by Deanna Burris | Jun 6, 2016 | Blog
I heard in another group I belong to something that really struck a chord in me…especially in the area of feelings. They said that God showed them how they had made an altar to their own feelings. Well friends, I felt my heart beat faster and harder in my chest when I heard that statement and I knew that the Holy Spirit wanted me to look at my own life concerning this issue. It was time to pull out my journal and spend some one on one time with the Lord.
As I did just that and thought back over the last few weeks, I saw a pattern that showed why this statement caused such a reaction in me. Friends, I can start my day out great. I’ve spent time with the Lord in prayer…check. I’ve read my Bible and devotion…check. I’ve eaten my breakfast when hungry and at a 0…check. I’ve stopped eating when satisfied…check. Then, it happens and I am off and running into feelings land. A driver cuts me off in traffic. I realize I left my coffee at home. A semi almost runs me down in my car. An unkind word is spoken by a co-worker that I am sure is aimed at me. My boss calls me for a “meeting”. A friend or family member is clearly tired of hearing me gripe and complain. And, it doesn’t stop there. I can also build an altar for someone else’s feelings. Ahem, I believe they call that co-dependency. When someone I am close to (hubby, my children, a close friend) is suffering depression, sadness, anger, hurt feelings, I can jump right in and take on those feelings too and allow them to run me off my own path onto theirs. I know these things are everyday situations we all probably face, but when you are someone like me who has built an altar to their feelings or someone else’s feelings, these things can send me off into the world of I’m not good enough for anyone or anything and I might as well overeat because who cares anyway. And do you want to know where I build my altar? I build it right in the middle of the room where I am holding my own pity party.
There is a great song from the 60’s that goes, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to (I bet if you know it you are singing it in your head right now!).” Somehow, I have made this my anthem but by changing the words to, “It’s my pity party and I’ll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, and cry if I want to. You would cry too if it happened to you!”
Dear readers, I really don’t like going to my own pity parties! I am so grateful that the Lord led me into this community and for the tools we have. It saddens me that I forget to use them! The Observe and Correct tool is perfect for me to use when I catch myself putting on my party clothes. When I observe my behavior, I can usually follow it back to looking down at myself (or at someone else) and feelings of ungratefulness instead of looking up at the Lord and allowing Him to heal those broken places and to tear down those altars to feelings.
If you are a follower of Jesus, then you know that when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we in essence put Him on. When God, our heavenly Father looks at us, He sees Christ and His righteousness. That is what happens at the time we accept His sacrifice for us and accept His forgiveness for our sins. But, along with that, we have a loving Father who wants to change us…our minds, our hearts which in turn changes our actions (and reactions). I want God to change me. I want Him to remove those pity party clothes from my closet. What I have found is that I can’t remove something from my life without replacing it with something else. Without those negative feelings being replaced with something positive, the door to them remains open and they can step right back in. I found the answer to my problem in God’s Word in Colossians 3:12-15. To get rid of those feelings to which I build altars, I need to take off those pity party clothes and put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And, over all these, put on love. These emotions lead to a grateful and thankful heart. This takes prayer and keeping my focus on where it belongs; on Christ Jesus alone.
When I catch myself singing the wrong tune, (It’s my pity party and I’ll cry if I want to) and I feel myself getting ready to put on those pity party clothes, from now on I am choosing instead to observe what is going on in my mind and heart, and choosing to correct my course, back onto the one that the Lord has laid out for me…the path towards healing and becoming more like Him. Colossians 2:7 reminds me to allow my roots to go deeply into Christ Jesus. When I do, my life, my mind, my heart, my strength and my all will be built on Him. Then I will look only to Him and not those feelings and emotions that typically go on in me and around me and I will overflow with thankfulness and gratitude. And that, my friends, leaves no room for altars to feelings or emotions and definitely no room for a pity party!
What about you dear reader? Do you recognize yourself as a member of your own pity party? Let’s tear off those party clothes together, allow the Holy Spirit to tear down those altars to our feelings and emotions, and let’s put on those blessed emotions and feelings as outlined in Colossians 3:12-15. I think they will fit much better for us all…don’t you?
by Deanna Burris | Apr 11, 2016 | Accountability, Blog
Have you ever had your pride come up and slap you in the face? I have. When it happened, I was brought to my knees with a new revelation about God, myself and how my pride caused me to overlook the healing material God put right in front of me.
