you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
This Week’s Video:
There are more video questions than normal this week. The reason for that is that Cathy is a fount of wisdom, knowledge, ideas, and inspiration. I want to be sure to “milk” our video interview for all we possibly can. If it seems like too much, then just do what you can.
Video Questions:
1. What is Cathy’s definition of a boundary? (0:43)
2. How do you identify with Cathy’s definition? What is the parameter that you have for yourself with regard to your eating?
3. Cathy referenced 2 Timothy 1:7 at 1:15. Look this up in your bible and evaluate the place that fear, power, love and a sound mind might have in your Thin Within journey.
4. From 1:33 to 1:45 Cathy mentions some reasons that we may have trouble with “finding” our 5 boundary lines. What are some of the reasons she describes? Are any of these possibly keeping you from “finding” 5?
5. What does Cathy suggest will make the difference for us to be able to recognize our “5?” (1:50-1:59)
6. What role does evening eating have in your difficulties with staying within the godly boundaries of 0 and 5 for your eating? What would happen if you created a secondary boundary of not eating after dinner unless you had a very insistent “0?”
7. How can using Truth Cards assist you in accepting the truth of your identity and help you no longer to break your 0 and 5 boundaries?
8. Cathy’s 0 to 5 boundary has had to shift, as she has discovered she has food sensitivities. What has helped her the most? (4:46)
9. At 5:17 Cathy speaks about her struggle with condemnation and how she has broken free from it. Can you identify with what she shares? How would adopting a personal boundary about rejecting condemning thoughts help you?
10. At 6:12 to 7:53, Cathy mentions a relatively new boundary for her regarding the scale. How can you identify with what she shares? Should you adopt a boundary relative to the bathroom scale? How might that actually serve your boundary of eating within 0 and 5? How has using the bathroom scale helped you? How has it hurt you?
11. At 8:48 to 8:55 Cathy says she had to redefine what a good evening is about, what time with her husband was about. How can you change the definition of what a good evening is for you to honor your godly eating boundaries? How can you change what it means to bond with your loved ones and friends to honor your godly eating boundaries?
12. One of Cathy’s earliest boundaries (she has released 30 pounds so far!) was her body would belong to God. In fact, she asserts at 10:52 that it is a “necessary boundary to do this program.” If you struggle consistently with respecting your godly boundaries, perhaps this is the most fundamental boundary that you could establish that might help. What are your thoughts about this? Your fears? Your concerns?
13. Cathy shares some tips at the end of the video. The first is to “Keep it Simple.” How might you apply this tip from Cathy? The second is to “Make it Personal.” What changes could you make to approach Thin Within in a more personal way, welcoming God’s Truth to come deeply into your own heart uniquely?
14. Another tip Cathy shares is to pray for discernment and pray for a willing spirit. Can you carve this into your time with the Lord each day, to include a request for discernment and willingness?
15. Cathy’s final tip is to “Go Easy.” What are ways that you are too hard on yourself? What can you do instead? Even if you have not lost weight in a week’s time, what other changes might you take note of? (12:23)
16. At 12:34 we dialog a bit about a boundary of “What will I call progress?” This is where I refuse to use numbers or weights or sizes to evaluate our progress given that God is doing so much more in our lives than just weight/size. What are some of the things in your life that God has been doing?
Renewing the Mind – Pressing On
Pick One (book or workbook):
Trade Book Assignment – To Be Completed by March 10th
- Here is the Thin Within Book Study Guide Week 9 . Feel free to discuss it at our Facebook group or here! THIS WEEK, we will have a drawing for one of Barb’s books. The comments made last week and those made this week … all names will be put in a drawing to win either Taste for Truth or I Deserve a Donut and Other Lies That Make You Eat! Comment on this blog post or any others this week or last in order to be put in the drawing. You can enter more than once, too. 🙂
Workbook Assignment – To Be Completed by March 10th.
How About You?
One of the things I love about Barb Raveling’s book is how she helps us to see that boundaries are really what this is all about. Will we live according to the boundaries that God has so lovingly offered us? Or will we blow through our boundaries again and again? Do you need to take time to sit with the Lord and evaluate if 0 to 5 eating (between hunger and satisfaction) is something that you are convicted are from God for you? If you know that this is your primary boundary then creating secondary boundaries to help support you in your pursuit of honoring this godly boundary seems no where near so laborious. It becomes a joy to submit to the Lord in this way!
Ladies, I enjoyed this so much! You two work well together. “What works for me is keeping it simple.” Good advice, Cathy. Being overwhelmed makes me want to eata.
Heidi said, “I want to be willing, but I am not yet.” So we need to ask God to help us to be willing. Such good advice for any Christian.
Thanks for taking the time to do this!
And Heidi, I didn’t mean you weren’t willing; what I meant was that was good advice. I am not always willing, but in the morning I ask God to make me willing to obey in every area!
