Short Quote from my favorite presidential candidate. 🙂
“Quit digging your grave with a knife and fork.”
–Mike Huckabee
This quote is big on truth and maybe not so big on grace, but…boy…ya gotta love the truth aspect! I know that is what I was doing…digging my grave, fork-full by fork-full, one “little” bite upon another “little” bite…
If you see yourself in Mike’s comment, how about this…capture this moment…and stop it! NOW! THIS moment matters! This bite matters! Honest! 🙂
Yesterday, I planned to eat the rest of the french bread. I had been at 0 and was no longer hungry and had just planned on eating the rest. It was a modest amount. It was likely ok. I wasn’t at a 5 yet.
I realized my hands needed washing from chores I had done before I started eating, so stopped eating the french bread to get up and wash my hands. As I did, in that moment I decided “I don’t really need the rest of the french bread. I won’t eat it.”
Mind you, this was WONDERFUL french bread with real butter! It was verrrry tasty…YUM! But I didn’t *need* it. I wrapped it up and put it away and headed off to do other things.
Then I wondered…”Why did I do that?” This struck me. I had just done something that was so COUNTER to the way I had lived much of my life. I had stopped eating mid-meal…
The question became “Why *can* I do that when two years ago I wouldn’t…I couldn’t!”
God has taught me a very important principle. If I could share one thing with anyone interested in releasing weight and living free of the stronghold of overeating, obsessive thoughts about food and the body, it would be this…
THIS MOMENT MATTERS.
THIS one. And the one immediately before we take the next bite (or don’t).
Each and every moment matters. I have a choice about each moment. I can capture each for the Lord. Or not. But let us not buy the lie that the moment doesn’t matter. That is hogwash! A life is made up of moment piled upon moment.
No moment is insignifcant or incidental.
Think of the things that are accomplished in a moment.
What will you do with this moment?
What about THIS one? 🙂
Enough captured for the Lord and you have an hour of victory!
Enough of *those* and you have a DAY!
Surrender happens in the moment. Don’t worry about the *next* moment. Just grab this one! Give it to the Lord!
🙂
I believe that this is the key to success over the long haul…it is in recognizing the Lord has given us each moment as a precious treasure. Where will we offer that treasure? Will we offer it to Him and for Heaven’s purposes? Or will we claim it for our flesh? Will we use it to build a glorious, healthy temple of God (our bodies) or will we use the moment to tear down just a bit, that which He is doing and longs to complete in us?
Let’s cooperate with His purposes and His will! Let’s capture THIS moment for Him!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing – Photo Books Last night at my Thin Within group, I shared this video with the ladies. It was to challenge and encourage them during the days ahead…Christmas and New Years…all the emotions and temptations and everything that they might face…to hang in there! I want to encourage you the same! I hope you enjoy the video.
As a child, my earthly Father would take me up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the Desolation Wilderness Area. These treks were long, rigorous, and, in my young mind, nothing short of torturous–stretching me totally beyond my comfort!
It never occurred to me one time to question that my Dad knew what he was doing and where we were going. I never once dug in my heels stubbornly and insisted that he prove to me that he knew where we were going.
I also never questioned that there wasn’t going to be something about this experience that made it worth every sore muscle fiber and gasping breath.
My dad knew things–he knew that there were wonders ahead if I would but trust him. He had in mind to share with me things that I had not yet seen. He wanted to take me to places that I had never been–to share with me views of such splendor and beauty–all unmatchable back in the Sacramento valley where we lived the rest of the time.
So, I followed. As fast as my little kid legs would take me!
He would direct me and I would follow, never questioning.
My dad died on December 30, 1999 and our hiking days were ,long before that! Perhaps 35 years ago!
