What Sponsoring has Meant to My Recovery

Being Sponsored

In OA meetings where the Tools of Recovery are read I heard about the suggestion to get a sponsor to help guide recovery. So my first sponsor , I say, was really chosen by my HP since I felt this strong impression to just ask the person seated next to me at the end of a meeting. That relationship consisted of me calling her each evening at 8:30 PM to commit my food plan for the next day. It was a bit amusing seeing as she suggested the timeframe and then was out the first three nights I tried to call her. We laughed about that rocky start to a long sponsoring relationship. Aside from the daily phone call we would meet one time per week to read from the front cover to the back cover of the AA Big Book just a few pages at a time. Then we delved into the AA 12 And 12. Lots of Saturday or Sunday afternoons spent in the literature with a trusted person. Then WE worked thru the 12 Steps. She didn’t die of fright when I read her my 4th Step. She had been there.

Becoming a Sponsor

Wow! Together WE do recover. And by then she suggested to keep what I had it was time to start giving it away. So I volunteered to be a sponsor and was shocked when someone asked because they wanted what I had. With my sponsees and my sponsors I’ve worked the Steps in the Big Book and in the OA literature with the Workbook and with an online source and a workshop format and just about any way I’ve heard or seen. Some sponsees last a day with me. Some only ask if I’ll be willing to be their sponsor and never make a call when I say yes and others have joined up for the long haul. I’ve moved three times in my time in OA and so at present have several long-distance sponsoring relationships. I think without an OA sponsor one misses out so much on what the OA Program has to offer. All relationships take time and effort. Even our relationship with food. From my sponsors I’ve learned that healthy, nourishing foods fuel my body appropriately and that OA and HP fill that cavernous void that cries out for excess toxic food substances.

12 Step Recovery Taught Me that We are All Human

A life lesson I’ve learned from sponsoring is that WE are all human and make mistakes but that WE are all loveable and worth the time it takes to work the OA Program.

One “old idea” that had to be destroyed was that I had to do life alone, self-sufficiently. In OA I have learned thru the example of many sponsors that life is meant to be shared and OA recovery is a WE endeavor. Together WE do recover.

But really asking someone to sponsor me was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve faced. And I look at the definition of ‘humble’ as remaining teachable.

Most of us come to OA with difficulties in the trust department. Experiencing the unconditional love and acceptance of sponsors has been instrumental in healing the hurts that blocked my ability to trust.

And there is freedom in the idea that if a sponsor/sponsoree relationship is NOT working in your life that you are able to rely on your HP/God of your understanding to locate the sponsor who will offer what you need to continue to grow in your recovery. Being relieved of the compulsion to overeat is a miracle waiting for each of us and it is usually found via a vital sponsoring relationship based on a firm foundation of OA Step work. What are you waiting for?… ASK for HELP. And if you notice someone struggling in OA, you might want to OFFER HELP if you think it will be the right thing to do to protect your own recovery.

As always, take what helps your recovery and leave all the rest. Sponsoring is slimming. Oh, right, the cliché is service is slimming. Well give sponsorship a try…what do you have to lose except maybe a few extra pounds.