by Heidi Bylsma | Aug 31, 2010 | Blog
I am so totally excited! Over the weekend, two matches were made for the first ever “God is Doing a New Thing” Thin Within email accountability partnerships! These ladies will have a chance to go through the study together starting in just a couple of weeks!
If you are solo for this journey, you can be connected if you want, just by emailing me. Or, you don’t need me at all! You can feel free to connect any way you like.
If you DO want to have me pair you up, truthfully, I am not doing anything particularly fancy. If you send me your name, the next person who emails me about it will be your buddy and you hers! Then, I send out the information to both of you, suggesting some things to consider as you begin.
Why not give it a try if you don’t yet have someone to go through the material with? 🙂
by Heidi Bylsma | Jul 4, 2010 | Blog
True confessions time…did you manage to get through Day 5’s “Mirror Mirror” exercise? Did you gloss over it quickly? Or did you go slowly, intentionally, methodically through it? What did you discover, if you did? What have you discovered, if you didn’t do it? 🙂
I hope that God blessed you in whatever he led you to do. If you felt his leading not to do the Mirror Mirror activity in Day 5, ask him to show you when his timing is for you to do it. He intends for us to be healed–completely. Fear is not in his plan for us!
Truthfully, I still haven’t done this activity, even though it is Saturday night as I am writing up this coming week’s assignment.
I have been evaluating why I am so unwilling to do the Mirror Mirror exercise and the only thing I can think of is that I must feel shame for not keeping all my weight off. As much as I spout off about not allowing physical appearances to be what we focus on, as much as I shout from the rooftops that we have to focus on the Lord, when push comes to shove, I still struggle with that longing to be back in the smaller size I lived in for a year.
This tells me that my focus is still on ME ME ME and APPEARANCE APPEARANCE APPEARANCE. I must commit afresh to focusing on him–to continuing my attributes of God list, taking time daily (or more often) to praise Him for his attributes, and writing out gratitudes daily. I know for a fact from experience that these things (combined with a few others which we will get to) are life transforming!
So, will you join me in recommitting to these things? I hope so.
This week’s assignment:
1.) Continue to keep a cumulative list of all the characteristics of God and how he treats people. Share with us here what some of the attributes of God are that are blessing you! It encourages us to hear! I don’t think many of us shared that last week…I don’t recall it if we did. Please post here…I would LOVE to see 5 or 10 of the attributes of God that mean the most to you in comments.
2.) Are you sick of me asking you to please continue to take a few minutes at the beginning of your study time each day to praise the Lord for at least three of the things on your list? Has this been affecting you in any way? I know when I DO this, I seem to start the day in a much more humble place and then I am not so prideful and arrogant about food and other things! When I exalt God to his rightful place, I see myself in the place where I am. It really is amazing that he has chosen to esteem us so very much, isn’t it?
3.) Read and complete Days 6 and 7 – through page 74. And PLEASE!!! If you haven’t been able to keep up with the reading, do NOT worry about it one bit! The cool thing about doing an internet study is that the questions and discussion are here for you whenever you get to it! If it is a week after I post the assignment or a month after…even a year after…no worries! You can still enjoy what God shares with you through the study and post here…someone will comment, even if it is December of 2011! 🙂
4.) I am excited about the material in chapter 6 as I believe it can unlock a lot of the mystery behind eating when we aren’t hungry. Fat machinery or flesh machinery is sort of the concept of eating on auto-pilot. There are a bunch of reasons we may do this. As you study this chapter see what resonates the most for you. You may want to journal about this stuff, too. I am still discovering new flesh machinery that crops up. Well, it isn’t new…it has been there all along and I just didn’t realize it! See what God uncovers for you! This is when the freedom bell really begins to toll!
5.) Ask the Lord about the tools that are introduced in chapter 6. Does he want you to use it or any of the others? The Thin Within food log is different from other food logs. Nevertheless, many of us just can’t yet “go there” or we will find ourselves caught in legalism and the Path of My Performance once again. On the other hand, you may be at a place in your life where God leads you personally to take on a bit of accountability in the form of this food log. Either way, freedom is yours! We are so unique and he leads us uniquely! Praise His Name! Also, keep in mind that he may lead you this way only for a short season. So if you sense his direction to use the TW Food Log, it may be for two weeks or a month. If you don’t sense that freedom, it could also be temporary. He will direct you. 🙂
6.) In Chapter 7 we hit emotional eating on the head. There is an exercise to help you do this. Please feel free to post here what God reveals to you as the week unfolds. On page 69, there is a list of “Reasons We Overeat.” Which can you identify most with?