Now, so many years later, I see in retrospect just how foundational these weekend excursions were, imparting a passion for nature to my life today that affects me today. My love for the beauty of the natural world has affected my career choices, my recreational pursuits–even where I wanted my husband to propose to me! I now live in the foothills at the base of those very mountains my Dad and I hiked. I have dreams and visions I would love to realize one day and, foundational to all of these, are awe for the glory and majesty of Creation–the incredible beauty of a mountain peak, the solitude of a high elevation lake, the unparalleled joy that comes from the symphony of frogs on a spring night…You name it. If it is nature at all, I love it and relish it and it makes my heart sing and dance. All of creation proclaims the glory of God! Even the tall pines, standing as sentries over the world, are as earth’s arms raised in worship to the Lord!
In a very real way, the very thing that makes my life as rich as it is today in December 2007 is because I followed my earthly dad, fallible as he was (and he really was!) up up up to the heights, enjoying even the ardurous journey more than I then realized.
My Heavenly Father leads me daily.
I have absolutely NO doubt that He, too, has seen things that he longs to show me, to inspire me.
He wants my life to be turned around by what I experience as I follow Him.
He whispers “This is the way, walk in it.”
Yet…what is this?! I resist Him!
I trusted my earthly dad that my Heavenly Father GAVE to me, and yet I resist following HIM? The One who created all that beauty?
Why, I wonder, do I doubt that He knows my body, my life…why, I wonder, do I even hesitate!
As I continue along this path in “Desolation Wilderness” I will think of those days (so very very) long ago when I eagerly followed my earthly dad and was never disappointed. I will keep my eyes on my Abba Father…my Heavenly Daddy. He directs and guides alongside me as he walks alongside. Amazing experiences are awaiting!
Oh Heavenly Father. I thank you for a new day…another opportunity to follow you on a journey. You know the way, you know the obstacles and the “unexpected” surprises that await. More than the safety I knew with my earthly father all those years ago, I am secure as I rest and nestle myself in you. Please infuse me with confidence in your leadership today. Abba, Daddy…I choose to follow. Lead on. Amen.
Please don’t allow the enemy or the flesh to use the devotional I share today to beat you up with the club of condemnation. It is shared here today as a confession of sorts. This is my real life. When I began this blog, I promised the Lord to be real in sharing my journey. That is what this devotion is. A taste of the place where I am in the road today.
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In the same way, any of you who does not give up *everything* he has cannot be my disciple. (Emphasis added.)
– Luke 14:33
Before Jesus came to earth as “Baby Jesus,” He existed in perfect majesty, holiness, glory and unity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He set all of it aside to take on flesh and to be born a human baby in the most modest of situations. The King of Glory left infinite glory and command of the universe to be a tiny helpless baby born in a cave amidst dirt and the stench of animal excrement.
As a man, he gave up his right to “be understood.” He was perfect, yet was mocked, beaten, abused, abandoned by everyone…including His friends. At the moment Jesus carried the sin of the world, even His Heavenly Father had to turn His back and reject His only Son. Jesus *did* give up everything. In Luke 14:33, Jesus doesn’t ask us to do something He wasn’t willing to experience.
As I was working through an Experiencing God bible study lesson years ago, I was faced with what was a very challenging issue. I now come back to it.
In one quick moment, my life seemed reduced to my response to a single solitary question in the middle of one single page in one single bible study book. My answer to the question could land in one of two little boxes. One box was for a YES response and one box was for a NO. I could check one…or…the other.
There was no third little box for “Maybe, sometimes.”
Or a little box I could mark for “Well, sure, I mean well, but I know I will fail…”
No “inbetween,” just a box for YES…
…and a box for…NO.
Do you wonder what the question was? Simply:
Have you come to a place in your life where you are willing to yield “everything” to Him in order to follow Him?
YES____ NO_____
How would you answer this?
It is challenging isn’t it?
All I claim about this great weight reduction “of mine”… is funneled down to this simple question tonight. My whole walk with God…There is a saying you may have heard before “If the Lord isn’t Lord of all, then He isn’t Lord at all.”