If you have been reading my blogs, you would have noticed that I speak often about being frustrated and critical. God and I (I think mainly I) have been working on (trying to work on) these negative characteristics that I have. I am really troubled by them (I am afraid they have become quite the bad habit) and I think I am ready to let them go. Does that sound wishy washy? I think it does. See, I have been searching for the answer to finally let these negative feelings go, yet when the Lord put the answer in front of my face, I glossed over it. I think I really believed that I could just fix these issues myself. Let me tell you what I discovered and how my pride kept me from facing the truth.
In the Hunger Within class that I am co-leading, we had read Chapter 7 – The Present not the Past. This is a great chapter that discusses how to let go of the past through facing whatever happened there, letting go of being a victim and a wonderful section on forgiveness. There is also a section on the 5 Stages of Grief. Now, this is the third time I have read through and studied the material in this chapter. Each time until now, I have glossed over the section about grief. In my pride, I decided I didn’t really need to spend time on grief. After all, I had already worked through all the things in my past that I grieved. I had already forgiven those who had hurt me. I was beyond the grief of my past. And that is where I was slapped in the face with my pride. I think the Holy Spirit prodded me to finally take the time to read this section carefully; taking in all the information on the 5 stages of grief and how they impact not only why we eat in a disordered fashion but how they impact all areas of our lives. I also learned that the stages of grief are not always linear, but you can go back and forth between the stages. And then, I was brought up short. I had been wondering where all the frustration and being critical was coming from. 
I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me that my frustration is a form of anger (Stage 2) and my critical attitude is a form of depression (Stage 4). The fact that I never saw this before is because I was in denial (Stage 1) that I even needed this material! Wasn’t I bargaining (Stage 3) when I begged God over a year ago to show me another way to lose weight without dieting and to stop the food obsession? I was grieving over needing another diet. Didn’t I ask Him for a biblical way that brought Him into the equation? Didn’t I make promises to Him? That is bargaining. I may be finding myself going into the 5th Stage of Grief right now. The 5th Stage is Acceptance. I am accepting that grief is a part of daily life and that I was trying to avoid calling my feelings grief, because grief hurts. Grief is raw. Grief causes me to cry and be out of control. Real grief is hard to hide. The Lord opened my eyes to how my pride was keeping me from recognizing that the healing path He has for me involves feeling my grief and taking it to Him. It was time to pay attention to all the material He has laid before me. With my eyes newly opened, I see that I have been wavering back and forth between all 5 Stages of Grief, spending most of my time in Stage 2 and Stage 4. Anger disguised as frustration and depression disguised as being critical. My grave cloth of pride was covering my eyes and it kept me from seeing how much there is to grieve over and work through in my current life. I would say I was saddened by things that were happening, but what was really going on was a deep feeling of grief. And that grief manifested itself in frustration/anger and being critical/depression because I didn’t want to feel the pain. I came face to face once again with being powerless and needing to go to the Source of all power.
The wonderful thing that has happened since He showed me my mistake is that those feelings and behaviors have lessened. I feel that the grave clothes labeled frustration and critical are being removed. I am able to see what was lying underneath and my real feelings have been brought into the Lord’s healing light. There is a reason why the Hunger Within material brings healing to so many, and just as I don’t pick and choose the parts of the Bible that I like (because it is truth in its entirety), God has shown me that I can’t pick and choose the parts I like in the Hunger Within text. Don’t we often find that the things we say we don’t need or don’t have an issue with are the absolute things we need to look at? He is still teaching me, and I am humbled by His truth.
What about you? Is there an area of your own life that you are choosing not to look at? I pray that the Lord opens your eyes for a fresh vision just as He has opened mine.
by Becky Young | Dec 15, 2015 | Accountability, Inspiration
We just got hit with a massive snowstorm here in Colorado! I awoke to 10 inches of snow on the ground and another 2 inches have fallen in the last 3 hours alone. It didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon, so I headed out to shovel our driveway and sidewalk. After 45 minutes of shoveling a foot of heavy snow, giant snow banks had formed on either side of my driveway. I had to lift my arms higher and higher to dump a new shovelful of snow.
