Recovery Meditations ~ Tradition Twelve ~ One Day at a Time ~ July 31, 2010

~ TRADITION TWELVE ~

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"If you cannot mould yourself to such as

you would wish, how can you expect

others to be entirely to your liking?"

Thomas `a Kempis

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Compulsive overeaters come from every

age group, socioeconomic group, race,

color, creed, sexual orientation, and so

on. No two of us are alike. The Twelfth

Tradition teaches us to place principles

before personalities. This is one of the

traditions by which our program either

lives or dies. Because we are so very

different, we are going to have varying

opinions -- sometimes almost explosively

different opinions -- on issues

affecting our fellowship as a

whole. When those times arise, it is

essential that we remember to place

principles before personalities.

When I served on my first Group

Conscious Committee, our home group

called it "serving our one-year

sentence." It was a hard year and it was

difficult to get much business done

because it was difficult to get people

to agree on much business. But it was

just the experience I needed in

practicing the Twelfth Tradition in my

life. Always remembering that Tradition,

I did my best to not allow personalities

to clutter my decision-making process in

the committee.

The principles of the program are set

forth in the Steps. They are principles

such as: honesty, faith, forgiveness,

trust, hope, courage, willingness and

humility. As we work to embody these

principles by working the Steps in our

lives, we reduce the chance that issues

affecting our fellowship will divide

us. It will be easier to look beyond the

perceived faults of others and to see

the needs of the fellowship and the good

of the whole.


ONE DAY AT A TIME . . .

I will look past my OA members’ perceived faults and see the needs of the fellowship.