Years ago, God used the moment I faced those two boxes on the page to insist that I give everything to Him as He does even now.
My reaction now?
I earnestly begin my objections as I point to all the things I have given up!
“Look, Lord! I have stopped bingeing…stopped eating constantly…stopped inhaling these foods mindlessly, living at that drive through…isn’t that wonderful? Gosh, I am even eating GRILLED chicken now, instead of FRIED–what is ‘beneficial’ and all! Isn’t my body PROOF of all Ihave done to honor you?”
Do you hear the arrogance? :-/
Do you hear the pride? :-/
In my quiet time today…each time I tried to pray, I heard the still, small, but insistent, voice of the Spirit saying, “This….this….I want you to surrender…this…”
You see, there is something that I refuse to lay down and give to him. And it stands in the way. Right now, if I have to pick one box or the other…. “Yes” … or “No”…
…my answer to the question above is…
…NO… 🙁
Good grief! After all He has done and is doing for me, how can this be? How can all I value be reduced to my “NO” answer to the question of “Are you willing, Heidi, to yield everything to me?”
“BUT …GOD!!!”
Over the years of my life since I became a Christian, I have given up all kinds of things. In fact, I have given up…well…*almost* everything….sigh.
I know the truth…The *almost* isn’t enough. He wants it ALL.
Lord, thank you that you make it very simple for me to see that as puffed up as I have become lately with all the ways in which I have been obeying you, I still resist you. Lord, I want to be your disciple and you say I must give EVERYTHING up. You gave up more than I could ever fathom to redeem me. You have bought me at an incredible price. I will trust you to work this out in my life. I want to say YES to you. I am willing to be made willing. Please do this work in me. I want to be willing to lay everything down to follow you. In the Name of Jesus my Savior, who gave up all things…Amen.
A devotion written some years back, but I hope it encourages you today!
~ Wow! What a GOD! ~
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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world
to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will –
to the praise of his glorious grace,
which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
In him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
And he made known to us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ…
-Ephesians 1:3-9
He has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing! With how many blessings? EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ!
He chose ME before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight! What did He choose me for? For hardship? For misery? NO! – TO BE HOLY AND BLAMELESS! In *His* sight! (Even when I am not in my *own* sight!!)
He predestined ME! He adopted ME! And WHY did he do these things? He did this according to HIS pleasure and will! He did this for the praise of HIS glorious grace! He has redeemed ME! He has lavished the riches of His grace on ME! He has made known to ME the mystery of His will!
And WHY did He do these things? He has done this for HIS pleasure! For some strange reason the God of this Universe, the One who brought the Heavens into existence with a single command, the One for whom the morning stars sang, the One who holds it all together…for some reason, this One, this great I AM has chosen ME.
For some strange reason it brings him pleasure to save ME, to adopt ME, to pour out *every* spiritual blessing on ME.
If these aren’t reasons to fall head over heels in love with this One, I don’t know what would be!!!!!
But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
– Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
I promised I would share how to pick an accountability partner. Here are some thoughts about that.
For me, having an accountability partner is invaluabe! In my case, my partner hasn’t asked to be accountable to me…I am only to her. I pray for her, of course, but it isn’t a mutual accountability. You can do it either way, having a relationship where you both are accountable to one another or just you reporting to her.
Here are some things to consider:
1. Pray about this. God may or may not want you to do this at this season of your life.It is a big commitment and some of us can become overly needy of other people. God may want to be the ONLY one we need like that. Additionally, we can become obsessive. We don’t want to use another person to justify the bondage found in obsession! So please prayerfully consider if accountability is something God is calling you to now.
2. Prayerfully decide what “accountability” will look like for you. Are you feeling God leading you to have a daily end-of-the-day report to someone? Someone just to check in with every great once in a while? Weekly? Will it be a blow by blow of your day (time consuming) or a quick summary? Will you use the TW tools and just send them her way or show them to her to see?
