Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Working the Program Partners in Recovery By kmcguire@oa.org Posted on July 1, 2020 4 min read 0 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Reddit Share on Pinterest Share on Linkedin Share on Tumblr There are many different ways to share experience, strength, and hope in the OA Fellowship. As two OA members in recovery, we would like to share a way that has worked for us. We have been calling our relationship “Partners in Recovery.” Together, we have developed a unique relationship that is separate from a sponsor/sponsee relationship, although we still continue to sponsor others and be sponsored. In June 2015, our Higher Power brought us together. We both found ourselves in need of additional support, and we started talking weekly by phone about the many elements of the OA Program that we have in common: long-term abstinence, a love of the Twelve Steps, and a commitment to recovery. In January 2016, we committed to work together weekly on reading and writing projects to help strengthen our programs so that we could keep up with the pace of life. Over the past three years, we have read and discussed numerous pieces of OA-approved literature. We have searched out the many “musts” in The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition and in Alcoholics Anonymous. We have worked through OA’s Twelve Step Workshop and Study Guide and AA’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. We have read and shared on the stories in Taste of Lifeline, and we are currently reviewing each issue of Lifeline followed by a story from the Big Book. We look up the words we are not familiar with so that we can fully understand what we are reading. We both go to different meetings, and we love to share quotes and acronyms that we hear at those meetings. We appreciate the gifted writers that are able to put into words the recovery we seek to enrich. Some of our favorite quotes are: “If I have to have all my questions answered, then I am playing God! I am not trusting.” “God is in the pause.” “Program can become our easier, softer way.” “Gratitude lifts the attitude.” “This is a Step One situation!” “Abandon all hope of a better past.” This partnership continues to be a positive experience for each of us, allowing us to have more depth to our programs. Perhaps other OA members would like to experience the rewards of working together as partners in recovery. — Anonymous
