Step Eleven:

“Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
conscious contact with God as we understood Him,
praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the
power to carry that out.”

Prayer and meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God.

We A.A.’s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with
the realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously
trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along. So it isn’t surprising
that we often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something
not really necessary. To be sure, we feel it is something that might help
us to meet an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are apt to
regard it as a somewhat mysterious skill of clergymen, from which we
may hope to get a secondhand benefit. Or perhaps we don’t believe in
these things at all.

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 96. Copyright © 1981
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Eleventh Step Prayer
Higher Power, as I understand You,
I pray to keep my connection with You
Open and clear from the confusion of daily life.
Through my prayers and meditation I ask especially for
Freedom from self-will, rationalization, and wishful thinking.
I pray for the guidance of correct thought and positive action.
Your will, Higher Power, not mine, be done.

---