Step six in the AA program of recovery is...
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Defects of character? It isn't easy facing up to the reality that we have defects in our character but we had to do that in the last two steps. We discovered them in step four and we had to share them with someone else in step five. Now the question is "are we ready to have them removed?" After all, why would we want to keep them? These defects are what has caused us to drink, and caused us so much unhappiness.
In Twelve Steps And Twelve Traditions Bill Wilson said "this is the step that separates the men from the boys." The things he said, in the chapter dealing with step six, indicate that it is not uncommon for people to hesitate on this step. In his own way he basically made the point that we must, at least, be willing to let go of our defects at some point in time. Apparently he mellowed somewhat on this between the time the Big Book was written and the time he wrote Twelve Steps And Twelve Traditions, but it is clear he was saying the men will be ready to have their defects removed and the boys would want to hold onto some of them for a while.
So what about those defects of character? Do we want to keep them or do we want to let them go and move on with our recovery? If we are willing and ready to let them go then we are ready for the next step. If we proceed onward while still intentionally holding onto our defects then we must assume we are not building the strong foundation the Big Book is talking about. We are settling for something less.
