Still planning on doing the workbook study. I don’t have anyone leading an online chat for it yet, however, and I can’t do that this time. But I will provide what I can by way of resources for you to study the material either on your own, with an email buddy, and/or if you are going to lead a group as some of you have indicated you might. 🙂
Don’t forget, if you want to be connected with someone in email for the study, shoot me an email, using the link in the upper right corner menu “Contact.” Let me know you are interested in having an email buddy and I will send you one another’s emails and let you work things out! 🙂
First: There will be a Thin Within chat today at 2-3pm Pacific Time, 4-5pm Central, and 5-6pm Eastern. If you are in Canada, check to be sure which time zone you are in! I hope you can make it. Visit this link to learn how to chat or, if you already know how, come directly to http://www.thinwithin.org/chat . I hope you can make it! We have only one more chat after this one!
As I wrote about previously, this is a season that God is calling me to have my computer turned off a bit more. This means I am writing less. I anticipate that this season won’t be a lengthy one, necessarily, but as I help my son transition from homeschooling into college (hopefully full-time by January 2011), I want to be available for him. Also, my daughter is transitioning from our rather “loosey goosey” approach to homeschooling to a very rigorous online academy associated with a major Christian University. Many things are changing in our home and I want to give my family my best. In fact, this is a large part of my Thin Within journey–to remove chaos wherever it is found in my life and to allow God to sanctify all of my life–I don’t want to compartmentalize any more. I want order in my life, not just my eating. 🙂
I still have a heart for ministry to those whom God may bring into my life online and in person who share struggles with food, eating and body images issues, but my priorities have shifted a bit for this season.
If you want to keep on top of what God is up to in the days and months ahead in my tiny part of the world, I hope you will consider subscribing to my newsletter. The subscription form is in the right hand side bar. In the future, I anticipate letting people know about writing projects that will be under way–the book proposal submitted to a wonderful Christian literary agent was accepted a couple of months ago and I pray that in the future it will be under contract with a publisher. All in God’s good time, of course. I would love to be able to let you know about that and other things God is up to as the seasons continue to change, so please feel free to subscribe to the newsletter if you want to know any updates as they happen in the future.
Terrific resources are available for you as you continue on this journey. I hope you will consider making use especially of the Thin Within forums — there is a great online community with helpful folks. Julie is the administrator there and does an amazing job. She has years of experience with Thin Within–working it at a very deep level. She writes beautifully and with such heart. She loves the Lord and His people and it is evident in everything she says. She is incredibly authentic, too.
Facebook has a Thin Within page, now, too. Pam Donaldson, wife of Joe Donaldson who manages the reins of the Thin Within company (with the partnership of Judy and Arthur Halliday) posts frequent updates there. It is a great place to get little reminders, practical tips, throughout the day.
I will continue to post as God leads, but I know that many may quit visiting the blog. 🙂 I understand if that is the case. I do hope you will subscribe to the newsletter. I send out once a month, if that. (I skipped August!).
Summer is filled with fun and frolic. Picnics and lounging, enjoying the long days and laziness. It is a wonderful time!
One of the most enjoyable summer picnic fun events can be old-fashioned potato sack races and three-legged races. In the three legged race, two partners stand next to one another and tie the legs next to one another together. Then, they have to run together to the goal, trying to beat others with the same objective.
AP Photo/The Jamestown Sun, John M. Steiner
If you have ever done this event, then you are aware of just how important it is to be “in sync” with your partner. If your left leg is tied to your partners right leg, you have to step your left out as your partner is stepping her right leg out. Outside legs have to be in sync too. Not only that, but the steps have to be of approximately the same length. If one has a larger stride–which might possibly seem the most effective in a normal running race–that person has to shorten his stride for the one with the smaller stride.
Getting a rhythm is vital to this process. It helps if one is the “lead” partner and the other follows the stride length and repetition of the lead partner.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:25
God calls us to run with him…not just a three-legged race, but through life–clinging to him, tied to him as if tied leg to leg.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Galatians 5:18
Jesus calls us into ongoing relationship with and total dependence on him. He calls us to keep in step with Him. As we do this, we aren’t bound by any law to tell us what is ok to eat and what isn’t. We are free to listen to the Spirit’s voice. In fact, we are free from the restraints and the condemnation that comes via the law when we listen and obey the Holy Spirit.
