I have written a lot at this blog about forgiveness over the years. (Just type “forgive” into the search box in the margin and you will see pages of material mentioning this!)
In, summary, God showed me in 2007 that my refusal to forgive was affecting me emotionally and that, in turn, was causing me to look for solace in food. When I went through a challenging process of forgiving anything and everything, anyone and everyone, I could think of, I began being able to really apply the principles of Thin Within and I released the 100 pounds of extra weight I carried on my body. Forgiveness unlocked my *willingness* to surrender food to the Lord.
It is time to take a truth inventory again, to take stock because my eating is out of kilter. Though I am active enough to keep up with myself…it won’t be long before that just isn’t the case. But the point is, there is a *heart* condition that I know the Lord wants to address.
My perfect King has seen fit to ordain a lot of fresh, ONgoing stuff for me to forgive. So, since I am trying to lead an online class of wonderful people through the Thin Within workbook, and since we are on the forgiveness lesson, I get to have a fresh look at my own need to forgive.
While I am not surprised by what I am discovering, I am dismayed. It seems never-ending. A year ago June, my world was shaken to the core by someone very dear to me. Someone who had always been solid, dependable, and a foundation stone in my life. The changes threw me into a tail-spin and I am only beginning to recover. Meanwhile, all the same old issues have continued to go on…
And I find myself just wanting to rest! Even better if it can be with a half gallon of ice cream! Old habits do die so very hard indeed!
Anyhow, if any of you find yourself in a similar place, I just wanted you to know, I can relate. Doing “forgiveness work” is the hardest work on the planet, I am convinced. :-/
Tonight, I watched the four horses that have been entrusted to my care plunge their faces eagerly into their dinner. I silently bemoaned the fact that I haven’t taken time to ride even once this summer and thought about the many hurdles the ponies and I have managed together–some literal, physical, but most on a personal, emotional, and even spiritual level.
My heart swelled with love and compassion as I looked at each of them.
Dodger, the formerly abused mustang who has barely carried any of us during his eight years of living with us. He did, however, give my son a season of pure joy, connecting with him in a way we wrote about for the Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover’s Soul, Volume 2 book. Now, Dodger just hangs out with his buddies “pretending” to be back on the Nevada desert, free of all encumbrances. LOL! I wonder if he ever misses the little boy that used to come down there and just sit with him.
Breezy loves thinking he is retired. Not to be anthropomorphic or anything, but he was always the cynic, yet nevertheless constantly offered more loyalty and reliability as any horse could. I wonder sometimes if he misses the horse shows, the parades, (the snacks!!!), the ponying younger horses and carrying new riders. Now, as he enters the twilight of life he probably won’t carry many people very often–at least not full-size adults.
Doc came to me lame as a four year old. My husband and I made some difficult decisions where he was concerned and yet something always “over-rode” the decision we made and now here he is, a 12 year old retiree, hanging out with the old “men.” Pretty as anything. As healthy as a …well… a horse! Maybe still arthritic (he is older, after all), but he does just fine wandering around our forested hillside. He never did too well when a saddle was thrown up on his back.
Harley has taught me more about life and about myself than anyone else in my entire life. Someday, my escapades with him will be the contents of a book.
As I watched them inhale $$$ which would later become manure (talk about throwing money away), I was flooded with the deepest compassion and love for them. It struck me…maybe compassion is one of the clearest demonstrations of the way in which humans are created in the image of God. Again and again throughout the Scriptures, we are told that God has compassion for us and that He is a compassionate God.
I am not the “Creator” of the horses–they aren’t my design or a product of my imagination! They have brought many difficulties into my life–and many hard lessons. The joyful moments have been but a drop in the bucket, really. Yet, when I look at them and even when I consider the hard work involved in caring for them (let alone the expense), I am nevertheless flooded full of compassion. I desire their good. I even feel a sense of pleasure–even if we never ride together again! Even if my dreams for them haven’t been fulfilled! I joy in them.
I have not yet realized the dreams God has for me. I am sure I am much “trouble” to “keep.” Yet I see in a new way that God has compassion on me, too…just as His Word says. If I, an imperfect human, can feel compassion and love for my Harley who has given me a bunch of grief (and flying lessons!) over the past eight years, I know that God who IS perfect, who has created me, who knows me intimately…he is faithful to what he says about himself in the Word–He has compassion for me. Even when I fail and fail again and again…Sure, he may shake his head…or even shed a tear over my stubborn insistence to do things my way, but I can’t doubt that His heart is filled with compassion for me…for ME!
