Food for Thought

The Narrow Path

Abstinence is the narrow path that leads out of the swamp of compulsive overeating. If we allow ourselves to deviate from the path, we immediately put ourselves on slippery ground and run the risk of falling into a bog of quicksand.

The longer we maintain firm abstinence, the more sure our steps become as we walk away from the crippling effects of our disease. It is so much easier to stay on the narrow path than to slip off and have to find it again. Without abstinence, we compulsive overeaters are lost.

If abstinence is not the most important thing in our lives, then food becomes our number one priority, and we gradually destroy ourselves.

Guide my steps, I pray, on the narrow path of abstinence.

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

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The crippling effects of our disease...............what a true statement this is! If my abstinence is compromised, my entire LIFE feels out of control. All good things stem FROM abstinence.............without IT, I am lost.

It is so much easier to stay the course than it is to find it all over again once I lose my abstinence. Yet, I tend to forget that fact and veer off course sometimes.

For today, I will make abstinence THE most important thing in my life. Otherwise, food becomes my number one priority and I destroy my life in the process.