Reserve a Place for Prayer

November 7 - There are those in the Gamblers Anonymous Program who, at the beginning, shun meditation and prayer as they would avoid a pit filled with rattlesnakes.  When they do finally take the first tentative and experimental step, however, and unexpected things begin to take place, they begin to feel different.  Invariably, such tentative beginnings lead to true belief, to the extent that those who once belittled prayer and meditation often become walking advertisements for its rewards.  We hear in the GA Program that "almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never really tried it."

Is there an obstinate part of me that still scoffs?

Today I Pray - May I learn, however irreverent I have been, that prayer is not to be mocked; I see the power of prayer effecting miracles around me, and I wonder.  If I have refused to pray, may I look to see if pride is in the way - that old pride that insists on doing things on its own.  Mow that I have found a place for prayer in my life, may I reserve that place - religiously.

Today I Will Remember - Whoever learns to pray keeps on praying.

Emotional Balance with Meditation

November 6 - There is no boundaries to meditation.  It has neither width, depth, not height, which means that it can always be further developed without limitation of any soft.  Meditation is an individual matter; few of us meditate in the same way, and in that sense, it is truly a personal adventure.  For all of us who practice meditation seriously, however, the purpose is the same:  to improve our conscious contact with God.  Despite its lack of specific dimensions and despite its intangibility, meditation is, in reality, the most intensely practical thing that we can do.  One of its first rewards, for example, is emotional balance.  What could be more practical than that?

Am I broadening and deepening the channel between me and God?

Today I Pray - As I seek God through daily prayer and meditation, may I find the peace that passes understanding, that balance that gives perspective to the whole of life.  May I center myself in God.

Today I Will Remember - My balance comes from God.

Eleventh Step Meditation

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.

GA helps find Spirituality

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.

Gamblers Highest and Finest Qualities

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.

Manage Hurt Pride

November 2 - The more self-searching we do, the more we realize how often we react negatively because our pride has been hurt.  Pride is at the root of most of my personal problems.  When my pride is hurt, for example, I almost invariable experience resentment and anger - sometimes to the point where I'm unable to talk or think rationally.  When I'm in that sort of emotional swamp, I must remind myself that my pride - and nothing but my pride - has been injured.  I have to pause and try to cool off until such time as I can evaluate the problem realistically.

When my pride is injured or threatened, will I pray for humility so that I can rise above myself?

Today I Pray - May I know that if my pride is hurt, the rest of me may not be injured at all.  May I know that my pride can take a battering and still come back for more, stronger than ever.  May I know that every time my pride takes a blow, it is liable to get more defensive, nastier, more unreasonable, more feisty.  May I learn to keep my upstart pride in another place, where it will not be so easily hurt - or so willing to take credit.

Today I Will Remember - Humility is the only authority over pride.

Pride Can Be Dangerous

November 1 - Those whom I most respect in Gamblers Anonymous - and, in turn, those from whom I've learned the most - seem convinced that pride is, as one person put it, the "root-sin."  In moral theology, pride is the first of the seven deadly sins.  It is also considered the most seroius, standing apart from the rest by virtue of its unique quality.  Pride gets right into our spirtual victories.  It insinuates itself into all our successes and accomplishments, even when we attribute them to God. 

Do I struggle against pride by working the Tenth Step regularly, facing myself freshly and making things right where they've gone wrong?

Today I Pray - May I be on guard constantly against the sneakiness of pride, which can creep into every achievement, every triumph, every reciprocated affection.  May I know that whenever things are going well for me, my pride will be on the spot ready to take credit.  May I watch for it.

Today I Will Remember - Put pride in it's place.