I was thinking of the Third Step prayer today. I guess it was not only because of my self, but of some of the things I have heard lately. The words of that prayer tell me to not only turn myself over, but to ask that I be relieved of the bondage of self, so that I could better serve my Higher Power.
I often go back and think about that phrase, “the bondage of self”. It’s all about being human. That fault we all have of being open to stumbling over myself, because I’m in the way. Doesn’t mean that it’s a regular thing, but I can discover myself drifting back into my old faults and my defects. It’s what often reminds me to look at the Tenth Step and the Eleventh. To once again strive for changes I need.
It also has me ask to have my difficulties removed, which can become a signal to others that my Higher Power has granted me the changes in my life, which they’re hoping to achieve themselves. A sign that they need to have faith in the God of their understanding to do for them what he has done for me. Especially to come to believe in not just the power, and the Steps themselves, but the love I have been gifted with. In other words, I think, the gift of hope.
When I say this prayer each day I am sometimes reminded of how it worked for me. When I could see this in my old sponsor and others in here, who had definitely changed and were sober in a way I hoped I too could some day achieve. I have to remember this. Especially, when I take the time to stop and think about this.
Someone today asked me how long I had been sober. I stopped for a minute and then told him. I could see from the expression on his face that this might be what he was thinking. How much the God of my understanding had helped me. Or so I hope, that he might have the faith the same would happen to him.
Just doing what I need to do to stay sober a day at a time. I was talking to another person earlier, about the time I had been almost stumbling into another drink, when my wife asked me what was wrong. I told her and she asked me to step outside and pray and ask for help. I did and I was relieved of that threat to sobriety. Never want to forget that, because it is a reminder of what I was thinking today.
Makes me grateful.