When it comes to this journey, we don’t abandon praying in favor of merely following hunger and satisfied physical signals. Instead, we depend 100% on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Just as he uses our physical body’s cues to tell us when we are in need of sleep, he uses our physical body’s cues to tell us when our body needs fueling. Just as we don’t question or suspect our body of lying to us about sleep, but lie down and close our eyes, instead, we also need not question our body’s physical need–there is nothing evil about our body’s physical need for food.
We do look to the Lord to confirm that it is His will at this time for us to rest and for us to eat. It is clear from the gospels that he cares about both:
Then, because so many people were coming and going
that they did not even have a chance to eat,
he said to them,
“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
Mark 6:31
Jesus has intended that we get rest and get nourishment. He uses our bodies to signal when the need is there. We then turn to Him and Psalm 145:15 “happens:”
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.
We live by Romans 6:13:
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness,
but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;
and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Where in the past, we may have given ourselves over to justifying eating for any number of reasons, now we offer our tastebuds, our stomachs, our salivary glands–all of it!–to God as instruments of righteousness! We have been redeemed.
Therefore, if anyone isin Christ,
he is a new creation. The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Because of what Christ has done, I know that I have the ability to live as one redeemed. I have the ability live, offering the parts of my body to God as instruments of righteousness. PRAISE HIM!
We don’t maintain an attitude of entitlement, however. We know that our body, mind, and heart can be deceived so readily. So we stop, look, and listen, depending on the Holy Spirit to testify with our spirits that we are to eat, what to eat, and when to stop.
Just as surely as we might sense the Holy Spirit’s leading: “There is a woman over there who needs a kind word…I will go over and encourage her.” The word said, the leading may then be: “It is time to move on and allow the Lord to continue to move in the woman’s heart and I will pray as I go about my day.” Always leaning completely on the leading of the Lord, aware and open to the fact that he uses the body he created to signal me of physical need, but the most important thing in determining what he wants is listening and obeying HIM. THAT is my priority.
When I do this, it is like a pair at a three-legged race who are in step with one another. It is smooth, sweet, and successful!
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,
but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17
This is about SO much more than food, eating, and our bodies. This is about LIFE and sanctification–becoming more and more Christ-like! Isn’t it awesome how he can use something as mundane as food and eating to show us just how much he wants us to be bound to him? Don’t you just love him so?
I filmed this short video (just over 3 minutes) while FREEZING to death in my house…the upstairs stays bearable and the downstairs stays FREEZING! So, thus the blankie. 🙂
AND, I have had quite the day…sorry about the frazzled appearance. Definitely NOT the way I would show up for a speaking engagement should any come knocking! LOL! Been a homeschool mom today and loving it (well, for the most part!). Had two classes of PE and haven’t bothered to change. I am heading to my bath now! YAY!
Anyhow, I wanted to be sure to share this with you.
How about you? What is God calling you to do? So many women need the truth of how God sees beyond their size and far beyond their shame. Is He calling you to share with a small support group?
Let’s press on and be faithful! Even if you have “fallen” behind…keep in mind PLEASE that God takes us where he wants us in HIS perfect timing! This journey is uniquely yours, so even if you are reading this assignment in the spring of 2011, no worries. You are right where you need to be. 🙂 I hope this encourages you.
Hang in there. Ditch the perfectionist lie. Be faithful.
1.) Ongoing assignments to keep at a tiny bit each day or as often as you can:
Attributes of God list
Praise and prayer time using 5 things from your cumulative list
Gratitudes – 3 each day is a great goal, but whatever you are able to do is great!
Forgiveness phrases – being repetitious each day, writing these out, can really bring it home to your heart. When you find yourself going “back there” to a place of needing to forgive again, begin the practice again of writing out intentional forgiveness phrases.