I have found both in reporting to others and in being reported *to* daily is a must…that way, if something happens and there is no report, I will be asked “where is the report?” instead of the assumption being made this is just a day I chose not to report. it seems much more effective that way and it doesn’t have to be time consuming.
It is so easy, when we make mistakes, not to ‘fess up to our partner…especially if she isn’t expecting to hear from us daily. So decide in advance what you NEED (God will show you if you ask!) and then write it down. In my case, I specifically knew I needed someone to whom I could daily send my hunger graph. This would provide a visual image of my eating habits for 0 to 5. I didn’t feel a food log would be effective for me (I don’t use that tool). I also knew I needed my partner to be someone who would ask if I didn’t send her a report, ask if I sent her a flaky report, notice any patterns in my eating and be willing to comment on them, pray for me, and, of course, to praise me when I am on track. With all of this in mind, I knew I could prayerfully evaluate who I could ask.
3. Decide what the over-arching purpose in your accountability will be. Will it be “To make it through the holidays being faithful in 0 to 5 eating?” or will it be “To abstain from diet soda?” That will affect what you want your accountability to look like and maybe how long a partnership it will be. You can use your goal or purpose to establish a time frame…2 weeks, a month or “Until chocolate no longer has mastery over me!” 🙂
4. Decide if you want someone you can go through a book or program with at the same time (this is asking more of someone). Some who read the Thin Within book like to be able to walk through the book together with someone else and talk about it or have it as a common reference point each day in their accountability. For some, the accountability partnership described here is part of what they might use for the “unwrapping” of “graveclothes” mentioned in the Thin Again book. Others, just want to shoot an image of their hunger graph to an email bud at the end of the day (that is me) just long enough to get through the holidays and see if they can come out the other side maintaining their weight.
5. Consider if you will ask a “real life” (RL) person or an online person. If it is a RL person, you have the benefit of face to face contact. It is a bit harder to hide. If you are someone who knows you have a tendency to hide when you “fail” (remember, failure isn’t something we have in Thin Within! We allow God to turn our “failures” into learning opportunities instead!), then you probably don’t want an online person to be your partner. You want someone who could stop by, call you on the phone or see you at church. If you know you aren’t the kind that can ignore emails asking you “Where is your hunger graph?” for 5 days in a row, you might be just fine with an online partner. You can combine the approach and turn an online friendship into a RL friendship by sharing phone numbers and actually praying together on the phone or in Yahoo chat or something too if you wanted.
6. Once you have a pretty good idea of if you will be ok with an online friend or need a RL friend for this, then you can start looking specifically for someone that you think would be a good partner. She doesn’t have to be another Thin Within person…not if you don’t mind it being a one way accountability. But she should be godly, prayerful, have a heart for you to follow your convictions (not try to talk you out of things you know God wants for you), someone who can share the Word of God when you need her to, someone who can speak the truth in love, someone who can speak TRUTH and GRACE both…all kinds of qualities. In the RL people you run with, this might be someone at a bible study you attend, an older woman (or mature believer) at church that God just lays on your heart might be someone you can share with. Men, of course, will choose men…women will want to choose women…this is important!
7. If you prefer an online friend, then you can evaluate people you have sort of gotten to know in forums that you are a part of (like at http://www.thinwithin.org/ ) or various Yahoo groups where there has been enough sharing that you feel a sense of what a person is like. Keeping in mind that people can be anything they want online and may not be genuine one little bit, prayerfully bring anyone who comes to mind before the Lord and wait on him to show you.
You will want to ask someone who you feel you can identify with. Someone you kind of admire or relate to. It might be someone who you can tell has similar struggles, but beware of picking someone who is always in the same hole you find yourself in! You don’t want to endorse one another staying in the same pit! Not at all! It is best if you find someone who has walked the road you are on, but maybe just a few steps ahead of you. Or someone who can identify but isn’t in the business of justifying sin–their own OR yours!
