Awareness, Acceptance, Action

Dear God,

Slow me down when all I do is try to fix and control things and people. Help me to first accept situations, as they are when I become aware of them.

Slow me down in your stillness.

Mark my awareness with unselfishness, my acceptance with humility, and my actions with usefulness to me and others.

~ The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 by Bill P. and Lisa D.

Be Patient with Everyone

-- from writings by St. Francis de Sales

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself . . . do not be disappointed by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage.

How are you to be patient in dealing with your neighbor's faults if you are impatient in dealing with your own?

They who are worried by their own shortcomings will not correct them.

All positive progress comes from a calm and peaceful mind.

Today Is Good

Today Is Good

That I will get out of the self-pity act and live for today.

May I notice the good things from dawn to nightfall,
learn to talk about them and thank God for them.

May I catch myself if I seem to be relishing my moans and complaints
more often than appreciating the goodness of my life.

Where there is charity and wisdom

Where There is Charity and Wisdom

---- St. Francis of Assisi (paraphrased)

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.

Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor annoyance.

Where there is love and joy, there is neither greed nor selfishness.

Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.

Life is fragile, handle with prayer.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace --
that where there is hatred, I may bring love --
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness --
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony --
that where there is error, I may bring truth --
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith --
that where there is despair, I may bring hope --
that where there are shadows, I may bring light --
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted --
to understand, than to be understood -- to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 99

Prayer

Prayer is then the first and most important step.
All through the life of faith one must resort constantly to prayer, because faith is not simply a gift which we receive once for all in our first act of belief.
Every new development of faith, every new increment of supernatural light, even though we may earnestly working to acquire it, remains a pure gift of God.

Prayer is therefore the very heart of the life of faith.

-- Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness

All the Good I Can

Dear God, guide me to
Do all the good I can
By all means I can
In all ways I can
In all places I can
To all people I can
As long as I can.

Prayer Of Strength

Have mercy on your people. Lord

In our weakness, grant us your strength.

In our refusal to suffer for your sake, grant us your forgiveness.

In our reluctance to take up the cross, grant us your courage.

O Creator, the source of all our strength, you nourish us to walk the way of the cross that leads us into your kingdom.

Amen.

I Can't Pray

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said:
'Let me see if I've got this right.'

'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.

'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

'You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . . I CAN'T PRAY?

Thank You For This Day

Dear Lord, I thank You for this day.
I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning.
I'm blessed because You are a forgiving God and an understanding God.
You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me.
Forgive me this day for everything I have done, said
or thought that was not pleasing to you.
I ask now for Your forgiveness.
Please keep me safe from all danger and harm.
Help me to start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude.
Let me make the best of each and every day
to clear my mind so that I can hear from You.
Please broaden my mind that I can accept all things.
Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over,
and give me the best response when I'm pushed beyond my limits.
I know that when I can't pray, You listen to my heart.
Continue to use me to do Your will.
Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others.
Keep me strong that I may help the weak.
Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement for others.
I pray for those that are lost and can't find their way.
I pray for those that are misjudged and misunderstood.
I pray for those who don't know You intimately.
But I thank You, that I believe that God
changes people and God changes things.
I pray for all my sisters and brothers.
For each and every family member in their households.
I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes;
that they are out of debt and all their needs are met.
I pray that everyone knows there is no problem,
circumstance, or situation greater than God.
Every battle is in Your hands for You to fight.
I pray that these words be received into the hearts
of every eye that sees it in Jesus' name.
Amen!

A Prayerful Life

The question now arises how to attain to this prayerful attitude in life.
In the first place, for those whose prayer is one of praise, if their whole life is to assume a prayerful attitude, they must carry this praise and gratitude into the smallest details of life, and feel grateful for the slightest act of kindness done to them by anybody.
Man falls very short of this ideal in life.
He is so stiff, he misses so many of the chances of giving thanks.
It is sometimes because of his riches, while at other times he is blinded by his power.
All that is done for him he thinks is his due because of his money or his influence.
When a man has been able to attain this attitude of praise and thanksgiving for all things in life, then his life may indeed be called a prayerful life.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Procrastination

Higher Power, it was so easy to put things off during my addiction.
I pray to remember that postponing facing up to reality is really self-pity in action.
When I procrastinate about solving problems, I am only making the problems worse.
Let me remember that solutions come from taking action.
I pray to stop wasting precious time.