7.) The Fat Machinery Log offers an opportunity to record ways that you are affected to slip into auto-pilot with your eating. See how many different ways you can identify fat (or flesh) machinery affecting you. Jot it down to refer to later, too. You can make a cumulative list in your journal if you need more room. I still remember how, after practicing the Thin Within principles for a number of years, I discovered that bad weather acted as a fat/flesh machinery for me! When the weather got bad, all kinds of emotions surfaced and I really struggled with the desire to comfort myself with food! That sure surprised me. 🙂
8.) As with any week, please post your thoughts and insights. You never can tell when God will use your words to bolster up a sister or brother in Christ who desperately needs encouragement!
9.) Friday night’s chat was fun as we had a number of people who had never come to a Thin Within chat before and/or those who hadn’t come in years. Why not carve time out to join us? The next real-time chat at the Thin Within website is Monday morning 7-8am Pacific time and Friday we will join together at 10-11am Pacific time. Click here to find out how.
Kim Finley is doing a great job helping to keep on top of approving comments here at the blog. I appreciate her support and help–and wisdom–so much! Please keep checking any updates of our special God is Doing a New Thing website. I have included Kim’s bio here.
Keep on praying for one another! You are precious to my heart and to Jesus! 🙂
by Heidi Bylsma | Jun 2, 2010 | Blog
I have a treat for you all today. I am just sure you will love it–a special guest blogger!
Ron Edmondson is the pastor of Grace Community Church and founder of Mustard Seed Ministry. Ron blogs regularly on leadership, family and church life at http://www.ronedmondson.com.
Ron and his wife, Cheryl, have a heart for Kingdom-building, including in their own home. They have two sons, Jeremy, 21 and Nathaniel, 19 who have both experienced a call to full-time ministry.
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Pick Up Your Mat And Walk
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” John 5:8 NIV
In order to appreciate the value of Jesus’ command, you need to consider the culture of the day. Today, although some may feel we don’t do enough, there are limited opportunities for the physically handicapped to work and lead productive lives. In Christ’s time on earth, the handicapped were outcast. They lived off handouts they could obtain from begging.
In the above instance, the man had been crippled for a long time. Probably the only possessions he had were the clothes on his back and the mat on which he lay. The mat was almost a symbol of the only hope in his life. His existence was one to be pitied. There was no known cure for what ailed him (except Jesus), and even if there had been, he certainly couldn’t have afforded it.
Jesus had sympathy for the man, and with the spoken word, the man was healed. Jesus told him to “Get up!” take his mat and walk. Obviously, this was a gift greater than anything money could have bought.
Whenever I read this verse, this question comes to mind:
What mat am I holding on to today? What mat are you?
This man was holding on to his mat. It had surely become a treasured possession to him. He slept on it, rested on it, and watched the world pass by on it. He couldn’t have imagined facing the day without it. Jesus tells him to pick it up and walk. When Jesus was finished with the man, he didn’t need the mat anymore. It would take faith to trust Jesus and attempt to walk, but the victory was worth it all. Instead of a mat of hope, this man had the hope of Christ!
What would Jesus have you and I pick up today? What are you holding on too tightly as your hope?
Are you drowning in your sorrow, because you refuse to completely trust God? Are you moping about the setbacks of your life, because you have failed to accept His grace? Are you suffering from the sin that has wrecked everything around you, because you won’t submit yourself to accountability? Do you hold back from committing to God because you are afraid He won’t accept you?
Whatever you are holding on to tighter than your faith, I believe Jesus would say, “Pick up your mat and walk!” Trust Him with that in which you currently trust the most. Permit Him to see you through the difficult days of life. Allow Him to carry your burdens, strengthen your walk and brighten your hope for the future.
Jesus wants to help you. Listen for His command to pick up your mat and walk!
What is that one thing you’ve never been able to let go of, but know you need to do so?
by Heidi Bylsma | May 30, 2010 | Blog
I have had you, a reader of my blog, on my heart a lot lately. I wish I could claim it was some noble, godly reason. I suppose, if I really try, I could claim that this is so. But truthfully…I have been ruing the fact that I shot off my mouth and ever claimed “Ok, so I love my thighs.”
It was much easier to claim when the weather was unseasonably overcast and cold. Jeans for normal wear and warm-up pants for tennis or racquetball kept everything hidden.
But yesterday…yesterday…it was 80 degrees and sunny for the first time in a while and we had a date to play tennis with another family.
I tried figuring out how I could justify hiding my legs beneath my warm-up pants. But in 80 degrees, black “warm-up” pants seemed ludicrous. Then, I thought of you. I remembered posting here about loving my thighs. I really hate it when I catch myself not living up to something I have said to you.
So, thinking of you and my desire to be authentic, real, faithful, I donned shorts. Yikes. I have never felt this way about my legs. Oops…that’s right, I still have to keep up the facade…I have to claim I love them, right? Well, nuts…I can’t say that. With an act of my will, maybe, but it sure isn’t easy! I am praying that I will quit being so visual about this and appreciate the service of my legs to the rest of my body. 🙂 Yes, when I focus on the service of my legs, I can be thankful. So I guess that is where I will have to land for now.