8. When you are pretty sure who you want to ask, pray that God will make it really clear to *them* if it is His will for this. Then, when you initially ask them, be specific about what you want. You can share with her how you reached the decision to ask her (referring, even, to the steps above) and DO share with her specifically what you want your partnership to look like referring to your answers to #2 above. Mention the time frame you have in mind…like “I would like to try this for two weeks and then re-evaluate at that time.”
She may want to take time to prayerfully consider your request. Please use this time to pray further about it, too. An accountability relationship that is not from God is not something you want to be a part of. In fact, so-called accountability relationships that aren’t from God can be quite toxic at times, causing one person’s bitterness to be transferred to another, or one person’s sin to be justified by another in the name of “grace.” You don’t want a relationship that will “tickle your ear” and speak what is easy to hear. You want a TRUTH TALKER and GRACE GIVER both!
If the person you approached comes back to you with a decision not to be your accountability partner, then please praise God for her wisdom! You may not understand why, but God is shutting that door! Try your best NOT to take it personally! There are a variety of reasons that people may not feel led to be an accountability partner for another. Not the least of which is they aren’t ready to surrender that area of their lives to the Lord. Even when a person doesn’t enter into a mutual accountability partnership with you, there is vulnerability in just hearing how God is working in *your* life. Not everyone can handle seeing God touch your tender heart without feeling conviction in their own. Some people know this about themselves and carefully guard themselves until God works in their life to make them ready for that.
So, if you are told “No” once you get your courage up to ask someone, just gather your thoughts again and pray about someone else. Maybe God’s purpose in leading you to ask the first person was something else entirely!
Once she says yes, it will be up to you to get things rolling. It isn’t the time to get flaky! 🙂
Once your partnership is under way, BE FAITHFUL! If one or the other of you isn’t living up to what you thought things would be like when you began, you will want to just be honest about it…it isn’t working out…or you had something else in mind. Tell your partner the truth! Don’t just go on as if everything is as you hoped. If the partnership isn’t quite what you had in mind, just pray about it and then let her know. Be specific though…Thank her for her time and let her know you think it would be best to do things differently.
If you began with a set time in mind…like 4 weeks, it is easier if things aren’t going along perky positively, to end it and move on. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. One friend 🙂 asked me if she could report to me. After a few weeks she let me know that she felt she could move on. Our friendship was not threatened by this and I knew that either it wasn’t what she had in mind or she really was ok without reporting any more. No harm done.
Let God be God in this. 😀
I think it is true that as we prayefully consider inviting someone into this inner sanctum of our personal life, we will know in our hearts if someone seems like a good fit to ask. I could be wrong about that, of course. It doesn’t mean that it won’t be scary! The lady who is such a blessing to me right now, letting me report to her daily can really talk truth. But I know and God knows I NEED that! She was concerned that I felt she was a drill sergeant. I explained that, to me, a drill sergeant is someone that *helps* keep a soldier in shape as a matter of routine so that when real life gets intense, the soldier is ready and able to do what it takes. I don’t think of that as a bad thing at all. In fact, I think scripture esteems one who is willing to be that for another. My partner has just the right blend of truth talking with grace giving…she is gentle and kind as well…and I know, with confidence, that she prays!
I hope something here is helpful to you as you seek the Lord Jesus, to become more like Him in all ways. I would love to hear how your accountability partnership works out if you decide to go for it! This is a great time of year to connect with someone at this level!
What a relief! Today is going MUCH better. Praising God for that one! LOL!
Early November 2006 I began applying myself faithfully to the Thin Within principles. I released about 15 pounds by the end of the year even though “statistics indicate” that most Americans gain about 8 pounds (on the average) between Halloween and the New Year.
So I thought I would share some tips that I learned then and have been applying this year, too. I guess by about the end of September, the grand total that the Lord had removed from my body was about 100 pounds and it is staying off! Yay! Praising the Lord for that! (It is wonderful to know that little mistakes don’t have to spell absolute disaster!) Pride goes before a fall, though, so it is with a humble heart (please make it so, Lord!) that I share these thoughts.
