The concept of humility is something so foreign to many of us that we have ignored it for as long as we could. When we first saw the word "humbly" in the Seventh Step, we might have imagined that great humiliation awaited us. Maybe we looked up the definition of the word in the dictionary, causing us to get even more confused. We didn't understand what "vileness" and "submission" had to do with recovery.
Being humble does not mean being the last of the last. On the contrary, to be humble is to acquire a realistic view of ourselves and our place in the world. We attain a level of consciousness that comes from accepting ourselves in all its aspects. We neither deny our virtues, nor exaggerate our faults. We honestly accept ourselves.
None of us are going to touch the ultimate humility. But we can certainly try to honestly admit our faults, accept our strengths, and rely on our Higher Power for courage. Humility does not mean that we go on all fours in our lives. It means we have to admit that we cannot recover on our own. We need each other and, above all, we need the strength of a loving God.