Got the opportunity I needed to come up with thoughts I need from time to time. And one of those concerns the Third Step Prayer. It’s what I find myself saying each and everyday, One of the basics for this alcoholic. It opens the door for me to help me stay sober.
The thing about this way of thinking is that it simplifies what I need to focus on each and everyday. For instance I know that the reason I begin with this prayer is that it helps me to turn my will and life over to my Higher Power. To try to humbly ask Him to help me to change myself. To give myself over to whatever it is He wants me to be or do. It’s what I desperately need to follow directions in here.
And then to ask for help to cut me down to size. I know that my over sized ego can get in the way and I need help to try to acquire some sort of humility. So that’s my request in the beginning. And then I am aware of more of the help I need to allow me to stay sober.
And that’s asking for the major help I need to do what I’m supposed to do each and everyday. And that’s to hopefully do what this program is about to increase my sober life in here. Helping another alcoholic. So often I may not be aware that I’m doing this, like at a meeting, when sharing and hopefully giving and example. And that’s allowing my Higher Power to use me as a hopeful tool to open them up to getting sober. And that’s being able to be an example of how this program works.
I know that I’m not aware of what this is, even though it’s spelled out in this prayer. That somehow I might be an example of the results of my Higher Power’s love, power, and the way of life I’m living. And that’s what this program is about. I often go back to remember what the Ninth Step states in the BB. That the spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.
When I get to this point I have to step back and hope that somehow I may be living this way of life. I rarely ever think of myself as spiritual. I know that this comes up from time to time, but I rarely feel spiritual. Even thinking of myself this way is very rare, if at all.
Anyway I know I have to begin my day with this prayer is the door to staying sober a day at a time. I’ve been told that I need to focus on this day as how I can stay sober. I was told I have to avoid projecting beyond this day. My sponsor and others told me that I have to avoid thinking about the future. I’m just here for now. Any plans I may have are not to be brought into my thinking. There’s a danger there. I can find myself going back into the past and bringing negative emotions into my thoughts. Very hazardous.
I need to make sure that I am loving and grateful for all I have been given. I need to give thanks and love to my Higher Power, and my old sponsor and those old timers. And, of course, I need to be grateful and compassionate to all those, who help me. And to do what this prayer hopes I will, that is to reach out to anyone, who wants to get sober. Thanks.