Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity toAccept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And the Wisdom to know the difference.
Grant me patience with the changes that take time
Appreciation of all that I have
Tolerance of those with different struggles
And the strength to get up and try again
One day at a time.
Abstinence Prayer
Dear God,
Abstinence is the most important thing in my life right now.
Help me to do what is necessary to get it.
And help me to do what is necessary to keep it.
Amen.
Set Aside Prayer
Dear God, please set aside anything I think I know about myself, about my disease, about the 12 Steps, and especially You; so that I may have an open mind and a new experience of all these things. Please help me to see the Truth. Amen.Step 3 Prayer (Big Book, p.63)
God, I offer myself to thee-to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always.
4th Step Prayer (Resentments, Big Book, pp.66-67)
God, help me to show tolerance, pity and patience. We
realize that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we do not like their symptoms and the
way these disturb us, they, like ourselves were sick too.
We ask God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity,
and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offends us, we say, “This is a
sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will
be done.”
Fear Prayer (Big Book, p. 68)
God, I ask that you remove my fear and direct my attention
to what you would have me be.
Relationships / Sex Prayer (Big Book, p. 69)
God, I ask that you would mold my ideals, and help me to
live up to them. Where I have done harm, God show me what I should do about
each specific matter.
Forgiveness Prayer (Big Book, p. 70)
God, I am sorry for what I have done, and have an honest
desire to let You take me to better things.
Sanity and Strength Prayer (Big Book, p. 70)
God, I earnestly pray for the right ideal, for guidance in
each questionable situation, for sanity, and for the strength to do the right
thing.
5th Step Prayer (Big Book, p. 75)
We pocket our pride and go to it, illuminating every twist
of character, every dark cranny of the past.
Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are
delighted. We can look the world in the
eye. We can be alone at perfect peace
and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness of our
Creator. We may have had certain
spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience. The feeling that the [food] problem has
disappeared will often come strongly. We
feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the
Universe.
God, I thank you from the bottom of my heart that I may know
you better.
6th Step Prayer (Big Book, p. 76)
God, I still cling to some things that I have admitted are
objectionable. Help me to be willing to let them go.
7th Step Prayer (Big Book, p. 76)
My Creator, I am now willing that You should have all of Me,
good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of
character which stands in the way of my usefulness to You and my fellows. Grant
me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding.
8th Step Prayer (Big Book, p. 76)
Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in
the past. We attempt to sweep away the
debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the
show ourselves. If we haven’t the will
to do this, we ask until it comes.
Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for
victory over [food addiction].
God, I ask for the willingness to make amends for the damage
I have done in the past.
8th Step Prayer (from OA Silicon Valley Intergroup)
God, in my illness, I have harmed myself. Grant me compassion, tolerance, and
patience. Save me from negativity now as I move toward healing.
9th Step Prayer (Big Book, p. 79)
Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any
lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and
direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may
be.
God, I pray that I may be given strength and direction to do
the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.
10th Step Prayer (Big Book, p. 84)
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.
God, please help me review my day. Please grant me the willingness to see what
you would have me see, in the light you would have me see it: free from morbid
reflection, fear, obsessive guilt, and dishonesty.
Acceptance Prayer (Big Book, p. 417)
Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am
disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation—some
fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept
that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed
to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by
mistake. Until I could accept my [compulsive eating], I could not stay [abstinent];
unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to
concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what
needs to be changed in me and in my attitude.
Your will, God, not mine, be done.
11th Step Prayer (The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love
where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where, there is sadness, joy.
0 Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled.
as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to
love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
On Awakening
[Big Book, pp.86-88]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. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
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.
If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation. If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one's priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
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. But this is not all. There is action and more action. "Faith without works is dead."
OA Promise (also known as Roseanne’s Prayer)
I put my hand in yours
And together we can do
What we could never do alone.
No longer is there a sense of
hopelessness
No longer must we each depend upon
our own unsteady willpower
We are all together now
Reaching out our hands
For power and strength greater than
ours
And as we join hands
We find love and understanding
Beyond our wildest dreams!
