Food for Thought: February 18th

Setting Priorities

One of our slogans is "first things first." We cannot have or do everything; we must set our priorities and choose what means the most to us.

Each of us needs to spend quiet time searching the inner self to determine which people, which activities, which tasks are most important. The results may surprise us. We may find that we are spending too much time with someone we really do not enjoy, preparing complicated meals which no one needs, working at a job which we dislike in order to make more money to buy more things. Do we really need the things? Do they enrich our lives or are they merely impressive?

Because I am a compulsive overeater, abstinence is the most important thing in my life. Without it, I do not enjoy other people, I do not like myself, I do not work well. If abstinence does not come first, everything else suffers.

May I remember that abstinence is my number one priority.

From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L. ©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation.

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

When I keep abstinence my #1 priority, the rest of my life falls into place smoothly and naturally.
When I slip up and forget that my prime focus in life is abstinence, everything else in my life gets cloudy and unnatural.

Without abstinence, I do not enjoy life.  Even the act of overeating is a shameful and unpleasant thing, yet my disease urges me to KEEP on eating.

For today, I choose abstinence.  By choosing abstinence, I choose sanity; I choose to love myself, love life, and love God.