After a while, I noticed a phenomenon happening. Each time I brought a shovelful of snow and dumped it on top of the ever-growing snowbanks, a little ball of snow would fall from the top of the mound. It would roll and roll, growing bigger and bigger, until it got all the way back to my driveway. Before I knew it, my driveway was full of these snowballs and I had to work even harder to shovel them out of the way. It was so exhausting and discouraging!
It got me thinking about how we often have snowballs in our Thin Within journey as well. Unchecked sin, guilt, or disobedient actions that grow and grow until we are so discouraged we can barely move. I affectionately call this the “Snowball Effect.”
Can you relate to the scenario below?
You begin the day with the best of intentions. You read your Thin Within material, pray, renew your mind in God’s Word in the morning and set out to eat from 0-5 all day. At lunch, you have a few bites too many. “Uh-oh….dang it! Why’d I do that?! I wasn’t even thinking or paying attention to my meal!” The next thing you know it’s 2pm and those chocolate truffles on the counter are calling your name. “Well, I’m not at a 0, but I guess a few truffles can’t hurt…” By the time dinner happens, a seed of frustration has begun blossoming in your thoughts and emotions. “Why did I eat those truffles? Now I’m not even hungry for dinner but my whole family is ready to eat. I’ve already blown it today, I guess I’ll just eat dinner even though I’m not hungry. Heck, maybe I’ll even have a second helping.” After dinner, the frustration, guilt, shame and condemnation ramp up even more. “I can’t believe I messed up today so badly! What is my problem? Why can’t I do this thing? I’ll never be able to lose weight. Today has been such a disaster. I guess I’ll finish off those truffles.“
Do you see how a few bites too many at lunch suddenly lead to eating an entire box of truffles + dinner + a second helpings outside of 0-5 boundaries? How the heck did that even happen?
Guilt and shame are powerful. If left in our hearts and minds too long, they fester. They distort our thinking and make us do things we never intended to do. I often think of King David in this cycle. A lustful glance at Bathsheba suddenly turned into a giant snowball of sin that lead to adultery and murder. I’m sure David, a man after God’s own heart, never would have guessed he was capable of such things.
We too allow unchecked guilt, shame and condemnation dictate our future actions. In the scenario above, a few extra bites of food at lunch produced a healthy response of “uh-oh!” However, allowing that “uh-oh!” to slowly morph into major guilt and shame which then dictated the rest of the day’s eating is not what we’re after. This type of pattern can snowball into an entire day, week or month of eating beyond what we know our bodies are truly calling for. It’s a discouraging cycle to be in. But it need not last for long! There is hope! There is a different response we can choose.
There are two very powerful ways to melt the snowball:
1) Confess & Repent
2) Observe & Correct
Confession and Repentance are powerful. After we are sinful or disobedient, we have the freedom to go straight to the throne of God and get it off our chest before our guilt pushes into further disobedience. In the scenario above, if we had immediately gone to God and confessed that we broke our boundaries at lunch, we could have immediately received His loving grace which would have prevented the cycle of guilt and condemnation to push us into further disobedience as the day went on. That snowball of guilt and shame wouldn’t have had the time to build any momentum. Hebrews 10:22 assures us that we are washed clean, ready to begin again with a refreshed perspective, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Proverbs 28:13 says “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” There is no need to hang on to your sin or dwell on how you messed up! Bring it to God, allow His grace and forgiveness to wash over you, brush yourself off and keep pressing on! God never demands perfection from us. He knows we will all mess up even with the best of intentions. But confessing those moments and repenting of our sinful actions allow us to continue on in persistence without the shame or guilt nipping at our heels.
I personally LOVE how the Observation and Correction tool in Thin Within complements Confession and Repentance so well. After we have gone to God and received His loving grace, we have the opportunity to Observe and Correct. Simply take a look at your behavior, thoughts or emotions that contributed to your initial “mess-up” and observe what was going on. Refuse to beat yourself up over it. Refuse to rehash it over and over and over. Refuse to condemn yourself. Simply observe what happened objectively. Make note of what was going on in your circumstances or what emotions were at play.