The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 by Bill P. and Lisa D.p

Taittiriya Upanishad

May God protect us,

grant us wisdom's fruit;

may we gain energy to know the Truth;

may our intellects grow clear and bright;

may we cherish no ill feelings toward anyone.

Om, peace, peace, peace be unto all.

Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1.1

You Give Me Strength

Lord God, thank You for loving me

Even when I turn away from You.

I am grateful for Your
constant care and concern.

Though I feel unworthy
of Your great love,

I thank You that
through my weakness

You give me strength,

And in my wandering
You show me the way.

--Author unknown

Prayer Is The Greatest Virtue

Prayer is the greatest virtue,
the only way of being free from all sin.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

The first aspect of prayer is giving thanks to God for all the numberless blessings that are bestowed upon us at every moment of the day and night, and of which we are mostly unconscious.

The second aspect of prayer is laying our shortcomings before the unlimited perfection of the divine Being, and asking His forgiveness. This makes man conscious of his smallness, of his limitation, and therefore makes him humble before his God...

There are many virtues, but there is one principal virtue. Every moment passed outside the presence of God is sin, and every moment in His presence is virtue. The whole object of the Sufi, after learning this way of communicating is to arrive at a stage where every moment of our life passes in communion with God, and where our every action is done as if God were before us. Is that within everyone's reach? We are meant to be so. Just think of a person who is in love: when he eats or drinks, whatever he does, the image of the beloved is there. In the same way, when the love of God has come, it is natural to think of God in everything we do.

Prayer is a great virtue and is the only way of being free from all sin. In prayer a man reaches the Spirit of God which is all-powerful and ever-forgiving; and the power of prayer opens the doors of the heart in which God, the All-Merciful resides.

There are many different feelings which have their influence upon men, and give joy and exaltation; but there is none greater and more exalting than that of offering our faults and weaknesses before God and asking His pardon with true repentance and humility. No ethics, no philosophy, can give greater joy than this, which is sincere devotion to God; and the deepest joy is his who knows best how to humble himself before God. The proud man, ignorant of greatness of God, and of His all-sufficient power, does not know this exaltation, which raises the soul from earth to Heaven.

By Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

. . . Shipwrecked In South Carolina . . .

Expectations

Higher Power, help me stop expecting so much from myself. 

I set unrealistic standards, and when they are not met, unhappiness follows. 

Help me be true to myself and only expect what I am capable of doing. As I grow in recovery and do my assignments every day, I am able to do more. 

Your will provides realistic goals. Your will provides what I need to succeed.  Amen.
 

The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 

by Bill P. and Lisa D. 

  

Good Is Good Enough

May I not set my sights unrealistically high, expect too much.

May I look backwards long enough to see that my self-set, impossible goals were the trappings of my addiction; too often I ended up halfway there, confronted by my own failure.

Those "foiled-again," "I've-failed-again" feelings became monumental excuses to give in to my compulsion, which blanketed my miseries.

May I avoid that sick old pattern.

May I be realistic.  Amen.

Daily Surrender - No Regrets

This I pray, Higher Power: I will surrender to Your will today, which brings me peace and joy that makes all things new.

I no longer have that trampled look of someone forced to remember every mistake he or she has made.

I no longer hide under that blanket of regrets.

My daily surrender to You and the Fellowship that surrounds me leads me away from darkness and into the wonderful light of Your wisdom.

 

The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 by Bill P. and Lisa D.

Prayer

Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.

Thomas Merton

Strength & Comfort

Every time I get worried about something I say my prayers more.

Jim Burns

I never outgrow the need for strength and comfort.

That's good news.

It's too awesome to think that I need to know all now, to understand how every detail of living should unfold.

It's quite enough to limit my focus on the details of the next 24 hours.

Let's be vigilant about my search for guidance and comfort.

And let's not forget that I have to listen for the response.

If my mind is filled with worrying, there will be no space for the answers to enter.

Praying for solutions or comfort or 

just a moment of peace will 

change my perspective today. 

When my perspective changes, 

so do my experiences.