Home Service Keeping Focused

Keeping Focused

4 min read
0

I am grateful for sixteen years and six months of abstinence, by the grace of God and this Fellowship. It is a gift to serve as a sponsor and see sponsees go through the Twelve Steps to find abstinent, sane lives. Sponsoring helps me take the focus off my problems (a divorce, move, and new job), which could lead to self-pity or fear, and instead puts the focus onto the solution: the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of OA.

In a recent email to my sponsor, I said I felt fat and wondered if I should be eating less. She reminded me I’m just getting over being sick, so I couldn’t do much exercise. I don’t make changes to my food plan without first praying about it and checking in with my sponsor. I also say the Third Step Prayer and my own version of the Seventh Step Prayer. This humbles me and allows me to ask my Higher Power for help. I need HP every day to live one day at a time and be abstinent.

Giving back to this program also helps me keep my program fresh. OA has given me life far beyond what any diet could give. I used to think only about what I wanted. I was full of fear and self-pity, and I was stuck in my character defects. Giving to the program allows me to let my Higher Power transform my defects into assets.

I recently stepped down as chair of our area’s public information team. As part of this team, I learned to be a leader by example and to take small actions, such as delivering public service announcements to radio stations and typing up meeting notes. I stepped down after three years of service because I needed to be more humble and rotate leadership. Someone else can do the position just as well or better than I can.

Doing service has helped me let go of some of my character defects, such as trying to control others, being a perfectionist, and feeling self-pity. I’ve learned to go with the flow a little better and to admit when I’ve made a mistake. Even though my life is filled with many changes, I am grateful service has given me the ability to get outside the bondage of self. I am grateful to my Higher Power for keeping me abstinent, and I am thankful for my sponsors, sponsees, friends, and a full, rich life. Thanks for letting me share.

— Anonymous

  • From Great Fall to Grateful

    I would like to tell you how I think the character, Humpty Dumpty, can be like some compul…
  • Eight Other Tools

    Here I sit, self-quarantined in the middle of a viral pandemic after returning home from t…
  • Learning More Each Day

    After several starts, I found myself knowing that OA was for me, thanks to the acceptance …
Load More Related Articles
  • Low-Tech Outreach

    I am on my intergroup’s public information committee. We make flyers with a tear-off porti…
  • Available to Everyone

    Here are a few ways I carry the message to other compulsive overeaters. I print out OA’s C…
  • Radio-Active

    I was listening to a commentary about obesity on our local radio station. The commentator …
Load More By admin
  • Peace of Mind in Service

    Throughout my entire spiritual journey through the Twelve Steps, no Step guaranteed me fre…
  • Supersized Recovery

    I recently heard in a meeting, “I don’t want to be just a survivor, I want to be a thriver…
  • Love and Service

    Love and service. These are, I sense, one and the same. Love, without service, is illusory…
Load More In Service
Comments are closed.

Check Also

Low-Tech Outreach

I am on my intergroup’s public information committee. We make flyers with a tear-off porti…