Question: How does knowing God is compassionate stir your heart? How does it affect you today? Please feel free to respond here. Every comment is read and appreciated.
I currently have lots of opportunities to play doubles tennis with a lot of wonderful women. I find the interaction tremendously fun. So, because volleying is an integral part of doubles and since I want to be an asset to my “team,” I have been going to Mr. Tennis Pro to learn a bit about how to volley well. Being at the net, catching the ball on the fly, is something I have avoided for all of my tennis life.
First thing Mr. Tennis Pro does is tell me to shift my grip.
Ok, now look here! I have been playing this game for years and this guy is telling me something that plainly just feels REALLY wrong?!? This can’t be right. Seriously…this feels counter-intuitive…worse. It doesn’t even make SENSE to me how this could be right. How can holding my racquet this way be a GOOD thing?
This is where my preference as a baseliner really comes through as the grip I typically use is the ONLY right grip for me. It is the one I have used for all the years of tennis I have played. You can’t mess with something that you are sooooo used to.
…that is *unless* you want a different result.
Hmm….
Do I want a different result? Do I want my “volleys” (using the term loosely for what was actually my slapping at the ball at the net) to be an effective offensive weapon in a match against opponents? Or do I want to patty-cake or, worse, hit the net or the back fence, thus giving point after point away? Do I want success badly enough to try something that feels SO cruddy?
So Mr. Tennis Pro starts pelting me at the net with balls, instructing me to trust him…put my hand on my racquet where he has shown me it needs to go, promising me that all will be good. Within moments, balls go off my racquet every which way. The “good” isn’t quick in coming. The promise is NOT realized! In fact, this is worse than before!
Mr. Tennis Pro says I have to trust him and, “Oh! By the way! Check your grip! It has slipped back to the old position!” …Yup, he is right. I have reverted to what is most comfortable. No wonder things aren’t working.
But even with my hand in the new position, progress isn’t instant. I can’t control the ball at all.
Frustration!
So this is where the old adage “It will get worse before it gets better” comes into play. Yet because Mr. Tennis Pro has been around for a long while and has helped a lot of players get better at volleys, I trust him. I am tempted to give up, but the promise lures me onward. I stick it out.
Lesson after lesson, practice session after practice session, match after match…guess what? I think I am finally seeing improvement! Last night and today I actually played three sets of doubles (for a total of six) and I actually hit volleys where I intended MORE than I didn’t! (This is a huge improvement!)
I wonder if many of us who struggle with extra weight on our bodies are like this with the Thin Within principles when we first start out.
Eating when hungry…
…stopping when no longer hungry…
…not worrying about WHAT…
…just when (when hungry)…
…and why (for nourishment, not as a recreational pastime)…
…just seem to go against everything we have ever done and everything we have ever “known” about how to lose weight.
But don’t we want *different* results than what we have gotten in the past? Not just to lose the extra weight we carry, but to keep it off?
Sort of like me with a volley at the net. I want something different–permanently. So I had to actually trust something that felt WRONG or WEIRD or went against what I thought I knew when I first committed myself to this course…and let it get worse before it gets better.
How about you? Have you given the 0 and 5 Thin Within principle a try? Have you given up or are you considering giving up? Does it just feel so *wrong*?
Maybe you need to trust the process. What if waiting for hunger isn’t wrong after all? What if eating the food you *want* to eat isn’t what makes you gain weight. What if eating foods you love when you are hungry and then stopping eating those same foods when you are no longer hungry will actually WORK–cause you to SUCCEED in your weight loss efforts–and in maintaining a healthy weight?
I know it has worked for me! I lost 100 pounds this way and have kept it off pretty much for four years so far. I have seen things that didn’t make *sense*…WORK!
Things may have to get worse before they get better. If you have been dieting as many years as I had been, I will be honest with you–all that freedom may trigger The Crazies! You may find yourself diving headlong into twelve hot fudge sundaes or plate upon plate of nachos with extra cheese (all ok to eat according to the Thin Within principles) or…well, whatever foods may have been on your “bad-for-you list.” The reality is, those foods aren’t bad for you. Overeating ANY food is “bad” for you!
So, why not try it? Eat whatever you like when you are physically hungry. Stop eating it when you are no longer physically hungry. Simple!