After we Observe, it’s important to apply a Correction. Proverbs 24:2 says “I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw.” Exactly! It is vital to apply a lesson from what we observe. It is not enough to just observe. If we just observe and observe and observe, the only thing that will happen is a heightened awareness of our flaws which can potentially lead to further guilt or shame. Observing “I was greedy at lunch and wanted a second helping” or “I felt obligated to eat the piece of pie Aunt Kay offered” is great! Then it is crucial to follow it up with an appropriate Correction like “next time I can thank Aunt Kay and ask her if I can take the pie home with me”. Often I will ask myself this question: “If I was in the exact same scenario tomorrow, what can I do differently to alter the outcome?” It’s so important to give ourself this opportunity to think through how we might change our thoughts or actions so that we can be better prepared next time!
Let’s not forget that there is transformative power to be found in God’s grace. We have access to it anytime we need. Guilt and shame need not fester and snowball out of control! His mercy can melt a snowball of sin, guilt or condemnation in 2 seconds flat. A heart that Confesses, Repents, Observes and Corrects is a heart that is primed for victory!
How about you? Can you relate to a mounting cycle of shame/sin/guilt/condemnation? Do you have a growing snowball in your Thin Within journey that needs a little melting? Do you regularly confess, repent, observe and correct when you have broken a boundary? Don’t let these “common” practices grow dull in your walk with Christ or your Thin Within journey!
by Becky Young | Mar 24, 2014 | Inspiration
I don’t know about you, but Thin Within has been immensely powerful in my life. Through this journey, I have found freedom and power, forgiveness and grace, the ability to demolish strongholds and the conviction to pursue obedience. Virtually every aspect of my walk with Jesus has deepened and has been strengthened. My Thin Within journey is sacred ground to me and I aim to protect it!
I think that often when God is up to something really big in our lives, when He is doing a NEW thing in us… Satan is also up to something. Satan is up to setting traps for us to fall into, manufacturing lies to whisper to us, creating scenarios that distract us and doing everything in his power to try and halt the progress. He will stop at almost nothing to try and get us off the path to victory.
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1Peter 5:8
Notice that Peter doesn’t say the devil just dabbles around at trying to interfere or that he halfheartedly is looking to distract you every now and then. Nope. He is looking to devour us. To destroy our progress, to throw us back in bondage and to keep us from doing God’s will (2Tim 2:26). He is prowling around like a lion, looking for every opportunity he can to ensnare us and drag us back into a pit of bondage.
If you don’t know it yet, I have news for you: Satan doesn’t want you to experience victory in Thin Within. Because if you did, you might just continue to grow closer with Jesus and you might just find freedom and deliverance. And so, the devil will try every way he knows how to keep you from staying on the course God has set before you.
Ever wonder why you find yourself sliding back into old patterns or habits? Ever wonder why days go by where you just couldn’t seem to remember to pray or spend time reading your Bible? Ever wonder why you just keep finding yourself unconsciously eating in front of the TV and before you know it, you’re at a 7? Ever wonder why it’s so hard to shake distraction and just focus on Thin Within principles? Ever have a rotten day where everything went wrong and the only thing that seemed to help was coming home and binge eating your way through pizza and M&Ms? Ever feel tempted to just quit this whole 0-5 thing?
The devil is in all of that.
The devil is the author of all lies and deceit. He is the father of distraction, discouragement, self- sabotage, unhealthy patterns and bondage to sin. There is a method to his madness. And he’s not going to let up.
But the good news is that Jesus isn’t going to let up either! “Greater is He who is in you and he who is in the world.” 1John 4:4 We have nothing to fear!
We can combat the the devil because we have the power of the blood of Jesus Christ on our side. We are equipped to fight against the rulers of the darkness and to take on the spiritual armor of God so that we may stand against the devil and the “powers of this dark world” (Eph 6:12). The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace of the Gospel, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) are all available to us! Christ is victorious in the end- He will crush the devil under our feet (Romans 16:30)! In Ephesians 6:18, just after he talks about these dark forces at work against us, Paul tells us to pray in the Spirit at all times and to constantly be alert and persistent in our prayers.
