I replaced the light bulbs in my bathroom this week. Two bulbs over my mirror had burned out long ago, and because of their height above the mirror, I postponed the replacement for months.
And then my husband informed me that a repairman was coming to replace our water heater. He would need access to our master bath to check his work. I immediately went to work cleaning up the bath, including replacing the lights with new, extra bright bulbs. When I hit the light switch, I saw my face in a new light, literally.
You know, the right light can change everything. It can change our priorities and choices. It can change our perceptions and immediate plans.
Let’s just say my tweezers saw some heavy action that afternoon.
This has been very similar to my experience with the boundary of 0-5 eating. It has been a bright light in my life, and what it is revealing has surprised me. Perhaps I am not who I thought I was.
Because weight loss wasn’t a major concern for me, I thought the 0-5 boundaries were a wonderful tool. Notice I said, “tool,” and not “boundary.” You use a tool when you need it. Tools are morally and spiritually neutral. They’re useful and wonderful but only occasionally necessary.
A boundary is a commitment that reflects a moral or spiritual truth. Boundaries also hint at which identity I have embraced, and what I have given authority in my life. To recognize 0-5 eating as a boundary moves its priority up in my life because it reflects what I believe to be true. 0-5 eating is not an occasional tool anymore; it’s part of my daily walk with God.
That means that my commitment to this boundary is a lifelong commitment. With diets, there is a goal and an end date. “I’m only going to lose a few pounds,” I might have said long ago. “Then this diet will be done.”
When we choose to recognize 0-5 eating as a God-honoring boundary, we’re committing for life. Weight loss is not the goal; submission is.
As I make daily eating choices based on the truth that God is my ultimate authority, I find His light growing stronger and brighter. I have found, much to my surprise, that not everything is really what I once thought. When faced with conflict in the past, I fought for what I wanted, and what I thought was right. Today, however, I recognize that submission to God’s leading is the quickest route to inner peace, and inner peace is more valuable to me than winning a fight. I can trust God to work things out in His own time, and my “assistance” is often not required.
Choosing 0-5 eating as a boundary has changed a lot of things for me and I have begun to realize I am capable of big changes. I can do new things, and in new ways. Submission and obedience are tough but tender teachers. I have found a peace I didn’t know was available. I’ve learned that my real strength comes from surrender. And that God can surprise us all at any moment in our journey, leading us somewhere bright and new.
What About You?
Do you think of 0-5 eating as a tool, or a boundary? Do you think there is a difference for you?
When you consider the words “surrender” and “submission,” what is your first reaction? Is it pleasant or negative?
If you lost all the weight today that you wanted to lose, would you still continue with the 0-5 eating guidelines? Why or why not?
I am about to rush out of the house, but stopped long enough to read your blog…and it was just want I needed to hear today…I have come around this time following TW with a very different view. I now view my body as His temple, so the choices I make today I want to reflect honour to God and I see 0 – 5 eating now as a boundary that is in place so I can honour God in my temple…I daily need to submit to him and He is gracious to me. His grace is sufficient in my weakness when I want to eat past 5 like I did last night at supper. Thank you for your words of encouragement.
You are so welcome, Gill! We are all in this together!
thank you so much for this post! what great reminders! I think that my 0-5 is a boundary. I’m not sure if there is a difference for me between a boundary or a tool….maybe I just like the word boundary better 🙂 I don’t have such a negative view on submission and surrender as I’ve been learning who I am in Christ and I can see that God is loving and kind and so it is easy then to submit or surrender to His will for my life. (Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 ESV) ). If God allows me to release the weight that I’ve accumulated by holding onto food instead of going to God I would definitly still keep the boundaries of 0-5…maybe that’s why I like the word boundary…it will just always be there now…but a rule would be just for that time of releasing weight kind of like when you have a rule in a game, but you don’t always follow that rule. hmmmm….
Thank you so much for this post…it was exactly what I needed to read. I, too, do not have much weight to lose and so I have struggled a bit these first few weeks. I want peace with food and my body–that is what I crave.
These three things jumped off the page directly into my heart:
“When we choose to recognize 0-5 eating as a God-honoring boundary, we’re committing for life. Weight loss is not the goal–submission is.”
“Submission to God’s leading is the quickest route to inner peace.”
“I’ve learned that my real strength comes from surrender.”
Wow! Wow! Wow! I have an issue not weight/body/food related that I have been dealing with for the last few years. And, the only way I was able to find peace about it was to completely surrender it to God. When I realized there wasn’t anything I was or wasn’t going to do that was going to affect the outcome–it was so incredibly freeing.
I think, no, I KNOW, I haven’t completely surrendered the weigh/body/food issue to God.
I wrote on the FB page yesterday in response to someone else’s post…I don’t usually ask God for a word for the year–but this year I did–and the word I got is surrender. I think I have been hanging onto the weight/body/food issue because it is the last thing I have to let go of.
Thank you so much for this post! It has truly opened my eyes.
Cheryl, it sounds like we’re discovering the same things in this process. While I don’t always like surrender, I always thank God for it later. It yields some fabulous and unexpected blessings, doesn’t it?
The biggest blessing I received from the other issue was that I didn’t have to try to fix it anymore. I didn’t have to do the constant turning it over and over in my head. That is what I crave now with the food/weight/body issue. And, I didn’t make the connection that they are the same until I read your blog post today. Now comes the easy part–surrendering it (not!!). Thank you again!
0-5 is my boundary for a way of eating for life. Thank you for the post. 🙂
Sure, Jamie! Keep coming back–this blog is loaded with great inspiration!
Thanks for the timely thoughts..,. I had “lost all the weight I wanted ” as you described, and made 0-5 a tool , not a boundary, and have let other things take higher place than they should ( worry, anxiety, busy-ness)… Time to re-set the boundary and submit…