Like Mr. Tennis Pro encouraged me… trust me. This WILL work. Give it time!
I have a doubles tennis match. Our USTA team is in first place and we play the second place team–the last event before the play-offs. There are five matches as part of this event and we have to win three of them to win the event.
The temperatures have been over 100 degrees and although the weather promises to be a little less brutal today, but I may face a pretty hot tennis court and physically demanding conditions for the next four days (I have a tournament this weekend). So, today:
I am guzzling water.
Instead of my usual fare of food, I am selecting foods that I know make my body feel at its best, eating when hungry and stopping when no longer hungry.
I am not working outside, even though there are outside chores that could be done–I want to conserve my strength today and tomorrow.
I am setting aside my usual workout routine so that my body can be as fresh as possible.
I cancelled a fun match of singles tennis today so I wouldn’t “overdo.” I had been looking forward to it, too, but, again, I want to be as fresh as possible.
I am icing my shoulder and elbow several times today (chronic injuries).
I will take ibuprofen before heading to my match tonight.
When you look at this list, it is a list based in faith. Both in what I will face, but also that the things I am doing in anticipation will make a difference. My beliefs are affecting my actions:
I have faith that drinking water will prepare me for a potentially dehydrating situation. I am confident that conditions will be hot and confident that I can offset some of that by drinking lots of water before I need it. I am confident I will feel and play better by doing so. My belief, my “faith,” affects what I do.
I am confident that I will feel and play better if I am more conscientious about my eating today, too, so I am acting accordingly. My belief, my “faith,” affects what I do.
I know working outside today and doing my regular workout routine or playing a singles tennis match would likely deplete me of energy that I will need tonight, so I am giving myself lots of rest today. I am acting in accordance with my belief that excess activity could tire me out. My belief, my “faith,” affects what I do.
I am confident that a sore shoulder and elbow can feel better…at some level 🙂 I believe in the power of icing and using ibuprofen! My belief, my “faith,” affects what I do.
There are several things I see here:
1.) Today, I am a “tennis player” who is likely to play the #1 team of our primary “rivals.” I am serious about being at my best for my doubles partner 🙂 (love ya, girl!) and the rest of the team who is counting on all of us to be at our best. This is my identity. I see myself as a tennis player playing for the #1 team in our league, a tennis player who WILL WIN. 🙂(Of course, this is at a superficial level…I realize that my identity, as purchased by Christ, is much more pervasive, profound, and WONDERFUL than this!!! LOL!)
2.) My sense of my identity brings with it awareness of a string of “potential” facts–such as the possibility of hurting, getting dehydrated, being over-heated, exhausted, etc. (One might wonder why one does this to oneself…dare I venture the answer…”the hope of glory!” Many songs will be sung in our honor! HA!)
3.) My beliefs in #1 and #2 above changes what I DO today…I am acting pre-emptively and, in faith that I can do something about #2.
What does this have to do with Thin Within?
I am so glad you asked! 🙂
What I believe about myself affects how I act. Do I believe that God has set me free from being in bondage to overeating and self-loathing of my body? Do I believe I am a free child of God, declared righteous and holy, able to walk in this freedom because the presence of the Holy Spirit is in me? How are my beliefs affecting my actions? Or, conversely, if I analyze my actions, what do they say about what I really believe?
Do I believe that I don’t have to have a “weight problem” for the rest of my life? Do I really believe that God is bigger than my struggle with this thing? If I do, then I know it will affect the way I act.
Do I believe I can honor him with my eating and drinking like 1 Corinthians 10 says?
Do I believe God is willing to see me live in freedom?
Do I believe He is powerful?
Do I believe He is compassionate?
How do these beliefs affect my actions?
How about you? What do you really believe about God and about yourself? How do your beliefs affect what you do? What beliefs do you need to allow God to change so that you might begin to act in accordance with truth?
I have shared this link here at the blog in the past, but I feel led to share it again. This is a link to a page where you can listen to or download a very inspiring, yet heart-rending, audio by Chrystal Munson speaking about Gluttony to a women’s group. It is Chrystal’s testimony and she has a lot of very challenging things to share. But I think it is important. If you don’t want to visit the page, you can listen to it below:
Let’s invite God into this area…He is gentle and loving, but He is holy and calls for our hearts.
