The mission of "Sober-Today.Org" is to help the alcoholic still suffering by carrying the message of what living sober is like, and where it can be found in the St. Louis area. We do this through links to Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, and links to books like The Big Book, The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, and more. In addition to the many other resources that can be found here, we also have listings for more than 750 AA meetings per week in the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan area.

     We hope you find what your looking for here but if you need to talk to someone right now, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call the number listed below. Someone there can talk to you who truly cares, with no strings attached.

Phone: (314) 647-3677

     After the third and fourth chapters of the Big Book were completed, Wilson decided that a summary of methods for treating alcoholism was needed to describe their "word of mouth" program.[1] The basic program had developed from the works of William James, Dr. Silkworth, and the Oxford Group. It included six basic steps:

1.We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol. 2.We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins. 3.We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence. 4.We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking. 5.We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige. 6.We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.

     Wilson decided that the six steps needed to be broken down into smaller sections to make them easier to understand and accept.[1] He wrote the Twelve Steps one night while lying in bed, which he felt was the best place to think. He prayed for guidance prior to writing, and in reviewing what he had written and numbering the new steps, he found they added up to twelve. He then thought of the Twelve Apostles and became convinced that the program should have twelve steps.[2] With contributions from other group members, including atheists who reined in religious content (such as Oxford material) that could later result in controversy, by fall 1938 Wilson expanded the six steps into the final version of the Twelve Steps, which are detailed in Chapter Five of the Big Book, called "How It Works."[3]

1. Pass It On, p. 196-197
2. Pass it On, p. 198
3. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 163

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Step 1
  • We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Step 2
  • Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
• Step 3
  • Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
• Step 4
  • Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
• Step 5
  • Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
• Step 6
  
  • Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
• Step 7
  • Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
• Step 8
  
  • Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
• Step 9
  
  • Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
• Step 10
  • Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
• Step 11
  
  • Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
• Step 12
  
  • Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.