Pray For The S.o.b.

Alcohol
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QUOTE
He said, in effect: "If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don't really want it for them, and your prayers are only words and you don't mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate understanding and love." Alcoholics Anonymous, pp 552, 4th Ed
It works for me now, and it has worked for me many times since getting sober, and it will work for me every time I am willing to work it.

My sponsor suggested this as a tool to get people out of my head who'd been living rent-free up there and keeping me loaded. He said, "Just pray for the bast@rd." Yep. If I were to pray for the S.O.B. and simply tell my HP that I needed that person to not get hit by a truck, just for today, and say thanks at the end, then something would change.

So I did it. Didn't feel much like prayer, but something happened. And I did it again, but I said something like, "I pray for the S.O.B. _________ (name) and that he not fall in a manhole and break a leg." And so on--and it seemed to work! Eventually, it became a game, and the title became more civil, and soon I was praying for his well-being and things that I wanted for myself (like peace, patience, etc.) so that I might reap some of the rewards of intercession.

Resentments are infinitely grave for me, and I seem to always have one about to burst into bloom, so I now try to use prayers like the one above BEFORE the bastards set up shop in my mind. Daily. 'Cause I'm alcoholic and I can't afford any more voices...

:)

Stay sobah, all y'all.
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Hi skg. I know this was a serious post but couldn't help myself when reading it ,I had to laugh.. I dunno just the image it created in my mind I guess of praying for someone to not fall in a manhole and break a leg.. guess I have a weird sense of humor but anyways your post did two things, it reminded me of what I am suppose to do about resentments and it brought a bit of humor to my day............as you would say.. Peaceness