffee at meeting; greeting at the door at meetings, multitudes of committee’s to be on and bringing meeting to those who maybe cannot get to outside meeting like people in jails and institutions.  All of these ways to serve others are just deposits into the bank of my sobriety.  I am always the one who benefits the most.

Photo By holland cox