Amen!
I love seeing you two interacting!! : )
I could really relate to Cathy talking about no longer identifying herself as an evening eater by using Truth Cards. Changing the evening habit and not making it about food. I love it when Cathy says: “My renewed mind just instructed me to do the right thing.” God’s Word that she has put inside herself using her cards comes to her aid when she is temped to evening eat!! I have shifted my thinking to “I now identify myself as WHO I AM IN CHRIST instead of being an evening eater!”
I am soo thrilled to be a part of Cathy’s class!!!!
Isn’t that interaction amazing. Both of them can help us so much!
You are such an encouragement, Merry. Thank you.
I am so glad you are, too, Susan! I thought it was so cool when she said that…I mean that is the point, right? Yet I fail to connect the dots. Cathy connected them for me. When I renew my mind, then THAT is the mind that will direct my actions! WOW!
This was WONDERFUL!!! I have been feeling lost and condemning myself because I have lost no weight and I have also lost touch doing my Bible study. But I know that today I can refocus and seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance. I am God’s and I will focus in Him and let Him guide me. Thanks ladies for a great video.
YES, LaRessie. Just press “restart” like Cathy suggests. This IS the process…the process IS messy like this…but you are doing it, just by hanging in there…by fighting to press on.
“Weight is just our relationship with gravity on this planet.” That’s awesome. 🙂
Thanks for the great video.
Sure thing, Teri. Glad it is helpful!
I loved this! Cathy is so down to earth and practical–plus, she has a great sense of humor. I also had a really hard time with evening eating and wondered how I would break the cycle. Well, God really did help me in an unexpected way. I had to start taking a new medication and it had to be in the evening and on an empty stomach–either an hour before eating or 2-3 hours after a meal. The only way it would work with our schedule at home was to take within that time after dinner. By the time I did that, it was so close to bedtime that there was no way to fit in a snack–unless I woke up later to eat it! Lol! Anyway, as I’ve gotten into the routine of doing this, I’ve found that I’m not hungry in the evenings like I used to be. In fact, I don’t even think about food like I did before. I’m all about being the healthy temple God wants me to be. I am losing weight, according to my doctor–yayyyy! Thank you so much for all the encouragement and support!
Mary Anne, I am so glad that you liked this video and enjoyed “meeting” Cathy. She is the real deal. She is so practical. I am so happy to hear the way God has worked in your life to help nip the nighttime eating in the bud! YAY!
Thank you ladies for all the gracious comments and encouraging words. Wow I am blown away at what God is doing in your lives through TW. I’m so glad that Heidi and I interacted so naturally. She told me, “just sit and talk to me while the camera hangs out.” She made it easy.
Thanks be to God for setting us free and giving us a brand new start every morning. Wow, He is banding together a very strong army of women who will be used by Him to change the world. Yay for God!!!!
Cathy, Carrie is next! I see her the last Friday in March! 🙂 We are going to make a video together! 🙂
The video was so wonderful! Thank you, Heidi and Cathy. I will definitely watch again, and write out my answers to the questions. A lovely reminder about the Truth cards and their value!
So glad, Cathy. Thanks for your kind words!
Great video. I have never been a scales addict but I noticed recently that I was making a daily habit of getting on the scales, and yes, the number did affect my attitude towards my eating for the day. Well, a couple of days ago the scales went bananas (it’s digital), numbers started high then went low then high again, pounds turned to kilograms then to stones – like what? So, away in the closet it went because I just couldn’t be bothered with the stress of reading the operating manual! I really liked Heidi’s statement “Weight is just our relationship with gravity on this planet”, a new Truth Card – thanks Heidi!
Wow…I love seeing you here. Did I say that already? Have missed you, my friend! Hope you are hanging out with us!
Wow…I love all the responses…and ya all must be wanting that book of Barb’s. 🙂 Lezley, it is great to see you again!
Cathy and Heidi, thank you for the video!
13. There were a number of things said that were helpful to me: Keep it simple/make it personal/invite the Holy Spirit in to help you find “5”/don’t waffle – our mind needs to be “stayed on Him”. Awesome practical truths. I posted on FB about my deciding to use my Truth Cards to end my lunch meal…it made such a huge difference. After eating to a “5” I quickly grabbed my truths and what I read totally “satisfied”. This is a huge victory for me.
I liked the statement: a “renewed mind will instruct you to do the right thing”.
Thanks, Corrinne. I love the way Cathy articulates things. She reminds me of Barb. So point blank–cut-to-the-chase practical! I love it.
WOW!!! love you both so much!!! and I thank God for waking me up at 3 AM this morning and not letting me get back to sleep. I finally found the time to get to the thinwithin.org blog and have worked my way to this one. Cathy!!! What a precious lady you are. Heidi, I already knew that about you. Thank you, ladies, dear sisters in Christ, for posting this. Love and blessings! and prayers!