12 Steps Of A Sponsor Wallet Card

A Guide to Boundaries and Growth in Sponsorship

This 12 Steps of a Sponsor Wallet Card is an essential tool for sponsors and those in recovery alike, serving as a reminder of the boundaries, roles, and purpose of a sponsor. Crafted to fit easily in a wallet, this card provides clear guidance on supporting others through the journey of recovery while emphasizing self-responsibility and personal growth. Card is 2" x 3".

Card Text:

1. I will not help you stay and wallow in limbo.
2. I will help you grow to become more productive by your own definition.
3. I will help you become more autonomous, more loving of yourself, more free to continue becoming the authority of your own living.
4. I cannot give you dreams or "fix you up," simply because I cannot.
5. I cannot give you growth or grow for you. You must grow yourself by facing reality, grim as it may seem at times.
6. I cannot take away your loneliness or pain.
7. I cannot sense your world for you, evaluate your goals, or tell you what is best for you in your world. You have your own world.
8. I cannot convince you of the crucial choice of choosing the scary uncertainty of growing over the safe misery of not growing.
9. I want to be with you and know you as a growing friend, yet I cannot get close to you when you choose not to grow.
10. When I begin to care for you out of pity, when I begin to lose trust in you, then I am being inhibiting and hurtful to you and to me.
11. You must know — my help is conditional. I will be with you, hang in there with you, as long as I continue to hear even the slightest hints that you are trying to grow.
12. If you can accept this, then perhaps we can help each other to become what God meant us to be... mature adults, leaving childishness forever to little children.

The 12 Steps of a Sponsor outline the ways a sponsor can guide without enabling, challenge without rescuing, and encourage without controlling. With messages like “I cannot give you dreams or ‘fix you up,’ simply because I cannot” and “I will help you grow to become more autonomous,” the card highlights a sponsor’s role as a supportive partner in growth rather than a problem-solver.

Features:

• Durable and portable wallet-size design
• Contains the full text of the 12 Steps of a Sponsor
• Ideal for daily reflection and use in meetings or one-on-one sessions

This wallet card is a meaningful gift for sponsors or sponsees, offering a gentle reminder of the principles that foster true, sustainable recovery through respect, boundaries, and mutual growth. Perfect for keeping close by as a steadying influence on the journey to becoming the best version of oneself.