Anyhow, I guess in some strange way, I want to thank you for being here–a part of my virtual world. There is some manner of accountability for my words. Which is a good thing. You are a blessing to me in that respect, even in spite of myself.
There is no doubt about it. I am definitely in process. 🙂 Thank you for being with me on this journey.
by Heidi Bylsma | May 17, 2010 | Blog
Summer can be a time of wonderful freedom. Sometimes, though, we may find our freedom erodes to chaos in short order!
There is no need for summer to go from fabulous to frantic. Join me in planning a little bit of structure, to help us maintain godly boundaries as the days get warmer and longer!
Join me and dive in to a study of the Thin Within book here on this blog. This might offer a bit of added incentive and accountability to press on in your quest to give the Lord your eating habits!
I prefer to take a very casual, easy-going pace as I study the Thin Within book this time. Here are the (sort of) specifics:
- A 10-12 week study, but it could go longer depending on other aspects of my life and schedule. 🙂 I anticipate covering about 3 chapters each week. Our mileage may vary. You can go at any pace. The posts will be here whenever you need them! 🙂
- You will want to purchase a fresh copy of Thin Within, by Arthur and Judy Halliday, published by W publishing in 2002 or later. I say “fresh copy,” since many of you may have read it before and filled in the blanks. I am starting fresh and I want to encourage you to do so as well. God is challenging me to break camp and head off, as if for the first time. So, I will do that with a book that is new and not yet written in! I recommend you do the same, but that is up to you!
- You may want to get a journal that you can write in as needed. I will be adding little assignments along the way and you can do them in the journal. Obviously, everything is optional. Make this study whatever YOU want it to be!
- You will want a favorite translation of the bible. I recommend a bible highlighter, too, so you can highlight the verses that stand out to you in the reading we do.
- If you want to hide God’s Word in your heart (an excellent practice), you may want to get index cards for scripture memory.
- We will begin June 14 (I think).
- Finishing, hopefully by August 30.
- There may be an optional “real time” chat mid-week at the Thin Within.org website for those who want to join us for that.
- I will post one or two times a week about what I am seeing in my study of the book. I will post other things like I usually do, too, but only two of the posts each week are likely to be about the study. I will let folks know which days to expect those posts as we get closer to the start of the study. Then, you can respond and connect with one another if you like. If you want to, you can gather friends to join you in a LIVE study of the book. Then you can post here, too. That is up to you. 🙂 FUN!
My Approach:
I will be processing this material in a unique way, as:
1.) …someone who has been through the material many times before, taught classes, spoken to groups, but now needs to start as if from scratch — I want to rekindle my commitment to godly boundaries and focus on the Lord, but I also know that my tendency to compromise has made a difference in my physical size in a way that probably isn’t God’s best for me. I want to see really what he wants for me. Of course, as I have said before, he doesn’t want me thin nearly so much as he wants me to be his. So I will be working on being his in all respects–including with my eating. I need to get to know my body all over again as it has changed, my hunger/satisfied signals have changed. I want to learn what God has for me now.
2.) …someone who took part in writing the Thin Within book and workbooks–I was the collaborator for the Thin Within book (God has such a sense of humor!). It was my job to “get inside” Judy Halliday’s head and bring to the printed page what she had been teaching in her workshops for years. I will gladly field questions from anyone who is studying with us and, if I don’t know the answer, I will ask Judy Halliday directly. Studying from this perspective is unique, though. If you have known this material for years and wonder why you can’t “get it,” trust me, I know what that is like. I began this approach in 1999, but didn’t allow it to change me physically until 2006. Now, I am here again, almost “jaded.” When I began this blog in 2006, I began it with the attitude of “Ok, God, Let’s see if you can take this jaded pilgrim and do something new…” He didn’t disappoint. I am, perhaps, more jaded now…yet I find myself wondering if he won’t do a “new new thing.” 🙂
Since we will start about mid-June, there is time for you to get the book. You can call Thin Within (http://www.thingwithin.ORG) to get a copy of the book (the 2002 or later version) at 877-729-8932 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST Monday through Friday. Joe and Pam Donaldson are quick about shipping out and I think the books cost about $11.00 for a paperback from them. You can order it anywhere you wish, of course–half.com and Amazon Marketplace may have new books for a good price. Be sure to get the 2002 edition or later. The version from 1985 is not from a Christian perspective.
I hope you will join us, starting June 14!
I am having another book giveaway, too. THIS WEEK I will be giving away a Thin Within book. In fact, I think I will give away one each week between now and the time our study starts. 🙂 All you have to do to enter is comment here…and be sure to check back to see if you won. Each time you comment here at the blog (relevant comments only, please), I will write your name (the one you use for your comments) on a slip of paper and put it in a bag. Next Sunday night, I will draw a name and Monday I will post who has won. I will do that for the next four weeks. 🙂
How about you? What will you do to enjoy the freedom of summer without allowing the erosion of your godly boundaries? Will you join us? 🙂
