We learn that prayer is only a wish away. When we wished for recovery more than anything in the world, we found it. Thus our wishes became our prayers. It was that simple.
We discover in recovery that prayer is best when it is a conversation with a Higher Power. It isn’t just a one-way speech where we tell God what we expect to have happen.
"I
was also able to realize that this bonfire of resentment and rage was
beckoning me to pick up a drink and plunge in to my death. Then I
realized that I had to separate my sobriety from everything else that
was going on in my life. No matter what happened or didn't happen, I
couldn't drink. In fact, none of these things that I was going through
had anything to do with my sobriety; the tides of life flow endlessly
for better or worse, both good and bad, and I cannot allow my
sobriety to become dependent on these ups and downs of living. Sobriety
must live a life of its own."
Our
spiritual and emotional growth in A.A. does not depend so deeply upon
success as it does upon our failures and setbacks. If you will bear
this in mind, I think that your slip will have the effect of kicking you
upstairs, instead of down.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 184
In
keeping with the pain and adversity which our founders
encountered and overcame in establishing A.A., Bill W. sent us a clear
message: a relapse can provide a positive experience toward abstinence
and a lifetime of recovery.
Lifting our self-esteem is not a particularly easy task for most of us. It's probable that again and again our confidence wavered before we sought help from the program. It's also probable that our confidence still wanes on occasion. The old fears don't disappear without effort.