Without a doubt, the Lord delights in any movement at all–even babysteps–we take in an “upward” direction. Please don’t give in to the enemy’s desire that you “quit.” This is a lifetime process so what better way of learning how to DO this for life than by DOING it during life? 🙂
In over 10 years of using this approach to food and eating, I have found that it is rare that everything is “just perfect.” It often feels like I take three steps forward and two back. Sometimes it feels like four forward and six back!
Hang in there and sooner or later the “net movement” will be forward!
Just keep at it.
Paul says it perfectly with Philippians 3:12-14:
Not that I have already obtained all this,
or have already arrived at my goal,
but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Let’s press on! It will take our entire lifetimes, yes. STRAIN toward what is ahead. This isn’t an “easy fix.” Sanctification rarely is! 🙂 Discipleship rarely is! Anything worth fighting for is rarely an easy fix. We are inviting God not merely to change our bodies, but to transform our thinking–so that the changes come from the inside out!
(I hope you will join our online study Wednesday in the chat room at 4:30pm Pacific Daylight time.)
‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will do everything I want him to do.’
– Acts 13:22
He was a murderer.
But God called him a man after His own heart.
He was a liar.
But God called him a man after His own heart.
He was an adulterer.
But God called him a man after His own heart.
Imagine what would have happened if King David, irritated with his failures, had thrown up his hands and said, “Forget it. That’s it! I have failed again. I QUIT being King! I refuse to write another psalm! Israel can find another leader. I am done!”
It is so tempting to let our perceptions of ourselves as “failing” determine what our next step will be. When it comes to the journey toward freedom with food, eating and body image, we tend to act like this is a diet…something we can “quit” if we don’t string together enough “good” days.
The truth is, God has called us to press on–through the “good,” the “bad,” and the “ugly.” If we want to be women (and men) after God’s own heart, then let us take a cue from King David. Maybe being someone after God’s own heart isn’t so much about whether we fail or not as it is about what we *do* with the perceived failure. Do we let it control our choice to keep on? What kind of warped perfectionism is this that would make me say “Forget it. I give up! I ate too much (or “past 5″) too many days in a row. I am a Thin Within drop out! I will never get this thing beat, so why keep trying? I QUIT!”
What if, instead of letting my failures, mistakes, and shortcomings determine the course I choose, I were to think of my failures as stepping stones? What if I were to submit my “failure” (and mySELF and my next choice) to God and then humbly STAND on it and USE it in the power of the Holy Spirit to keep on the Path to which God has called me? Is it possible that this journey is comprised of a number of stepping stones, some “failures” and some “successes?”
Why not put each and every one firmly under my feet in the strength that God provides? Rather than allow my “failures” step all over me, I want to step on them and launch on into what is next on this journey.
I am so glad that King David didn’t quit being King. There are so many lessons I learn from Him in the Scriptures! Maybe the chief lesson of them all is that God uses those who fail–and badly–and He even proclaims the one who presses on anyhow as one after His own heart!
How about you? What if you were to follow David’s example, that no matter what “failures” you may experience, you just keep on being faithful…keep on growing a heart after God’s? What if you were to step on those failures as though they were a means of getting to the goal instead of a wall blocking your way?
We often think of worship as singing songs on Sunday mornings, but the exciting truth is, we can do whatever we do for the glory of God, just as 1 Corinthians 10:31 says:
So whether you eat or drink or whateveryou do, do it allfor the glory of God.
Even eating and drinking can be an expression of worship! In fact, a careful study of Scripture might indicate to an astute observer of the text that God cares very much about this aspect of our lives. So let’s invite him to show us His will for our lives this summer!
Thin Within is the non-diet approach I used to release 100 pounds of weight between summer of 2006 and fall of 2007 and I continue to maintain a healthy size the same way. Not only is this an approach to managing weight, but it really is a discipleship program–focusing my heart and mind on being renewed by the Word of truth and submitting to the God of the Universe in *all* things…even things that seem mundane!
Thin Within is NOT a program where you will learn diet laws and rules. In fact, you will be encouraged to throw out your diet paraphernalia! You will even be challenged NOT to get on your bathroom scale. There are no “good foods” or “bad foods.” All is lawful! (1 Corinthians 6:12)
Instead, you will be encouraged to respond to your God-given signals of physical hunger and satisfaction. You will have the joy of allowing God to direct you personally in eating whatever foods you desire within the parameters of physical need. You can do this without guilt and with delight. Each time you are physically hungry you can select something to eat that thrills your taste buds! If you love summer squash, then great! Enjoy! If you hate it, don’t ever eat another bite of it again. 🙂 If you love cheese enchiladas, enjoy the freedom of having the mexican meal of your dreams when you are hungry and stopping when you are no longer hungry.
