by Barb Shelton | Apr 3, 2019 | Blog
Many have found that having a prayer/accountability partner is a huge help on their Thin Within journey. And it only makes scriptural sense: .
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Of course, we want the “third party” in that triple-braided cord to be the Lord Himself. As we all know, if He’s not in this with us, undergirding us, transforming us, drawing us to Himself, motivating us (with His motivations, not ours), and empowering us, then we may as well not even embark on this journey.
The Ecclesiastes author was speaking in general principles, but we can be more specific now that we have Jesus who has opened the way to the Father! So, before connecting with a prayer/accountability partner, we need to take care of that – as in get our hearts connected and our lives submitted to Him.
A prayer/accountability partner helps us stay connected to the Lord and encourages us to keep remembering that our help comes from Him, nudging (or maybe downright pushing) us toward Him!
And there are many ways we can do this! There are no rules; you can do it any way you like!
I prefer to do this thinking in terms of not receiving anything back; just in how to bless them. But see the very end of this article for a thought on that!
Here are a dozen quick, easy, and simple ideas to help you connect with your prayer/accountability partner. I share lots of pictures, each of which speaks 1,000 words! – making this a 22,000-plus-word article with very little actual reading!
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1) Share a Scripture that blessed you.
Here are three options:
- Type it out on your phone or computer.
- Go to a Bible app and copy and paste it from there.
- Take a picture of the highlighted verse in your Bible…
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2) Share a victory.
Big, little ~ doesn’t matter! And maybe add why it was so significant ~ or so challenging ~ for you.
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3) Share an accountability form you completed.
This is one of Emily’s, used with her permission. (These forms are at the back of the Thin Within Rebuilding the Temple workbook.)
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4) Share an overhead slide that spoke to you.
These can be from a sermon at church or a workshop or conference you attended.
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5) Share a devotional that ministered to you.
This one’s in one of my favorite devotional books, Jesus Calling.
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6) Share a plaque or wall hanging you saw at a store that spoke to you.
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7) Share a link to a blog article…
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…or share a podcast that you know will encourage and bless your prayer/accountability partner…
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8) Share a truth card you made or found.
I made all of these… (Even though you and I are not prayer partners, I hope they encourage you today anyway!)
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(Bonus points if you use a photo they took and sent you ~ which this is! Debbie sent me this picture of the snowy scenery on her trip home!)
Here’s an article called Truth Cards 101 for more on how to make your own! It’s actually FUN! And there are LOTS of ways to do them and many sources for ideas – all of which I share in this blog article!
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9) Ask: “How can I pray for you today?”
Another way to word this is: “Do you have any challenging situations coming up that you’d like to have me pray for you about?” I like that because I may not think of any prayer needs, per say, but, when asked if I have any challenges coming up, of course I do!
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10) Share a challenging situation that you have coming up today.
I know I said this is all about blessing them, but most people enjoy knowing they are helping and blessing someone else. “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”
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11) Share a truth you wrote in your journal.
It might seem simple and unprofound to you, but it could encourage and inspire your prayer partner – like Emily’s blessed me…
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12) Share an audio recording of yourself talking.
…about any of the above things… a scripture, an excerpt out of a book you’re reading, a truth card that impacted you, a prayer need or a situation you have coming up, etc.
Most people don’t like hearing their own voice, but remember that you’re not doing this for you; you’re doing it for your prayer partner!
You will need to find the audio recording – or maybe it’s called voice memo – feature on your phone. If you don’t know where it is, ask a friend who has a phone like yours if they can help you find it.
(This is just a picture of the prompt to access the one Emily sent me. I have not figured out how to get her recording into this article. If anyone knows, please let me know! Emily gave me permission to share hers!)
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You can do as many of the above ideas as you want – or even just one – on any given day! Again, no rules. Just jump in and do something. And “any and all the above” give you a place to start.
Don’t get hung up or slowed down on doing it perfectly! Or on how much or how little you’re doing. Or on how consistently you’re connecting. Just DO it! And have FUN!!!
One last bit of encouragement… Even if you have a prayer partner who’s not able to bless you back as much as you would like, you’ll still be blessed because….
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by Heidi Bylsma | Jun 12, 2013 | Accountability, Blog
Many of you are taking the plunge with accountability partnership! I know it is a bold brave step! I applaud you! Thank you for stepping up and believing God for the NEW thing that he is doing!
