by Heidi Bylsma | Sep 18, 2013 | Blog
Image Source: iStock Photo
It is more likely for a lion to grow tired and hungry than it is that God will NOT supply me good things! WOW!
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
– Psalm 34:8-10
God is so wonderfully good. I can hide myself in Him. When I fear Him (which just means to have an awesome reverence and respect for Him) I lack nothing I need. What am I really trying to satisfy when I eat when I am not hungry? The mini-powdered sugar donuts are yummy, how many of them do I really need in one sitting? What am I trying to fill up after I am not hungry any more? Is it truly something that mini-powdered sugar donuts can satisfy? I don’t think so and, according to this passage, it is a God sized hole that He alone will fill up.
In Psalm 34: 8, isn’t it interesting that the psalmist used the word, “taste?” At that point when I am looking for something by eating yet more ___(insert tasty morsel of your choosing)_____, why not stop and taste of Him? I start the day with such good intentions and no wonder! I have been in His Word and His love for me and mine for Him are fresh on my heart and mind. Maybe I need to rekindle that throughout the day by prayer, quick meditation on one of my memory verses, a review of my truth cards, or by opening the bible for a moment. As easily as I can rip open a package of cookies, I can open the bible or breathe up a prayer. I can take refuge in Him.
If I truly revere Him and am in awe of Him, I will seek HIM. Whatever it is I am seeking to fill with food I will find more abundantly and truly with HIM.
Lions don’t often grow weak with hunger…they keep hunting and feasting, yet the psalmist indicates that they may grow weak and hungry…what is the “antidote” for weakness and hunger? Seeking the Lord. Not only will my belly be full and strength return, but I will lack no good thing!
Praise Him!
Lord, today I will taste of You and your goodness. I will take refuge in
You instead of in a bag of Reddenbudders popcorn. I will demonstrate my awe
and respect of you in calling on YOU when I struggle. I know what as I seek
you, I will lack nothing that I need. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
by Heidi Bylsma | Sep 5, 2013 | Blog
Today’s post is another snapshot from my truth card deck.
Have you added to your truth cards just how great 0 to 5 eating is yet?
What truths will you add to your truth cards today about the blessings in 0 to 5 eating?
Take some time to review your truth cards today. Ask the Lord to show you if you BELIEVE what is written on them! If not, what will you need to do in order to truly renew your mind and be transformed?
by Heidi Bylsma | Sep 4, 2013 | Blog
Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
– Psalm 66:1-3a
Some of us have been on this journey a while now. It is so easy to be discouraged when we look right in front of us. Sometimes, we miss the forest for the trees we keep ramming!
Today, let’s do some evaluation…some surveying of the road we have traveled. Let’s get to a clearing and have a look back over the land we have traversed!
1. Have you said NO to more food lately than you did previously? For instance, if you were to compare a year or two ago or even a month ago with the past week or two (or three or four), have you overeaten anywhere near the quantities of your “old days?” Have you overeaten nearly so often? Let’s get specific…did you used to “binge” on a full bag of cookies and/or an entire loaf of bread, and/or a half gallon of ice cream…and/or….etc., etc. Compare what you consider as having overeaten now with then. Is the quantity smaller? Has there been progress? While there is likely room for improvement as there is for most of us, note patterns of babystep progress and I bet you will see you have come a long way!
I remember back to Saturday night TV with my husband. There were four shows back-to-back that we looked forward to watching all week. We planned for that binge each week! It consisted of chips with melted cheese all over them….mounds and mounds of cheese (no kidding) and the giant sized bag of Hot Tamales that we got at Costco. That was just for starters! We continued the “salty-sweet-salty-sweet” food frenzy all night long while we watched our shows. God has delivered me from that. I bet there is behavior that you used to engage in that you no longer do! Right? Take a moment to praise God for bringing you out of that, for giving you moments of grace to take steps closer to having a healthy relationship with food.
2. Have you said YES to God more? To obeying his leadership? To spending time in his presence? To allowing him to have his way with you just a bit more? Have you prayed more? Praised more? Given thanks just a bit more?
3. Have you been exposing the lies you believe even just a bit? Have you been rehearsing believing his truth either with truth cards, music, scripture memory or some other means, allowing your mind to be renewed even just a bit more? Are you thinking differently even a little? 🙂
4. Have you been moving your body just a bit more? Again, think back to a year ago or so. Maybe this hasn’t been one of your goals. That’s ok. Prayerfully consider if God would have you move just a bit more. I don’t mean strenuously, but in a way that gives you joy and that can be an expression of worship! If this hasn’t happened yet, see if God might lead you to make gentle plans (that you will hold loosely) to do so. What are the possibilities?