No weighing, measuring, counting, or preparing of special foods. You can eat out, go on vacation, eat what your family eats. I know it sounds too good to be true, but the key is in something that is hard for many of us–M-O-D-E-R-A-T-I-O-N. It works!
I believe that this is where our God-given freedom from tyranny of food, body images, and self-loathing is found. As I learn to ask the Lord to renew my mind and my thinking about food and my body, I see that He is the Creator! He created my body to be reliable if I will depend on HIM to help me through all those other times I may be drawn to food! I begin to trust him with this process. We *can* do this. And when we eat only what we *need* we will release the extra weight and discover our natural God-given size.
Because we eat each time we are hungry, we don’t have to worry about “shutting down” our metabolisms. The truth is, we are teaching our bodies that we are *NOT* in “starvation” mode. Quite to the contrary, in fact.
Additionally, because we will depend on the Lord to learn about our bodies and the way we think about food, to expose the lies we have believed, to replace these lies with truth, we will find our relationships with the Lord deepening.
I won’t lie to you…this process IS hard. There is a definite need to die to self–to be willing to say no to the additional portion when I am no longer hungry, but the joy that comes is bountiful!
Consider Colossians 2:20-21:
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,
why, as though you still belonged to the world,
do you submit to its rules:
“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use,
are based on merely human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom,
with their self-imposed worship,
their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body,
but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
The above description sounds so much like a diet to me. I want to be DONE with that…I mean FOREVER. Do you? Aren’t you sick of the good food/bad food lists? Especially when you know down inside that you still REALLY love Häagen–Dazs ice cream and hate fat-free salad dressing? As we enjoy a modest amount of our favorite foods slowly and deliberately, we *are* satisfied. Partly because we go to GOD to have our heart needs met…instead of food! I can’t get my spiritual and emotional hungers fed by eating physical food. Nope. It won’t work! So Thin Within teaches that I go to God for that and then I am able to see the value of restraining indulging in extra portions of favorite foods! I end up joyful. I end up satisfied.
Please consider joining us for our study this summer. We will meet each week on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 PDT at http://www.thinwithin.org/chat/ to discuss what we have studied during the week. Be sure to get the workbook material so you can study during the week on your own! God will bless this! Give it 13 weeks and see if God doesn’t blow you away with the NEW THING He is doing!
NOTE: I edited this to reflect a change in day of the week. We will be meeting in the chat room on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays. Hope you can make it!
I am leading an online Thin Within group this summer through the Thin Within workbook material. The first orientation meeting will be June 15th and we will meet at the chat room at the Thin Within website.We will meet for chatting together from 4:30-5:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time each Wednesday evening beginning June 15th continuing through the first week in September.
(If you are a visual person and prefer a video telling you about this material, below you will find one. It isn’t particularly exciting, but it does give the low-down about the workbook!)
Here are some details (which I have shared in the past) telling about the Rebuilding God’s Temple Workbook Kit #1. If you have done this workbook before, you can still join the weekly chats starting June 15th and work through *any* of the Thin Within workbooks as they are all designed so that they all have the same lesson topics each week!
The first kit is the most comprehensive and comes with three pieces:
Workbook #1
The Temple Toolkit
The Memory Challenge Cards (click on the image to see a large version and click again to see it magnified further):
The contents of Kit #1
First, the workbook itself, is a spiral bound volume that has material for 12 weeks of study. To download a sample of the material, visit this link. The download is an Adobe Reader (.pdf) file of Week One – “Hope.” After you download it, print it and take a week to try it out! 🙂
Each week consists of the following:
Lesson material – This is dense written material that you will read to glean the concepts that we are teaching or reviewing during the week. I usually recommend about an hour spent with this, highlighting, asterisking, and looking up the verses in my own bible. I may even write comments in the margin or, if I am leading a group, questions to be sure to ask participants.