Today, I want to provide some resources for you and your partner.
Here are some previous posts on Accountability here at the blog.
- How to pick an accountability partner. This post goes through some considerations you might want to ponder as you select a partner. If you already have a partner, this post isn’t likely to be terribly helpful. 🙂
- This post shares a glimpse into how accountability can work for you as I share how it worked for me with my partner.
- A post and form that I tried with my accountability partner a number of years ago. Click here to go to this post.
You and your accountability partner will want to discuss what works best for you each. What works best for one of you might not for the other, but you could still be successful partners together. For instance, there are some tools at the Thin Within website that some of you can use and benefit from. Some of these, might cause the rest of us to go right back into “dieting mode.” I have experienced both extremes during my own journey, but I share these tools with you now in case they can be supportive to some of you:
- Food_Log – While different from the usual “diet” food log, it can, nevertheless, trigger dieting behavior, so only consider using this after praying and sensing God’s leadership. Then, perhaps, try it only for a week (or less) and evaluate with the support of your AP (accountability partner).
- Hunger_Graph – This link shows two pages. The first is a sample page of how the graph looks when filled out. The second page is the blank one. Again, only use this if you think God is leading you to try it. It can be a temporary tool that can help us focus, but it can also challenge some of us with dieting triggers!
- Observation and Correction– Each time you practice the Key to Conscious Eating, you make a special mark on the screen indicating as much. 🙂 At the end of the day, if you don’t see many marks next to that key, then you know it is likely to be a key you want to work on. Some people use #1 and #8 as their primary boundary (0 and 5 eating) with #s 2-7 being secondary boundaries. It can be best to focus on only one or two of the secondary boundaries at a time.
No matter what you have decided about accountability, you probably want to be structured with your partner to talk about these things each week:
1. What successes have we experienced in our Thin Within journeys? (There should be something here each week. If there isn’t, please email me for input. It could be your partnership isn’t functioning quite the way it is intended and a little input can help.)
2. What successes have we experienced in our accountability partnership? (Hopefully, you are seeing some of these within the first week. These things might include “Our schedules are compatible,” “We both like to text a lot and that is working for us,” “My partner likes to text and that works for me, but she can also talk on the phone every 3 days which is my preference.”)
3. What challenges or hurdles have we experienced in our Thin Within journeys?
4. What observations and corrections have we made?
5. Each of you will want to ask your partner: How can I best serve you in our partnership in the week ahead? If a partner needs more support, if a partner needs less, talk about these things and see if you can reach a happy medium.
Evaluate these things with a simple “Is this working for me?” approach:
- Number of check-ins – does one of you feel like it isn’t frequent enough? Too frequent?
- Nature of check-ins – does it feel like the emails are too long? Too short? No response?
- “Venue” for check in – is the texting, phone calling, emailing approach work for you? Or do you need
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
– Galatians 6:2
Do you have an AP yet? If not, don’t wait any longer! Jump on board. Let’s have an updated response here on this post. If you still need an Accountability Partner, say so HERE on this post, ok? Then, please type out your email address like this: heidi bylsma at gmail dot com (no spaces) or harleys heidi at comcast dot net (no spaces). Then, if you see someone who intrigues you, go ahead and send them an email. No need to wait for me!
by Heidi Bylsma | May 21, 2013 | Blog
Hi, everyone. Many of you have contacted me about passing your email addresses on to someone you want to have as an accountability partner. Just like I asked! YAY! I am so happy to see that!
Problem is…sigh…I have had internet issues, I guess. I didn’t even know it. If you sent me an email about connecting with someone and you haven’t heard from me yet, please email me again and I will be ON that today! Honestly! I have sent out responses to everyone I have received a request from, but have wondered if something is wrong with my mail servers…I am pretty sure something is. So…
My apologies. Please email me again at heidi bylsma at gmail dot com and I will just make a point of responding to your emails within 24 hours. If you don’t hear anything, send again. You can also text me at 916 dash 799 dash 8085. Just be sure to tell me who you are, who you want me to send your contact details to and the email address you want me to tell them to use.
