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Service That Helps

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First of all, service is slimming! Giving service offers me opportunities to give back what was so freely given to me. I don’t have to pay my sponsor; I simply get to follow some really good orderly direction.

These things are all service: making coffee; moving chairs; cleaning the rooms; giving rides; reading at meetings; sponsoring; serving as treasurer or secretary; sharing experience, strength, and hope. Service is very important, and while it requires a lot of character, it also builds character.

Giving is liberating. It relieves me of myself. Giving service is an amazing opportunity to build patience, integrity, dignity, agility, and ability, and to do things I never believed possible before coming into the OA program.

It is important to give service in OA because I can only keep what I have by giving it away. In OA there is a common bond. We are all suffering from compulsive overeating, and we are desperate for a way out. Giving service relieves some of the desperation, gives hope, and saves lives.

I am so happy I chose to walk through the doors of my first OA meeting. I am going to keep coming back.

— Edited and reprinted from Out of the Cocoon newsletter, Milwaukee Area Intergroup, March/April 2015

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