Each of the reading portions of the lesson are divided into these segments:
Introduction – a brief overview of the week’s focus
Spiritual Information – the relationship this material has to the Scriptures
Physiological Information – the “mechanics” — what you can actually doto make additional changes in your eating to honor the Lord
Integration – How it all works together
Exercises – Don’t worry! These aren’t calisthenics! LOL! They are basically guided daily quiet times. 🙂 Each week includes “exercises” for each day of the week. Days six and seven are optional and a bit “lighter.” Days one through five include the following sections:
Going Deeper – This relates some aspect of the lesson you have read to your life
Bible Study – This shows how Scripture illustrates or illuminates the principles taught in the lesson
Knowing God By Heart – One of the best parts, this is a study of the attributes of God. We have found that the way a participant views God impacts how she will view food, herself, her body, as well as her willingness (or not) to surrender this aspect of her life to the Lord for His purposes.
Getting Practical – These are suggestions for putting some of the mechanics of the program into practice
Memory Challenge – Hiding God’s Word in our hearts will enable us to be reminded of our commitment to him when we are weak! Memorizing scripture is extremely helpful for renewing our mind and changing our thinking!
Review of the Week – This provides a space where you can summarize what God has shown you or questions and thoughts you have had. This section is especially helpful when you meet with others in a group setting. 🙂
In addition to these resources in the workbook, there is an extensive Introduction at the beginning and Appendices in the back, providing a great deal of material that will support you on your journey.
But wait! There’s more! 🙂 (Couldn’t resist saying that!) Not only do you get the Workbook, but when you purchase the first kit, you also get the Temple Toolkit. This is a resource that offers a place for you to log your own journey throughout each day during the full twelve weeks. As you progress through the material, the pages change to match what you have learned in the workbook. Let me show you what I mean.
The first image below shows Days 25-28. Click on the image to see a larger version and then click again to see FULL size what these pages look like in the temple toolkit:
Days 25, 26, 27, 28 in the Temple Toolkit
As you progress through the workbook and new material is introduced, the Temple Toolkit changes, too:
Days 49, 50, 51, and 52 in Temple Toolkit
Again, click on the image above and then click again on the bigger image to see it full size. You will see new tools have been added.
Of course all of the tools are optionalas you go through the 12-week workbook. If you have come out of a background of excessive charting and graphing, you may only want to use the journaling pages. Or, as time goes on, you may experience freedom with one tool and not another. The Lord will lead each of us individually. Some have freedom to use all the tools, charts and graphs.
By the time you are closer to the end of the first twelve weeks, you will have been introduced to all of the tools. Note how the material in the toolkit has evolved:
Days 77, 78, 79 and 80 in Temple Toolkit
Again, “Wait! There’s more!” 🙂 When you order the first kit, you get not only the Workbook, the Temple Toolkit that changes as you go through the material, but you also get the Memory Challenge and Temptation Buster Cards:
Memory Challenge and Temptation Buster Cards
Again, click on the image above and the larger image, to get a full size view of what these include. You cut them up and can carry them with you so that Thin Within isn’t just a bible study that you begin in the morning and leave behind the rest of the day. These resources are very supportive in helping you to keep the principles that God is leading you to embrace and apply with you throughout the day.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word
but does not do what it says
is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and,
after looking at himself,
goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
~ James 1:22-24
We don’t want to just accumulate head knowledge, but then leave it behind for the rest of the day! We want to ACT on what we learn in our times of study and in God’s Word!
I realize that $45 is not a “bargain price” for a workbook alone, but I trust you will feel like it is worth it. This material includes three months of workbook material and exercises, as well as the Temple Toolkit which would probably cost $20 for something like that (if you could find such a thing!) separately. (It isn’t sold separately at Thin Within, so this is hypothetical!) Truthfully, with the money you save by eating less food :-), you will be able to afford a kit for yourself and a best friend, too! (Ok, so now I am taking my infomercial over the top…hope you are bearing with me! LOL! But it IS true!)
Thin Within isn’t a big company. No one has a salary. The proceeds from sales of the workbook go to cover the costs of producing these materials, keeping the Thin Within website functioning, other expenses (like the phone!), and small stipends for some of the Thin Within team members. So while the cost of $45 may seem steep, it isn’t padding anyone’s pocket. I am sure you will be pleased with the quality of the materials you receive. (Boy, do I ever sound like an advertisement today. Sorry about that! I just really believe in this material and am eager for the word to spread!)
