The Tablemate - Discussion No. 2 The Spiritual Phase Part III

As a reminder;

The Tablemate was an early A.A. set of beginners lessons entitled ‘Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps,’ put out in the form of a little pamphlet. It was (and still is) the most successful set of A.A. beginners lessons ever devised.

And I’m drawing content from the Hindsfoot site, laboriously prepared by Glenn C. and others… We are now in Discussion No. 2: The Spiritual Phase (III) (see part I and part II)

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Step No. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

The meaning of this step is clear: prayer, humility.

1. Prayer No man can tell another how to pray. Each one has, or works out for himself, his own method.

• If we cannot pray, we just talk to God and tell him our troubles. Meditate (think clearly and cleanly) and ask God to direct our thoughts.
• Christ said, “ask and ye shall receive.” What method is simpler? – - merely ask.
• If you cannot pray, ask God to teach you to pray.
  

2. Humility This simply is the virtue of being ourselves and realizing how small we are in a big world full of its own trouble.

• Drop all pretense.
• We must not be Mr. Big Shot – - bragging, boasting.
• Shed false pride.
• Tell the simple, plain, unvarnished truth.
• Act, walk, and talk simply.
• See the little bit of good that exists in an evil man; forget the little bit of evil that exists in a good man.
• We must not look down on the very lowest of God’s creations or man’s mistakes.
• Think clearly, honestly, fairly, generously.
  

3. The shortcomings we ask God to remove are the very defects in character that make us drink – - the same defects we drink to hide or get away from.

Step No. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with GOD as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

1. We pray each night – - every night – - a prayer of thanks.
2. We pray each morning – - every morning – - for help and guidance.
3. When we are lonely, confused, uncertain – - we pray.

Most of us find it well to – -

1. Choose, for each day, a “quiet time” to meditate on the program, on our progress in it.
2. Keep conscious contact with God and pray to make that contact closer.
3. Pray that our will be laid aside and that God’s will direct us.
4. Pray for calmness – - quiet – - relaxation – - rest.
5. Pray for strength and courage to enable us to do today’s work today.
6. Pray for forgiveness for yesterday’s errors.
7. Ask for hope for better things tomorrow.
8. Pray for what we feel we need. We will not get what we want – - we will get what we need, what is good for us.

Conclusion

We find that no one need have difficulty with the spiritual side of the program. Willingness, Honesty, and Open-Mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.