For Today: March 29th

For Today: March 29^th

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

Epictetus

An OA member gave away a fifth step to her group one day. She told about secretly rejecting the idea that she, a deeply religious person and longtime churchgoer, could learn anything about spirituality in OA. She felt the steps said nothing she did not already know about maintaining a relationship with God. After a brief period of abstinence, she began overeating again, blamed the program and left. She returned almost a year later feeling utterly defeated, and found her attitude had changed. It was as though she was seeing the first three steps for the first time.

“When I put aside what I knew,” she said, “I suddenly saw what I had missed by closing my mind.”

For Today: Do I take advantage of opportunities to learn, even though I may know a good deal about a subject?

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An open mind is the key to recovery. I was held captive by my disease until I was ready to open my mind to a new & better way, the OA way.  Sometimes, I think, a person has to hit rock bottom before they’re able TO open their minds to new ideas.

  I grew up in the Catholic church & had a very strong belief system intact before I abandoned the teachings; they weren’t for me.  By the time I decided to find my spirituality, I had been through other religions as well, none of them were what I was looking for.  When I was able to tap into my spirituality, that is when I found a close personal relationship with God, which was what I’d wanted all along!

God can be found under a rock or in a rainbow just as easily as He can be found behind a wooden pew or in the stained glass of a church window.  God isn’t found in a collection plate; He isn’t found through fear or worry, He is found through love & faith in a power greater than myself.

For today, I pray to forget everything I know about diets & controlling my weight, and to rely on God to keep me on track, one day at a time