One additional piece of information that many are unaware of is that there are 3 additional workbooks, each covering 12 weeks. The material is designed so that people who have gone through workbook #1 before, can do workbook #2 or #3 or #4, even while most in the group use workbook #1. Each of the workbooks are presented in 12 weekly themes that parallel each other. These are the themes for all four of the workbooks:
Hope
My Body–God’s Temple
Identity in Christ
Celebration of God’s Grace, Part One
Restoration
Counting the Cost
The Fight of Faith
Celebration of God’s Grace, Part Two
Building Godly Boundaries
Forgiveness
Prayer
Celebration of God’s Grace, Part Three
When the group is on week five, everyone will be studying, reviewing, learning about the theme of Restoration. This helps prevent the material from becoming stale! It is a great system that allows people of all experience levels to enjoy a group together, studying and reviewing together.
To order materials, call Thin Within 1-877-729-8932 (9:00am-5:00pm Eastern).
The group I will be leading starting June 16th is an “open” group. You can join the chat at any time. There will be more details to come here and at the Thin Within website. Hope you can join us, even if you will be traveling a lot this summer! You can still join us at your convenience! 🙂
Surrounded by family members who don’t seem to “get” 0 to 5 eating–
Friends and co-workers who insist as you reach for a cookie that “You will never lose weight if you keep eating junk like that!”–
People who don’t give any credence to the “notion” that eating even a cookie when hungry is not going to cause weight gain!
Does it seem like “failure” lurks around every corner?
Even church friends may wonder why you want to connect eating with your faith and walk with God! Some may think that “working on the heart” is an excuse for not really working on weight loss. And others may think that “organic only” is next to godliness!
Once we have decided to surrender our eating to the Lord, once we have agreed that it is our own heart and the desire for more food than we need that needs “fixing” rather than the nutrition content of the foods we eat, we may discover that those nearest and dearest to us just don’t buy it. And they may not hesitate to verbalize this again and again!
If we look for support and encouragement from others, we may find that pressing forward seems so difficult.
Lately, I have noticed a tendency I have…that of lamenting something like this:
“I could follow you, Lord, without hindrance if only…..” Or “I could succeed in eating between 0 and 5 if only ….” Or “If I only had a support group, I could succeed.”
The honest desires of my heart to receive support and encouragement in the pursuit of giving my eating and drinking to the Lord is not a bad thing. But at some level, I wonder if I am blaming God’s provision (or lack of provision!) for my lack of consistency! With my eyes on those around me, I wish that SOMEone, SOMEwhere, would join me in pursuing faithfulness in this area of life! Don’t I *need* support? Wasn’t I made for community? It makes sense that I am hindered going forward until I have a buddy or accountability partner or at least a husband who supports me…er…uh…right? 🙂
(NOTE: In all fairness to my husband, I must say that I am blessed with a supportive husband or family, but I know that many you who visit this blog aren’t so fortunate — I want to offer these thoughts out there for consideration.)
In the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, Adam blamed Eve and God for his choice: “…the woman YOU gave me made me do it!” Eve blamed the serpent (which is a sideways approach to blaming God, too, since God created the serpent). The temptation in the garden, similar to the temptation I face today, was to turn the light of conviction away from self and find a scapegoat…something or someone else to put the responsibility on. Or, at the very least, to share the responsibility with!
But here is a thought I have to consider when I think these “If only…” sorts of thoughts. God has called me to this…whatever this may mean. This marriage, this job, this time and place. Right now, this is where He, in His perfect sovereignty, has called me and placed me. And he has placed these convictions about my eating IN ME–not in anyone else (necessarily).
2 Peter 1:3 says I have been given everything I need for life and godliness--so the responsibility remains with me to use what I have been given to choose to honor the Lord. Yes, it would seem so helpful to have an accountability partner, a husband who also eats 0 to 5, kids would didn’t eat all the time and never gain weight :-), a Thin Within group at my church…but the truth of the matter is, God has called ME to this. He has called me to set my eyes on Him no matter what else is going on.
But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
~ Psalm 73:8
But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
~ Micah 7:7
There is much about my walk with Christ that encourages me to be in relationship with others, but when it all boils down, God calls me to an “As for me…” walk with him. He calls me not to be distracted by what others do or don’t do, say or don’t say, whether they show support, encouragement, approval, or agree with me or not. His calling to me is specific, personal, unique. Will I be faithful to His calling?
As for me, I will do this thing regardless of what everyone else chooses. I will press on to walk with my God in obedience out of a heart of devotion and love. He is my refuge no matter what. I hope in the Lord and wait on Him.
How about you? Will you choose to be faithful in your “As For Me” walk with God? How might choosing to do so affect you today?