5. Are you exploring the foods that best fuel your body just a bit more? Some foods make you feel energized. Some, depleted or even sick to your stomach. Have you been evaluating which does what? Have you been selecting Whole Body Pleasers a bit more than Taste Bud Teasers? Even just a bit?
Some of these things you may not have made any headway with just yet, but I bet it is because they haven’t been included in your list of things to be intentional about.
If you are going to do an evaluation like this a year from now and come up with answers that delight your heart, what changes—babysteps—will you begin to take now?
Let’s celebrate! You have come a long way, Baby!
by Heidi Bylsma | Sep 2, 2013 | Blog
Have you been tempted to throw in the towel and just say FORGET IT to this entire boundaries/renewing the mind/losing weight/having a healthy relationship with food project?
It is totally normal to feel that way.
This is the 12th and final week of our Renewing the Mind Bible Study and the truth is…it IS hard to stick to your boundaries. If it wasn’t hard to stick to your boundaries, they probably wouldn’t be boundaries. Just think about it for a minute. If you don’t have any temptations to go into a certain store at the mall and spend up your credit card, you don’t need to have a boundary about that store (or the credit card)! If you don’t feel tempted to overeat shrimp scampi, you probably don’t have a boundary to give shrimp scampi a wide berth.
We establish boundaries because we know that we are likely to venture across a line or to welcome outside forces in that would influence us in a way that wouldn’t be best for us.
So, of course it is hard! We are training ourselves which implies that, left to our own devices, we would behave differently than we know we should.
Barb does a great job of exposing a lie that we want to RENEW OUR MINDS ABOUT. That lie is this:
Life should be easy.
Think about it for a minute. Do you have a feeling that you will only follow through if something is fun or easy? If you get tired of working at something, maybe you believe this lie that life should be easy. God never has promised us that life will be easy. In fact, if we read the Scriptures there is much there that speaks to us about being diligent, persevering, hanging in there. If life were meant to be easy, I don’t think these exhortations would be in Scripture!
Monday
1. It’s that time again! Evaluate your feeling about 0 to 5 eating. Has God called you to 0 to 5 eating? Are you convinced in your heart he has? If you have written this commitment in your journal previously, review the dates and entries when you were convinced that this was so. How about now? If you are convinced today, add a statement reflecting that conviction and date it with today’s date.
2. Visit Barb’s blog page on “Losing Weight is Hard.” Read her introductory material.
3. Complete the “Life Should Be Easy” bible study on the same page.
Tuesday
1. Looking at yesterday’s bible study, what are some truths that you can add to your truth cards? Take some time to do this and renew your mind with truth!
2. Visit Barb’s blog page again at the same link. Please remember that Barb isn’t a Thin Within participant and don’t be put off by any “dieting” jargon that you see in her material. Complete her “Dieting is Hard” questions.
3. Are there any additional truths that you can add to your cards? If so, take some time to do so now.
Wednesday
1. Visit this page here at this blog. Take some time to read the introductory material and to watch the video on that page.
2. Can you list some situations that you have been in that are similar to what I describe? What upcoming situations might you face this week that fit this description?
3. What are some truths about situations like these that you can possibly renew your mind with?
Thursday
1. Visit this page again. Complete the “Preventative Eating Questions” on that page. (When asked in the questions about “now”, just insert in your mind a recent experience when you have done this…or if you are currently facing a situation where you are tempted to “preventative eat.”)
2. What are some of the possible solutions that God might want you to consider? Are you willing to use any of his solutions? If not, why not?
3. If you are not willing to use any of God’s solutions right now, please take some time to review your thoughts from Monday, Question #1 where you evaluated your commitment and God’s leading to 0 to 5 eating. Following boundaries IS hard, but if we are unwilling in these moments to do what we can (work!) to do so, when do we really expect to be willing? If we only follow our boundaries when it feels good, how often will we follow them?
Friday
1. Visit the Preventative Eating page again and work through the Fear Bible Study.
2. If fear isn’t something that fuels your preventative eating, how about if you evaluate what IS? Then create a bible study to share with us here so we can all benefit! What other emotions might possibly fuel the desire to eat outside of 0 and 5 in anticipation of not being able to get near food?
3. What truths can you add to your truth cards today? Take a few minutes to add two or three.
What’s Next?
If you made it through this entire study, then you deserve extra KUDOS! We started strong, but many of us got swept away by the fun, freedom, and busyness of summer! In January, I will likely lead a Thin Within workbook study here at the blog. I will do so with a renewing of the mind focus. Start saving your $$ for the workbook packet (about $50 on Amazon) if you don’t own a set. More information to come later this fall, but for now, just know that I will continue to provide support here at the blog (as I have been) with a study launching the first week in January 2014!