1. Figure out why you are going to a social occasion like a party or family gathering. (See chapter 25 in Thin Within.)
– Write down your purposes in attending and plan accordingly. Most of us, once we have decided to surrender this area of our lives, don’t go to parties intending to overeat. So ask yourself if it is because you want to connect with family, friends and co-workers, it is easier to accept that food isn’t required for that.
– Then, when you get to the event, achieve your goal! Socialize or network or whatever it might be!
2. When planning to attend a social event that includes food, plan to be at a zero (stomach totally empty) by eating a smaller meal earlier in the day.
– It may be unreasonable for you not to eat at some events–like sit-down holiday dinners and the like. If your event is at 7pm, for instance, and you get hungry at 5:30 pm–you are definitely at a 0 at 5:30pm–then have just a few crackers or a cup of milk or something that will just remove the hunger. You don’t need to eat to a 5. This way, you will be more likely to arrive at your holiday dinner at a 0 and ready to eat.
– You can also “ride the 0” a little while unless you know yourself well enough to know that you will have a hard time eating slowly if you get “too hungry.” When we eat too fast, it is easy to eat way too much.
3.) When you are eating 0 to 5 at a holiday party and there are TONS of choices from which to choose, you can look at all that is offered and evaluate before you choose the foods you will eat which choices are most likely to be “teasers,” “pleasers,” and “whole body pleasers” (see chapter 18 in Thin Within). You want to be “picky” about what and how much of each “pleaser” or “whole body pleaser” food you select.
– Identify which foods offered are teasers and don’t even “go there.”
– If something is available all year long (like fresh french bread) you may want to forego selecting it in favor of something that is a favorite at holiday time (chocolate peppermint pie? LOL!).
4. ) Look around the party or dinner for a naturally thin eater and note their behaviors. See if you can spot someone who is naturally thin, but who is enjoying the party without overindulging. (This may be tough as most Americans use holidays as an excuse to eat way more than we need…thus the “average” American gaining 8 pounds in two month’s time.)
5.) Sometimes people give gifts of food. It is true that some people love on others by giving food any time of the year–all the more during the holidays! In Thin Within, there is nothing wrong with having a small piece of whatever food that you receive, of course. If you know that you can withstand temptation to overeat it, feel free to have it in your home, of course! But if you know that you can’t handle the temptation, then here are some suggestions:
– When someone wants to send you home with a bunch of treats 🙂 either politely tell them “No, thank you,” or oblige and state (or not) that you will be glad to share the treats with others…then re-gift them as soon as possible before temptations lures you into eating them.
– I found that friendships didn’t end and family members didn’t disown me if I refused food from them. Maybe your friends and family are different…but really, when you consider where “people pleasing” has gotten most of us, it is like a death sentence. Most people who love us well enough to give us food gifts are aware of our struggle. Depending on the person, I have admitted my weakness as I explain why I have to turn down their kind offer.
– When you end up with treats anyhow…THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH FLUSHING THEM DOWN THE TOILET THE MINUTE YOU WALK THROUGH THE DOOR! If you are like me and sometimes need “permission” to do something so drastic, consider this a blanket permission… “Flush the cookies, cakes, pies, candy, whatevers…down the toilet!”
6.) Put the fork down between bites when you are eating out or at a holiday party. This helps slow me down quite a bit any time…not just for holiday parties.
7.) Maybe most importantly, EXTEND GRACE to yourself. If you “blow it” for a party or a meal or even for a day or a week…just OBSERVE and CORRECT! This isn’t a diet, so you don’t have to feel like you “blew it!” Instead, you just had a step or two back on your path…but forge ahead “forgetting what is behind!” Remember this is a journey…a life long journey! God extends grace to you in all things, so extend some to yourself!
If I think of more tips as the next week or two unfolds, I will post them as well.
