Eating Disorders - OA April 2014

[MajestyJo]

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Came to Believe

Perhaps we have believed in a Higher Power all our lives, or perhaps we have been agnostic. In either case we have been unable to apply faith and belief to our greatest problem - compulsive overeating.

OA asks only that we be willing to believe and that we keep an open mind. As we hear the stories of members who have come to believe through the program, our own faith grows. As we experience God's grace, our belief increases.

Steps One, Two, and Three work together. Only by admitting that the problem has us defeated, that we are powerless - only then do we become open to a Higher Power. If there is no way that we can stop eating compulsively by our own strength, then we require a strength greater than our own. Others have found this strength in God, as He is understood by each individual. When we turn our will and our lives over to our Higher Power and practice the Twelve Steps every day, we apply our belief and faith. The belief may be very small and weak in the beginning, but like the mustard seed, it grows. Gradually, we become convinced of what we had known all along, but were afraid to believe.

Strengthen my belief, I pray.

I came, I came to, I came to believe the program would work for me.

Got a birthday call from a friend, who I met before I went into recovery. His wife to be was living in the YWCA when I was there.

He asked me to be his temporary sponsor when he made the decision to get help. Last Sunday he celebrated 12 years. He says he share his story about me with others in recovery. He had a lot of anger, didn`t believe in anything, and wasn`t open to anything religious. I bought him a necklace, with a stone, can`t remember the shape or colour, on a leather lace. Every time he had a difficult moment, he hung on to the stone. As he said to me today, `You have to believe in something.`