Again, my apologies.
by Heidi Bylsma | May 18, 2013 | Blog
People in my life who have helped me–(left to right) Jan Tabrizi, my first Accountability Partner with Thin Within back in 2000! Pam Sneed, who mentored me in leading my first online Thin Within group, and Judy Halliday whose patient perseverance and constant gracious love kept me hanging in there! We are BETTER TOGETHER!
It’s time to get an accountability partner if you haven’t yet! I hate to think where I would be if I hadn’t experienced the loving support of others through the years. All three of the dear ladies in the picture above were online friends *first* before I ever met them in person! 🙂
If you have gotten a partner, please help us out:
- If you posted to the Accountability page previously and are NOW paired up, please go back to your post and reply TO YOUR comment on the Accountability page and type: “I have a partner now.” Or something like it in response to your own comment. I know that seems silly, but it will be really helpful. That way people will know you are already spoken for!
- If you have not yet gotten an accountability partner, but HAVE posted to the Accountability page previously, please pray and then select someone on the page that you might like to connect with. THEN: EMAIL ME and tell me the name of the person that you want me to give your contact information to. I will contact them and let them know.
Please email me, though, or I won’t see your request, ok? I don’t do the pairing. You all do that and I just supply the contact information.
- If you have a difficulty in your partnership (it happens) and it wasn’t meant to be for you with that person, please go back to the Accountability page and post under YOUR ORIGINAL POSTING a reply (I know it is weird to reply to yourself) that you are available after all so we know that you are still “up for grabs!”
If this doesn’t make sense, please post and ask me questions or shoot me an email. I won’t pair people up with one another, though. It doesn’t usually work for me to do that.
One of the first things you will want to do as partners is figure out what you want your accountability to look like. Will it be daily? Weekly? Scheduled (like each evening) or flexible (only when I feel like it…I don’t recommend that one!)? Do you want your partner to email you and ask how you are doing if she doesn’t hear from you? Will you send short reports to one another or will they be one word answers? Will you use the phone? Text? Email? What will your goals be for the partnership? I suggest you commit to this for 4 weeks…the rest of the study. I suggest three accountability points, but you can do what you like. I also suggest DAILY in email. That is just my preference.
Pray for one another, too!
Rather than post here that you are still looking for someone, please go to the Accountability Page and do it there! Thanks so much.
by Heidi Bylsma | Feb 16, 2009 | Blog
From October through the end of December, I reported daily to my accountability partner using a report form that was rather stringent. I found that I chafed somewhat…it threw me back a bit into a dieting mentality. For years I couldn’t use any of the tools in Thin Within. A couple of years ago, I began to be able to use some of the tools with freedom.
During the holidays of 2008, however, I saw a shift in my thinking that was definitely not God’s plan for me!
So during January, I stepped back from that and got unstructured in my accountability. This hasn’t been quite right either!
Below is a new “form” I am trying. It is a happy medium that I hope will work for this leg of my journey.
Date ____________________
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Start #
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End #
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Observation
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Correction
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Comments:
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You are welcome to use this as well if you like. 🙂 But be sure you have the Lord’s “go ahead” on it.
The first column “Time” is self-explanatory.
The second, “Start #” refers to my hunger number on the hunger scale. “0” is physical hunger that I have learned is an ache or gnawing sensation just below my sternum. It isn’t a sound, a “growl,” as I can have those sounds when I am digesting food! “0” is definitely EMPTY…physical emptiness and need for nourishment!
The third column, “End #” refers to where my hunger level is on the hunger scale when I stop eating. “5” is defined as physically satisfied, but for me, it is easiest to stop at the right moment if I consider “No longer hungry” that place. It is a place where the discomfort of hunger has been removed. If I eat more slowly, I can eat a bit more. So often I eat too fast (I am working on this) and it takes the stomach 10 minutes or more to signal the brain it has had enough food!
The fourth column is “Observation.” This is where I dispassionately observe my behaviors and beliefs during my meal. (Yes, ANY time food is eaten, it is a “meal.” Even a “snack” is a “meal.”) For instance, “I ate too fast,” “Got distracted” might be observations.
The fifth column is “Correction,” and it directly relates to my observation column. It is the practical thing I will do to avoid whatever behavior or belief didn’t agree with my goal to honor God with my eating and drinking.
Let me know if you try this! 🙂
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