Prayer -- Request or Demand?

Prayer: An earnest request; entreaty; supplication.

The founders of our Program put a lot of stock in prayer and meditation. They dedicated a whole Step to them. A long Step. This would seem to indicate to me that prayer and meditation are going to be an important part of my recovery. These twin engines of serenity, however, can be tricky to implement. It's not easy getting God to do what I want and it's pretty boring trying to settle down for a few minutes and listen to what he has to say.

Of the two, prayer is a little easier. It's the time where we try to tell God what he should do for us. It is our time to lay down the divine law. We can spell out in great detail what needs to happen today. We concentrate on today -- it is "One day at a time" after all -- but we should feel free to leap out into the future to head off any coming unpleasantness. We put special emphasis on the things that we want. We carefully enumerate anything that may cause us pain. God can be a little unclear on how to implement our wishes.

Tomorrow: Meditation techniques.