People Pleasing

PEOPLE PLEASING

Dear Friends on our Journey ~

My name is Mari. I am a grateful recovering compulsive eater and this is my journal, a tool I use for my recovery. Thank you for letting me share it with you.

"If you will please people,
you must please them
in their own way;
and as you cannot make them
what they should be,
you must take them
as they are."

Lord Chesterfield

I was thinking a few minutes ago about how difficult it is to please everyone and how much hurting goes on in this world when people take it upon themselves to do service for others. From everything to school boards to national politics, it seems those who offer something of themselves put themselves at risk for attack from others. We, who have discovered this program, are so fortunate to have learned when it is time to "Let Go ... and Let God."

I remember reading in some OA literature that there are going to be some people in this lifetime that we are just not going to enjoy. But to offset these people, there are going to be others that we absolutely take great delight in being around and want to spend as much time as possible with them.

It would be nice if we could make people into what we want them to be but we simply cannot. To know that I'm not all-powerful gives me a feeling of such freedom. And to know that I don't have to believe or accept or even listen to those who profess to know me and who want to do my inventory is even a greater freedom.

I thank God that through living five decades and working my OA program has given me the strength to put up with those who make my life more difficult. I thank God that I have reached a point in my life that I trust my own instincts and follow my own drummer. I thank God that I have never reached the stage that I build myself up by tearing others down. And most of all, I thank God that I have learned that there is no finer way to treat people than to accept them as they are.

Dear God,
Please help me not
buckle under when I
am attacked; and help
me to accept my attackers
as they are.

Love,
Mari
Marisok@aol.com
The Recovery Group