For Today: March 7th

For Today: March 7^th

Those things are dearest to us that have cost us most.

Michel de Montaigne

I paid a very high price to get to OA, and my life of abstinence and sanity are worth more to me than anything. But it is easy to forget. The lonely days of compulsive overeating can become hazy and I can get caught up in the cares of a day, running here, going there. It is easy to drift into old habits and thought patterns that block my usefulness to myself and others. I need to remind myself that the OA program is one of action: going to meetings, working the steps, making twelfth-step calls—all part of my life of abstinence and sanity.

For Today: There is nothing in the world I would take in exchange for what I have in OA. I go to any length to keep it.

******************************************************************

“There is nothing in the world I would take in exchange for what I have in OA.”  This is SO true! I often think, if I won the lottery, what would change? Nothing much is the answer. I’d pay off my mortgage and take a vacation to an exotic place, that’s about it.  But, I can afford my mortgage and I’ve already been to several exotic places, with plans to visit more one day.

My abstinence is THE best thing in my life and there is nothing I’d trade for it!  It’s taken me 40 years to realize the importance of my program, however. I could lament the years I wasted  yo-yo dieting & looking for ‘the answer’ to my weight issues & compulsive behaviors, but what’s the point in looking back? All I find when I DO look back is behavior that can lead me back to the depths of despair.  So, when I DO look back, that’s what I see: a place I never want to go back to.

While it’s easy to let old habits & thoughts slip back into reality, staying true to my Food Plan PREVENTS that from happening. 

Nowadays, I can look at the here and now,  & know that, for today, I can do anything. I can choose to be abstinent or I can choose to go back to the insanity of compulsive overeating.  As if there IS a choice?!

For today, I pray that I may follow God’s guidance, so that spiritual success shall be mine. I pray that I may never doubt the power of God and so take things into my own hands.