When I was new to recovery it was the first time I'd ever heard that I could have my own understanding of God. I thought that it would be wrong for me to do this because of what I was made to believe as a child. Also, I had never heard higher power being said instead of saying god. Even though this was all new to me it was a lot easier to get used to than when I would hear someone mentioning god at a meeting. This would immediately arouse those agnostic beliefs I had when I came in that were blocking me from joining recovery. By allowing us to have our own understanding of a higher power means that we also allow others to do the same thing, and that turns out to be what makes recovery so great. That we can each have our own understanding and that may be different from each other, but that the program will still work regardless of what that understanding is; it only matters that we have one, and allow others to have their own.