WHO TAUGHT ME TO PRAY?

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

WHO TAUGHT ME TO PRAY?

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

I love to pray...Those that pray in AA...Stay in AA. I learned to pray from the Big Book....That's the path that I thoroughly follow. I prayed before I got into AA...I just didn't know what I was doing. I'm not a morning and night time only prayer guy....I pray throughout the day....conscious contact...If you will.

Page 84

This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.

From Pages 85 - 88.

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.

We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why.

As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done." We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.

It works - it really does.

We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined.

-- Edited by Stepchild on Monday 30th of September 2013 01:52:31 PM

Mike D · MIP Old Timer

Hi everyone! I'm Mike D. and I'd like to share a topic that has always been important to me throughout my 25 years of sobriety. It's prayer. I want to talk about prayer because so many old-timers talked about it around the tables when I was new to A.A. While I've never been religious, I knew about prayer because I'd heard clergymen discuss it the few times I was in a church. I knew that some people prayed but I never really found many reasons to pray myself. It just wasn't my thing. However, once I wanted sobriety, all that changed for me. Desperation made me teachable as I sat in some of my first A.A. meetings, listening to the old-timers talk. And, quite often, they spoke of the power of prayer in their lives. Here is some of what I learned from them:

One of the most basic things to know about prayer is that it affects us in a positive way because we're making direct conscious contact with the Source of our life -- our Creator who gave us life in the first place. So, every time we pray, we're allowing the Source of life to influence us. Or, to say it in another way, we're letting ourselves receive more and more life from Him.

An easy way to think of prayer is to think of a living plant that is receiving life-giving sunshine. Have you ever noticed how your houseplants thrive and flourish and grow when they get plenty of sunlight? Along with that, have you also noticed how your plants will bend and turn themselves toward the sunlight coming in through the window? They reach out to receive all the sunlight they can get, don't they? Well, that's sort of what prayer is. Whenever we pray, we're reaching out to God to be influenced by Him, much in the same way a living plant reaches out to the sun to be influenced by the sunlight. Further, the more we pray, the more we'll thrive and flourish and grow. It's as simple as that.

All of those old-timers around the tables who were always talking about prayer had learned that they needed to bend themselves toward God because they needed His Divine influence in their lives. They knew they lacked the power to do what they needed to do to stay sober. That's why they were praying. And, that's why they were gently teaching us newcomers to pray by talking about it in meetings. They knew it would cause us to flourish and grow too. They also knew we'd never get through any of the Steps without it.

Yes, once I became desperate enough to become teachable, I listened and learned the things that made the difference in staying drunk, or staying sober....and being miserable, or being happy. I'm thankful that they taught me to pray. I'm thankful that I got willing to learn. But, I'm also very thankful for God's influence in my life.

Blessings, Mike D.

Mike D · MIP Old Timer

Hey Pappy! I love you too man! Thanks for your great response to my recent post. I loved what you had to share and found it inspiring. Sure hope you share those wonderful things with many others. I really like it when I see something here, or hear something in a meeting, that causes me to think about things in a fresh light and it brings me back to basics. I still remember the folks who were there when I was new, and I remember how they made me feel when they shared their simple spirituality with us newbies. Many of them had a spiritual wisdom that probably could've "blown us away", but they "broke it down" for us and made it simple for us. I learned the great power of regular prayer very early-on and it has grown mightily over the years. What I did in my first year of sobriety is that I just decided that I would invite God for morning coffee every day at 5:00am. It's an appointment we've never failed to keep....and, He's never failed to keep me sober. In my case, I had an understanding of God, but through prayer, I came to realize the endless love of God. That was different. Yes Pappy, like yourself, I've seen many miraculous things happen from individual prayer, or group-prayer. We both know it works, don't we? But, we know it works because we know God's love for us. I had to almost die of alcoholism to find it out. Oh well....whatever it takes, right? Again, thanks for sharing. Blessings, Mike D.

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

Early on those who tried to teach me how to pray were my grand-mothers, mother, my aunts and the then the priest and nuns. It was a start and then what I was doing was parroting what they said I was supposed to do. They never told me how they did it and what it was made of and how they thought and felt when they did it; I got more of that from the "sharing" in the program. Late stage alcoholism...just before recovery I wasn't praying...I was peading!! In between chaos and crises I wasn't praying...I was preying working myself to my next flameout. I hadn't learned about prayer. Uniquely during my work with my sponsor on the subject of meditation I learned that "God is" and I was always abided with. God never left or leaves my side and when I accepted that then prayer became conversation. "God is" is my meditation...I do that meditation 24/7; I am doing it now and since that is true for me I can have conversation with our creator father at all times. God listens and God speaks...together we converse and for me that is as real as a heart beat. We travel together at all times and if I have a thought about what I might do at any one time I can ask...How do you see this? What would you have me do? or if I jump to it and do it I ask "how do you feel about how that came out"? It's "will asking". Most times I know what the will of our Father is and so I don't have to second guess it; other times I'd like to know if mine and God's will are in the same direction. I get responses and that is what I do. The elders in recovery and my sponsorship taught me how to pray. smile

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Mike D wrote:
I had to almost die of alcoholism to find it out. Oh well....whatever it takes, right? Again, thanks for sharing. Blessings, Mike D.

I went through the 'exact' same scenario Mike ... and it is my true belief that you and I and many others were spared an early death for a specific reason ... God, in His infinite wisdom, knew we could help others in many different ways ... ergo, here we are ... spreading His message of 'Hope' ... ... ...

May God Bless us all !

Fyne Spirit · MIP Old Timer

What a wonderful thread!

Thank you Mike D and Roger for your posts and thank you Stepchild for relating it back to our manual of instruction. For me prayer was essential. It is astonishing how my life began to change the minute I began to pray. And I was only able to pray in the most rudimentary and child like way, working from some very basic guidance from my sponsor.

Today I still keep it very simple, and I sometimes forget to ask for guidance. But I never forget who it really was that got me, and keeps me, sober. It was the Power greater than myself whom I am happy to call God. It had very little to do with me.

God bless,
MikeH.

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Amen Mike, ... the learning process was much the same for me ... I was like a child in the beginning too ... but it has blossomed from there, thank the Lord ... I am 'blessed' and 'grateful' ... ... ...