Step 10 Prayer: A Nightly Review Prayer for Recovery
A Tenth Step prayer is a short prayer you say while looking back over your day, or in the moment when something goes wrong. The Big Book doesn’t print a set prayer for Step 10, so the two below are in our own words: one for the middle of the day and one for bedtime.
Step 10, in the 1939 wording, reads: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” These prayers support both parts: seeing it, and saying it.
A spot-check prayer for the middle of the day
Use this when you feel the heat rising, the fear creeping in, or the urge to shade the truth.
Lord, I am upset. Show me what this really is. Is it selfishness, dishonesty, resentment or fear? Take it from me. Give me the right next words, and if I already said the wrong ones, help me make it right before the day is over. Amen.
That’s it. Say it in the bathroom, in the car, under your breath at your desk. Then, if you can, call someone.
A nightly review prayer
Father, thank You for this day. Walk back through it with me.
Where was I selfish? Where was I dishonest? Where did I hold a grudge, or let fear run things? Show me plainly, without letting me wallow.
Show me who I owe an apology, and give me the courage to make it tomorrow.
And show me what went right. Where did I help someone? Where did I keep my temper, tell the truth, or let something go? Thank You for those. They were Your work in me.
Forgive me for what I got wrong. I receive Your mercy and I rest in it tonight. Amen.
Why the “what went right” part matters
People in early recovery tend to swing between pride and shame. A review that only looks for faults can feed the shame side, and that is dangerous. Naming what went right is not bragging. It is noticing what God is doing.
A verse for bedtime
“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
After an honest review and real confession, you can sleep. The day is handed over. Tomorrow’s mercy is already waiting.
A simple nightly pattern
- Sit down. Phone face down. Two to five minutes.
- Pray the nightly prayer slowly. Pause after each question.
- Write a line or two. What came up, what you owe, what went right.
- Plan one amends, if there is one. Who, and when tomorrow.
- Thank God and go to bed.
If you miss a night, don’t start a new list of failures. Just do it tonight.
When it feels like too much
If the nightly review starts to feel like a trial every evening, shorten it. Three questions are enough: What was I wrong about? Who do I owe? What went right? Then talk to your sponsor about it. Heavy shame is something to bring into the light, not carry alone.
The full step, with the reading, is on the Step 10 page. Step 11 builds on this with a morning prayer; see the Step 11 prayer.
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