Recovery Working the Program Promises Missed By admin Posted on December 1, 2019 3 min read 1 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Reddit Share on Pinterest Share on Linkedin Share on Tumblr I enjoyed my August 2014 Lifeline very much but think the issue’s title could have been better. I am a huge fan of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and credit my fourteen-plus years and more than 80 pounds (36 kg) of recovery to repeatedly working the Steps with my sponsor using the Big Book directions. I love all the promises the book holds and have experienced many of them in my life. However, the August 2014 Lifeline was titled “The Promises of OA,” and I was amazed that not a single article was about the promises we have in our own book, The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous! I’d like to share my favorite promise of OA, that of permanent recovery. Step Ten on page 69 begins: “Many of us come to Overeaters Anonymous after years of pursuing short-term solutions to our long-term problem of compulsive eating. One aspect of this program that keeps us here is the promise of permanent recovery from this baffling disease. But what in the world is truly permanent? We read on page 204 of our For Today book, ‘Repetition is the only form of permanence that nature can achieve.’ If we are to experience permanent recovery from compulsive eating, we will have to repeat, day after day, the actions that have already brought us so much healing” (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition). Our Twelve and Twelve contains promises in every Step, and it is fun to study the text and ferret them out and see how they are coming true as we work the OA Twelve Step program of recovery. — Gail V.B., Herndon, Virginia USA Editor’s note: The August 2014 Lifeline shared OA members’ experience, strength, and hope regarding the promises in the Big Book and how they apply to OA recovery. The issue carried the title “The Promises in OA.
