Virtues & 12 Step Spirituality

Compare the following two lists and note how traditional virtues are mirrored in the very concrete 12-step spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Traditional Virtues
The following traditional virtues serve as antidotes to the seduction of alcohol and other drugs.

Hope
Hope is that quality of the spirit-controlled mind which causes one to see beyond the confines of the immediate difficulties and pressures of life into the greater panorama of God's plan for the ages.

Temperance
Disposes of all gifts of the human person into one unified and ordered whole. A
disordering of the gifts leads to the roaming unrest of the spirit and begins the road to despair.

Fortitude
Encompasses the steadfastness before the vicissitudes and difficulties of life.
Fortitude is a powerful antidote to the compulsiveness, impatience, and escapism, which are the hallmarks of addictive behavior.

Humility
Humility is viewing one's self from God's perspective and living accordingly. A person can only think higher of him- or herself than he or she ought when God's perspective is blurred or obliterated. The truly humble see themselves as important to God's plan, yes; but they also realize that the extent of their personal worth is calculated only on the basis of who God is and their personal relationship to Him. Without Him they are nothing. With Him they are divinely significant.

Courage
Courage is the mental attitude necessary for the completion of tasks which threaten us. Whether this threat is physical harm or personal embarrassment, courage leads us to act according to God's directive, knowing that the outcome is His will, whether deliverance or destruction.

Patience
Patience is the ability to properly assess God's timing and to be obedient to His
course of action. Patience (perseverence) is akin to endurance in that it causes one to remain faithful in the face of (seemingly) unresolved situations. One knows that God is still at work to accomplish His puposes. Patience does not mean that you are forbidden to act swiftly and decisively or that you will not seek to resolve matters according to your own whims and anxieties, but that you seek to learn fully God's lessons from the situations of daily living.

Prudence
Prudence is the perfected ability to make right decisions. Thoughtlessness and
indecisiveness come under the heading of imprudence.

Justice
Justice is the equitable rendering of due process to everyone.  Parents need to respect the rights of children and children need to respect the rights of parents. Some examples of parental duties are:

Setting a good example for children and not abusing alcohol and/or other drugs. 
Encouraging self-discipline through giving children daily duties and holding them
accountable for their actions and responsibilities. 
Establishing standards of behavior concerning alcohol and other drugs, dating, curfews and unsupervised activities, and enforcing them consistently and fairly. 
Explaining to their children at an early age that alcohol and other drug abuse is wrong, harmful and unlawful, and reinforcing their teaching throughout adolescence. 
Encouraging children to stand by their convictions when pressured to use alcohol and/or other drugs.

Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Steps of Spirituality

Faith
1. We admit we are powerless over alcohol — that our lives have become
unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Hope
3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.
4. We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Altruism
5. We admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Prudence
7. We humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We make a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to all of them.

Fortitude
9. We make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when making amends would cause injury.

Temperance
10. We continue to take personal inventory and promptly admit when we are wrong.
11. We seek, through prayer and meditation, to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him. Praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry out His will.

Justice
12. Having a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we try to carry
this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.