Let’s press in to our Lord and not give up!
by Heidi Bylsma | Aug 26, 2013 | Blog
Image Source: iStockPhoto
Do you ever hear yourself saying those words?
Or, maybe if not those words, then these? …
It’s Friday…Time to EAT!
It’s Monday…Time to EAT!
It’s a holiday…Time to EAT!
We’re on vacation…Time to EAT!
Then, have you ever experienced this sequence of events? That once you gave in to eating because it was a holiday, vacation, or weekend, you felt like a failure and it made you want to eat more?
Let’s kick this “left over” from our dieting days TO THE CURB!!!
This week, Week 11 of our Renewing the Mind Bible Study, we will have a look at these motivators for eating outside of physical hunger and satisfaction. We want to continue to scrutinize our thinking, expose the lies, dismantle them, and replace them with truth.
Monday
1. Time to update your “memorial stones” again in your journal. I am asking this question for the umpteenth time, but it bears repeating. Are you convinced…is it a conviction of your heart…that God is calling you to 0 to 5 eating? If the answer is yes, write it down (yes, again!) in your own words in your journal and sign and date it. We are soooo prone to forget our convictions! If you aren’t resolute today, but have been in the past, go back through your journal and find an entry (or two) when you were convinced and wrote it down. Spend time with the Lord, asking him to restore that conviction.
2. Evaluate “Commitment.” The point of a commitment is that we do whatever it is, even when we don’t feel like it. It is the same with “Boundaries.” A boundary is a demarcation that we might stray across if we didn’t have the boundary there to protect us from veering. It is something we know is best for us. So, if you have said in the past that you are “Committed to eating 0 to 5” (or something similar) or that you have a “Boundary of 0 to 5” (or something similar) when you don’t FEEL like living that way is when your commitment or boundary is tested. That is the point of a commitment or boundary! That is when you really see it for what it is. Think about it this way…when you tell your child to wrap up the leftovers after she is done eating and she does it because she thinks it is a great idea so she can enjoy the leftovers again another time, is her submission to your authority really tested? Not really. When she doesn’t see a good reason, or doesn’t agree with you, but does it anyhow, that is when obedience or submission is really seen. Likewise for us. If the only time we are obedient is when we feel like it, if the only time we are committed is when we feel like it, then we aren’t necessarily committed. We may need to spend some time with the Lord on this one, so that is why I am including it as part of today’s assignment.
Tuesday
1. Visit Barb Raveling’s website and complete her study on Holiday or Vacation Eating.
2. The reason we are doing this study now is Labor Day is next Monday here in the United States. As you journal your answers to Barb’s questions, try to be as practical as possible. If you aren’t in the US, then consider strategizing about an upcoming holiday that you will celebrate.
3. Share with us here any strategies you will use next weekend to celebrate.
Wednesday
1. Make a plan for what you will do if you “fall off the horse” during this week or the upcoming holiday weekend or a vacation you have coming up. What can you do to minimize the damage and to get back ON the horse? What plan will you have in place so that you will NOT beat yourself up?
2. Visit Barb Raveling’s study on Failure Eating. Read the introductory paragraphs, Self-Condemnation section, and the section under the subheading, “Does it Have To Take That Long?” Journal any thoughts that you have that are triggered by what Barb shares in these paragraphs. Can you identify with what she has shared?
3. Feel free to click any of her other links and explore the resources she has there.
Thursday
1. Depending on how much time you have, visit Barb’s Failure Eating page again and select one or both of the bible studies she has in her “Bible Study” section to complete.
2. You can also read the article that she refers to. It is encouraging, too.
3. Add any new truths to your truth cards.
4. Share with us here any new insights you glean!
Friday
1. Visit Barb’s Failure Eating page again and complete her Failure Questions.
2. What truths can you add to your truth cards?
3. What is your VERY PRACTICAL plan to be victorious TODAY as the weekend begins?
Summary
Consider vacations and holidays a training opportunity. Many of my coaching clients and bunches of the emails I get mention the concern that weekends are very challenging. Each weekend there is a change in the routine, a change in structure (there may not be ANY structure). We may have attitudes of CELEBRATION!!! Then, when we give in, we beat ourselves up and get caught in continuing to break our boundaries because we are stuck in that old dieting mentality of “I already went off my ‘program,’ so I may as well forget it…” Let’s use THIS WEEKEND (be it a holiday, vacation, or just a normal weekend) to practice rejoicing in the pleasant, wonderful boundaries that God has established for us! If we fall off that horse, let’s get back on QUICKLY and rejoice that his mercies are new each minute!!! NO failure eating! You with me? 🙂
