Pray for Openness
My part is to pray for openness and willingness.
Yesterday my sponsor asked what I'm doing about Step Six. I explained I was trying really hard to become ready. Working on my willingness. Examining my resistance. Thinking about what my life would be like without these defects. She listened and then asked: Are you praying?
My part is to pray for openness and willingness. Pray. That's my part. Not strategize or analyze or force or manufacture. Pray. Ask God for openness – openness to seeing how my defects hurt me openness to imagining life without them. Ask for willingness – willingness to let go willingness to trust God with the removal.
I'd been making this so complicated. Creating elaborate plans for how to work Step Six. But my actual part is simple: pray for openness and willingness. That's it. Everything else is God's work. I ask. God responds. I become open and willing through God's action not my effort.
This takes all the pressure off. I don't have to manufacture readiness. I just have to ask for it and trust that God will provide it when I'm genuinely asking.
Instead of trying to force myself to become ready, I can simply pray: God, make me open to releasing this defect. Give me willingness to let it go. Then I trust that the openness and willingness will come through God's action not my effort.
