Eleventh Step and Tranquility

November 5 - For many months after I came to Gamblers Anonymous, I paid little attention to the Eleventh Step, to the practice of serious meditation and prayer.  I felt that it might help me meet an emergency - such as a sudden craving to return to gambling - but it remained among the lowest levels on my list of priorities.  In those early days, I equated prayer and meditation with mystery and even hypocrisy.  I've since found that the result of prayer and meditation are more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.  For me today, the harvest is increasingly bountiful, and I continue to gain peace of mind and strength far beyond my human limitations.

Is my former pain being replaced by tranquility?

Today I Pray - May I find my own best way to God, my own best technique of meditation - whether I use an oriental mantra or the name of Jesus Christ, or just allow the spirit of God, as I understand Him, to settle into me and give me peace.  By whatever means I reach my God, may I learn to know Him well and feel His presence - not only in these quiet times, but in everything I do.

Today I Will Remember - Meditation is opening myself to the spirit of God.

Having a Human Experience

November 4 - In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience."  Even though we acknowledge in theory that we are spiritual beings, most compulsive gamblers had to experience some sort of spiritual awakening before we were willing to turn our lives over to a Higher Power.  It was then that we could finally say we were spiritual beings.  For some of us, it was as though we had experienced spirituality for the first time in our lives.  But, no matter what our spiritual base had been previously, once we discovered this new sense of spirituality, it became an experience and a feeling we wold not soon be willing to leave behind.

Am I grateful for the "awakening" that has put me in touch with my Higher Power - and with my own spiritual essence?

Today I Pray - May I not forget how my outlook toward life, myself, friends, loved ones, and God had deteriorated prior to coming to Gamblers Anonymous.  May I do whatever it takes to keep my spiritual life from hitting bottom again.  May I keep growing spiritually - a day at a time.

Today I Will Remember - Let my spirituality guide my humanity.

Find your Whole self

November 3 - The Gamblers Anonymous Red Book says: "The word spiritual can be said to describe those characteristics of the human mind that represent the highest and finest qualities, such as kindness, generosity, honesty, and humility.  Inasmuch as the Gamblers Anonymous Fellowship advocates consideration of these principles as a way of life, it is said that ours is a spiritual fellowship."  I have begun to understand that my spirituality has to do with my wholeness - the healthy congruency of truths, as I now perceive them, and my inner self.

Do I continue to strive for qualities that will bring me the greatest long-term happiness?

Today I Pray - May I work toward taking into myself those "highest and finest qualities" that define my spiritual being.  May I know the joys that come through living the GA way, until all life becomes a celebration shared especially with others who, like me, are trying to live up to these God-inspired principles.

Today I Will Remember - From spiritual holes to spiritual whole.