We say all these prayers at the beginning and at the end each meeting. This was very shocking to me at first because I was hearing that AA is not a religious program and here we are saying The Lord's Prayer (Lord = God I had always thought); The Serenity Prayer (where "God" is the first word); The Third Step Prayer (dropping the "G" word yet again).
I had lost so much of my faith by the time I stumbled into AA this last "go round"...(I wasn't drunk, but detoxing and extremely weak). I wasn't ready to listen to these prayers to this "being" I didn't really think existed anymore because of all the things "He" let happen to me. I was good at blaming people for bad things which happened in my life. I became even better at doing a "blanket blame" to God for alllll the crap in my life. After I kept attending meetings and heard that it was important to believe in a power greater than myself to stay sober, I realized that it wasn't all that hard for me. I had lost all my power and in my mind, a pi**ant had more power than me. How hard could it be to think that something else could help me outside myself? So at first I didn't really believe in any specific thing just believed that there was "something" out there which I didn't understand that had more power than me. I did this for awhile, (I didn't use the pi**ant) and found that gradually I began to realize that I never lost all my faith in God like I thought I had. I had been blaming Him all along for everything and if I had lost my faith in Him totally, then how could I blame Him if He didn't exist for me?
I am not trying to convert anyone. I don't want or need to do that for my sobriety. It is my understanding that a Higher Power can be anything to anybody. Just wanted to share my own personal "God Stuff". I appreciate having this board to do so. Had I shared the above in a meeting, I am sure the shuffling in chairs, sighs and other verbal sounds from those with no tolerance to the "G" word in shares would be heard and perhaps a share informing me that I couldn't bring this up in meetings anymore would be possible. That has happened to others who shared a bit too much about their Higher Power in meetings. It is sad. We meet in churches, say all these prayers with "God" in them, and then in so many of the meetings I have been attending, "God" becomes a dirty word. That's just beyond me.
Anyway, for ME, I have learned that it is God's will and not "my" will be done and that is such a relief to me to know that I don't have to carry so much of the worry and burdens which I thought necessary and which caused me to want to drink.
Just my own "Take what you want and leave the rest".
BTY
-- Edited by betterthanyesterday52 on Monday 17th of February 2014 08:46:55 AM
-- Edited by betterthanyesterday52 on Monday 17th of February 2014 08:50:23 AM
I came to realize that I believed in God, I just had to have my arse severely kicked to be reminded of that fact.... "Oh God !! Get me out of this one !!"
Step 11 helps me to remember that I need God without having to go to the bottom of the hole to be reminded.
I also had to come to the realization that my idea of God was skewed. I had to start looking for a God and admit that I didn't know what/who I was looking for.
I also had to begin to take what I NEEDED and not so much what I WANTED.
I look at it like...He was always there....I just turned my back on Him. I was blocked off....And I needed to remove what was blocking me. Pretty simple when you think about it.
We say all these prayers at the beginning and at the end each meeting. This was very shocking to me at first because I was hearing that AA is not a religious program and here we are saying The Lord's Prayer (Lord = God I had always thought); The Serenity Prayer (where "God" is the first word); The Third Step Prayer (dropping the "G" word yet again).
It is sad. We meet in churches, say all these prayers with "God" in them, and then in so many of the meetings I have been attending, "God" becomes a dirty word. That's just beyond me.
Anyway, for ME, I have learned that it is God's will and not "my" will be done and that is such a relief to me to know that I don't have to carry so much of the worry and burdens which I thought necessary and which caused me to want to drink.
Just my own "Take what you want and leave the rest".
BTY
God did not start religions, ... man did ... the AA BB does not talk or teach religion, but focuses on 'spirituality' ... the BB originally mentioned God many more times than the final published copy ... and if you study where Bill got most of the steps and principles from, you'd find them directly out of the Big Big Book ... go figure ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
It's worth noting that, like many other aspects of how AA meetings are conducted, these prayers are not universally used throughout AA. Some places say all of these, some only say the Serenity Prayer and not the others, some places don't say any of these prayers to open or close the meeting but they do say something else, like the "I Am Responsible" statement, which isn't really a prayer at all, etc. I'm not trying to imply that any of these are right or wrong, just pointing out that it varies from place to place.
In the name of honesty and full openness, I don't pray the Our Father when it is chosen.
Out of love and respect for my fellow members, I join in on the Serenity Prayer.
You can silently say any prayer you want. I have a friend that ends the meeting he chairs by saying...We will now join in the Lords Prayer or whatever prayer you'd like to say silently..
He only says that so we don't have a room full of people saying different prayers out loud. I like that.
Good Morning, I should have said that the Chair usually always says, "For those who care to....". I don't mean to sound like I am making fun of someone, but there is this man who does say the prayers. Only thing is, that he says them faster and ahead of the rest of us...not one or two words ahead, it is almost a full sentence ahead of us and he is loud. So I find myself getting screwed up and jumbling the prayers up all to h...(oh, shouldn't say that word in relationship to a prayer)....I just get really messed up and he can be across the room from me and this will happen.
I think people that are intimidated by the word god are wrapped up in the wrong kind of energy and burn too many calories on something they don't believe in. When I read the book, I understand that they are looking to a different source of strength outside of themselves and I celebrate their success just as I do my own. I have seen faith work wonders in my family and am very happy for every bit of change and good living it has brought to those that have it. I don't have faith in god, but I don't find anything offensive about reading about the work of faith in people's lives.
"Take what you want and leave the rest".
