Most of us have attended meetings where the topic of God's will has come up. This member has a job offer, and wonders it if is God's will that she take it; that member is in an abusive relationship, and cannot determine whether God wants him to leave or not.

A clue to many of these problems can be found in the shortest prayer we have been given in the Big Book -- the Tenth Step prayer: "How may I best serve thee -- thy will, not mine, be done." There are three parts to this little prayer: the request to be told how best to serve God as we understand God; the request that God's will be done; and the request that our will not be done.

How much easier the practice of Program would be if we only had to pay attention to the first two parts of this brief prayer. And yet, as we refine our work on Steps 10, 11 and 12, we come to see that that it's the third part that's the tough one. "Dear God, may my will not be done" -- that's what it amounts to. And that's the prayer that we don't really want to pray.

It follows that an admirable way to practice Step 10 is to pray that our will not be done. But are we willing to pray for that? Or are we hoping most of the time that God's will will be the same as our will?