And so my question is this…..are you taking the time and effort to diligently combat the work of the enemy in your life and your Thin Within journey? Are you praying against his traps, lies, tricks, distractions and schemes against you? Are you calling on the power of the Holy Spirit to fight with you and to equip you for battle? Are you living your life as if you’re in the midst of a great cosmic battle or are you just ho-humming your way from one day to the next? Are you ok with sitting passively on the sidelines as the enemy threatens to suck you back into bondage?
Believe me, I am the last person who is going to give the devil more credit than he is due. I am not ever willing to attribute more power to him than he deserves. I will never live my life in fear of him. But, I do know that he is real and that he really wants to see me fail as he wraps the chains of bondage around me again. And the only way to defeat him is through diligent prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some of you may have picked up on the fact that Thin Within has been a part of my life for 11 years. In 3 of those years I walked in victory. In 7 of those years I was stuck in bondage, unable to break free no matter how hard I tried. And for the past 9 months I have found my path back into victory (thank you Jesus!!!!). I firmly believe that for the 7 years that I remained a slave to food and obsessive thoughts about weight/diets/body image/ eating etc., I was blinded from the fact that satan had chains wrapped around my legs.
One of the things that has helped me break free in the last 9 months has been bravely engaging in spiritual warfare. I pray against it every single day. Every day. It’s not something I just do when I feel him closing in. I am not reactive in my fight, I am proactive! There’s not a day that goes by where I’m not on guard and fighting hand to hand combat. It sounds scary, but it’s not…I promise. 🙂 It’s actually pretty simple, but incredibly powerful. I just pray something along the lines of:
“Lord Jesus, I ask for your protection over my heart, mind and body today as I resist the devil and his attempts to drag me back into bondage today. In your name Lord Jesus, I proclaim that I have power through the Holy Spirit to defeat strongholds and traps, lies and temptation. Thank you for the armor of God and I ask that you would empower me to wear it as I go out today and demolish everything that satan tries to put in my way. Go with me today and keep me alert as I fight for this journey with you Lord. In Christ’s name, Amen.”
And occasionally, I will quote Scripture at the devil. I do this especially when I can sense he is tempting me or trying to throw an obstacle in my way. I’ll let him know what his future is (hint: Jesus wins!) and I will let him know that I’m not giving in easily. If he wants to try and invade this sacred ground the Lord and I have cultivated through Thin Within, he is going to have to fight me for is because I will not give up easily!
If you’ve stuck with me through reading such a long blog post, my hope and desire is that your eyes will be opened to the power the lies in spiritual warfare. The Lord always fights on our behalf, but we too must keep our eyes open and remain vigilant to fighting this battle. As the enemy puts pressure on us, we can press further into our God.
How about you? Are you aware of the spiritual battles in your Thin Within journey? Can you sniff out satan’s attempts to halt your forward momentum and throw you off track? Are you ready to put on your armor? Are you willing to stand firm in Jesus as you fight together?
by Becky Young | Mar 21, 2014 | Inspiration
{source}
Thin Within has been a part of my life for the better part of eleven years now. I’ve had many ups and many downs. Each time I have started Thin Within, I have envisioned an “End.” Whether it’s a certain number I see on the scale, a size that I wear, or even just a place where I finally don’t always think about food and weight. There has always been a finish line in sight. A point that I hoped to reach where I could say “I finished! I did it!”, close my Thin Within book and I walk off into the sunset.
But, if you have spent the last 12 years entrenched in disordered thinking, believing and eating, you can’t always expect to be “cured” in 12 weeks. Real change is something that happens over time as God teaches us the beauty of obedience, boundaries, forgiveness and submission as He gently leads us on a path of wholeness.
Is our God a mighty Healer who can heal us from our sin and struggles with eating with just the snap of His fingers? Yes, absolutely! But is He maybe more interested in our healing process than the end result? Is He maybe more interested in our learning about surrender, confession, obeying boundaries and dying to ourself than He is in us releasing 20 pounds? Quite possibly.
