Why Take A Step 4 Inventory

Why take a Step Four inventory?

Because:

"As a man thinketh, so he is."

(Proverbs 23:7)

INSANITY IS INABILITY TO SEE THE TRUTH

SANITY IS ABILITY TO SEE THE TRUTH

AN INVENTORY IS A TOOL TO ENABLE US TO SEE THE TRUTH

THE TRUTH WILL SET US FREE

We are the sum total of the thoughts that go through our minds each day. We want to inventory these thoughts and evaluate them. Then we can get rid of the "unsalable" good, the thoughts that are making our lives unmanageable, and replace them with stock that will bring us a better return.

The Big Book explains how the things that blocked us from God manifested themselves in three ways: resentments, fears, and harms done to others. We must inventory and analyze these things.

Number one for a selfish, self-centered person is resentments. Resentments effectively block us from God. At the time we have resentments, these thoughts dominate our minds, causing us to turn our lives over to people and things we resent. If people and things we resent are directing our lives, we can't carry out the decision that we made in Step 3.

The same is true for fears and harms done to others. It is important that we understand how these things control our minds. When we have fear, the fear dominates our mind; when we have harmed others, the guilt and remorse we feel for those actions turn our lives over to other people.

These are the three major areas of our lives that we need to look at. Most of our negative concerns from day to day can be placed under one of these headings. We are either mad about something, or we are afraid of something or someone, or we have done something for which we feel ashamed or remorseful. They are the things we have to look at, to inventory.

We list and analyze them--these resentments, fears, and harms done to others--so we can see where they originated (Step 4), and so we can talk about them with another human being (Step 5), and so we can be willing to let them go (Steps 6 and 7).

A person who has been motivated by self-will has been making wrong judgements--resulting in resentments. He has been practicing wrong believing--resulting in fear. And he had taken, because of his fears and resentments, wrong actions--resulting in harms to others.

What we are going to do is look at these wrongs and analyze them, that is get to the root cause, to the truth.

A resentment, fear, guilt and remorse are wrongs because they block us from God, but it isn't what really started them. In Step 5, we talk about the "exact nature" of our resentments, fears, guilt and remorse. Some people advise that it is good to vent these feelings and to let them out, but unless we get to the root cause of the resentment, fear, and harms done to others, we have only made for more of the same to come in. This kind of venting may make us feel good for a while, but if we don't get to the cause of these wrong judgements, we will soon have more resentments, fear, guilt and remorse to take their place, and the ones we just expressed will usually still be there too!!!

The roots for resentments, fears, or harms done to others are the same: dishonesty, lack of consideration, selfishness, self-seeking, and fear.