AN AA MEMBER'S "CREDO"
I am glad to be part of Alcoholics Anonymous, of that great fellowship which spreading all over the world. I am only one of many AAs, but I am one. I am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help AA grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the wheel and help keep the message going.
I am glad to be able to be useful, to have a reason for living, to have a purpose in life. I want to lose my life in this wonderful fellowship and so find it again. I need the AA Principles for the development of the buried life within me, that good life which I had misplaced but which I found again in AA. This life within me is growing slowly but surely, with set-backs and mistakes, but still developing. I cannot yet know what it will be, but I know that it will be good. That's all I know, it will be good.
AA may be human in organization, but it is divine in its purpose. The purpose is to point me toward the God of my understanding and the good life. My feet have been set upon the right path. I feel it in the depths of my being. I am going in the right direction with my fellow travelers. The future can be safely left to my Higher Power. Whatever the future holds, it cannot be too much for me to bear. I have Divine Power with me, to carry me through everything that may happen.
Participating in the privileges of the AA fellowship, I shall share in the responsibilities, taking it upon myself to carry my fair share of the load, not grudgingly but joyfully. I am deeply grateful for the privileges I enjoy because of my membership in this great Way of Life. It puts a responsibility on me that I will not leave alone. I will gladly carry my fair share of the burdens. Because of the joy of doing them, they will no longer be burdens but opportunities.
I shall not wait to be drafted for service to my fellow AA members, but I shall volunteer. I shall accept every opportunity to work for AA as a challenge and I shall do my best to accept every challenge and perform my service as best I can. I will be loyal in my attendance, generous in my giving, kind in my criticism, creative in my suggestions, loving in my attitude. I will give AA my interest, my enthusiasm, my devotion, and most of all myself to the best of my ability.
We in Alcoholics Anonymous know the joy of giving. We believe that when we come to the end of our lives, it will be only the things that we have given away that we will take with us. We will take no material things with us, but we will take with us the kind words we have said, the kind deeds we have done, the help we have given. We alcoholics, who have been helped to find AA by someone who was interested in our welfare, believe that we are under a deep
obligation to pass on the AA message to others. We members of Alcoholics Anonymous believe in this will all our hearts and minds: If an active or recovering alcoholic needs our helps and asks for our help: "I am my brother's keeper."