I firmly believe that God uses Thin Within as a tool for sanctification in our lives. Sanctification is the process of being made more like Christ (1Thess 5:23). And guess what? Sanctification is not always pretty or easy. And it doesn’t always happen overnight, just like how we don’t always “get” Thin Within overnight or release 20 pounds in 12 weeks. But this refining process is for our benefit! If we’ll just stay on the journey long enough, we’ll see that God is using our challenges a means to equip us for lasting change and victory. If we will relinquish our finish line, we will invite Him to take the time He needs to change our hearts and minds forever. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have lasting change that takes a while to take hold of, than lose 20 pounds quickly only to regain them again next year.
I’m slowly learning that for me, there is no finish line when it comes to Thin Within because Thin Within has been weaved into God’s sanctifying work in my heart. And sanctification is a lifelong journey. I am in this thing for the long haul.
This is not a diet or a quick fix. It’s a way of life. Something that will likely be with me until I am old and gray. I can almost picture my 95-year old self saying no to a second helping of JELL-O at the local nursing home because I’ve already reached my 5. 🙂
So if you’re feeling tired and worn down or if you’re discouraged how long it is taking to “get” Thin Within, take heart! This is a lifelong journey my friends. God is using your struggles to help you become more like Jesus through His sanctifying work. Often times God uses our moments of discouragement and despair to usher us into a place of freedom and growth. We have our whole lives ahead of us as we invite God to change our hearts, renew our minds and transform our bodies. Not having a finish line or and end in sight frees our hearts up to enjoy the journey a little more.
How about you? Do you see Thin Within as something you’ll stick with for the long haul? Will you remain committed to allowing God to use this as a tool of sanctification in your life? Will you push past the tough times and see this journey through? Will you relinquish your finish line?
As I did just that and thought back over the last few weeks, I saw a pattern that showed why this statement caused such a reaction in me. Friends, I can start my day out great. I’ve spent time with the Lord in prayer…check. I’ve read my Bible and devotion…check. I’ve eaten my breakfast when hungry and at a 0…check. I’ve stopped eating when satisfied…check. Then, it happens and I am off and running into feelings land. A driver cuts me off in traffic. I realize I left my coffee at home. A semi almost runs me down in my car. An unkind word is spoken by a co-worker that I am sure is aimed at me. My boss calls me for a “meeting”. A friend or family member is clearly tired of hearing me gripe and complain. And, it doesn’t stop there. I can also build an altar for someone else’s feelings. Ahem, I believe they call that co-dependency. When someone I am close to (hubby, my children, a close friend) is suffering depression, sadness, anger, hurt feelings, I can jump right in and take on those feelings too and allow them to run me off my own path onto theirs. I know these things are everyday situations we all probably face, but when you are someone like me who has built an altar to their feelings or someone else’s feelings, these things can send me off into the world of I’m not good enough for anyone or anything and I might as well overeat because who cares anyway. And do you want to know where I build my altar? I build it right in the middle of the room where I am holding my own pity party.
If you are a follower of Jesus, then you know that when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we in essence put Him on. When God, our heavenly Father looks at us, He sees Christ and His righteousness. That is what happens at the time we accept His sacrifice for us and accept His forgiveness for our sins. But, along with that, we have a loving Father who wants to change us…our minds, our hearts which in turn changes our actions (and reactions). I want God to change me. I want Him to remove those pity party clothes from my closet. What I have found is that I can’t remove something from my life without replacing it with something else. Without those negative feelings being replaced with something positive, the door to them remains open and they can step right back in. I found the answer to my problem in God’s Word in Colossians 3:12-15. To get rid of those feelings to which I build altars, I need to take off those pity party clothes and put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And, over all these, put on love. These emotions lead to a grateful and thankful heart. This takes prayer and keeping my focus on where it belongs; on Christ Jesus alone.
When I catch myself singing the wrong tune, (It’s my pity party and I’ll cry if I want to) and I feel myself getting ready to put on those pity party clothes, from now on I am choosing instead to observe what is going on in my mind and heart, and choosing to correct my course, back onto the one that the Lord has laid out for me…the path towards healing and becoming more like Him. Colossians 2:7 reminds me to allow my roots to go deeply into Christ Jesus. When I do, my life, my mind, my heart, my strength and my all will be built on Him. Then I will look only to Him and not those feelings and emotions that typically go on in me and around me and I will overflow with thankfulness and gratitude. And that, my friends, leaves no room for altars to feelings or emotions and definitely no room for a pity party!