2.) Take time to carefully read and complete chapters 24, 25, and 26.
3.) Meditate on the following quote from Day 24 of the Thin Within book:
Look on your trials as an opportunity for the Lord to form and shape your character. He will provide a way of escape if you are open to it. You can be confident that He will not allow anything to prevent the accomplishment of His plan and purpose for His beloved, you. He will provide the grace and the strength you need to emerge victorious.
In light of your current circumstances, how can this truth move you out of a place of distraction, discouragement, or defeat, and into the way of escape and victory that God has for you? Journal your answer to this question and/or post a response here. Others may be encouraged by what you share!
4.) In Day 24, you are asked to re-evaluate your goals. We will be done with our study in a couple of weeks. God can yet do amazing things in your heart, your mind, and in your physical body. While we don’t want our focus to be on the physical, we also understand that often our eating is a barometer of what is going on within. It is not too late to revamp your goals…and then break each down into manageable pieces. Maybe you need to ditch your first set of goals all together! That is fine, too. Do this activity (found on pages 260-261) prayerfully. Share with us here what God leads you to do if you feel so led.
5.) Share with us here: Which Thin Within tools have you found to be the most helpful? In what way has the tool been helpful? Which TW tools have not helped you? Why is this the case for you?
6.) Chapter 25 has some wonderfully practical exercises. Eating the Thin Within Way With My Family can be extremely helpful. Even if you aren’t participating in our group study, you can answer this question! Brainstorm some of your potential obstacles to maintaining eating 0 to 5 eating, given your home life. Do that in a column on the left side of a piece of paper. On the right side, prayerfully brainstorm potential solutions to those obstacles. Share with us what God leads you to come up with!
NOTE: For those of you with children at home, Judy Halliday and Dr. Joani Jack wrote a book called Raising Fit Kids in a Fat World based on the same principles as Thin Within. It is a great book–easy to read, but power packed. I highly recommend it!
7.) On page 270, you have a chance to do a similar activity. What potential challenges will you face eating at a potluck or buffet? Write those in a left column. In the write, prayerfully brainstorm potential solutions. Share with us what you come up with here. We would love to see!
8.) Chapter 26 leads us into a discussion of the difference between satisfaction and gratification. How does this distinction strike you? How might this affect you, your eating, your other choices in life?
9.) In chapter 26 we are encouraged to write a “Goodbye” letter. If you feel so inclined, share your letter with us here and how this exercise has affected you.
10.) Join us for our chat this week. It is Thursday, from 2-3pm Pacific time, 4-5pm Central, 5-6pm Eastern. I hope you can make it. Visit http://www.thinwithin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2256 to find out how to join us.
11.) Keep praying for yourself, for me, for others in our study.
12.) Plan now for the fall. What will you do to press on in your journey? If you don’t want to do a Thin Within study, here are some other ideas that may help:
Search for Significance by Robert McGee. Get the version that has the book in the front and the study guide in the back. I HIGHLY recommend this for those of you who have discovered that perfectionism is having an impact on you. This book is amazing and you will be changed! 🙂 I promise.
Breaking Free bible study by Beth Moore. This study has been updated. Yours truly got to be at the taping of it. 🙂 This material is incredible and dovetails beautifully with Thin Within. I hope you will consider doing it. You can download the videos from Lifeway for $5 each. It is worth it if you have the money. But if you can’t afford the videos, the study is still outstanding!
Get Thin Stay Thin by Arthur and Judy Halliday – this book gets to the heart behind much of our struggle to put the principles of Thin Within into practice. It isn’t a workbook and the material is very deep. But this little book is POWER PACKED. It was previously published as Silent Hunger and then as Thin Again. God used this to transform my thinking and to set me on this path.
Hi, everyone. I have to reschedule this week’s chat. Instead of tonight, it will be Saturday at the same time. I will be in the chat room Saturday evening at 5pm Pacific Time, 7pm Central, or 8pm Eastern. I hope you can make it! Sorry for the change–my family and I are all going to Yosemite National Park for the day on Friday.
