Week 06 – Assignment Thin Within Book

by Heidi Bylsma | Jul 18, 2010 | Blog

This week will require more reading than previously, as we will be reading chapters 10, 11, and 12 in the Thin Within book.

This week’s assignment:

1.) Check in! Post here at some point this week and give us a status update! You are being prayed for and about and even if you feel like you aren’t getting the “food thing” together, God IS at work! He IS doing a new thing. You may not see it, but can you believe him for it? 🙂

2.) Continue your list of God’s attributes.

3.) Take time each day to praise God for some of the attributes on your list. This is an act of faith. Even if you haven’t experienced him in the way His Word says He IS, you can, in faith say, “God I know your Word says you are the HEALER. I anticipate that you are MY healer, that you ARE healing ME! Show me this in my life, Lord! Thank you that, by faith, I can know it is true! I choose to walk in that truth today!“

4.) What are some things you have added to your gratitude journal lately? Why not take time for a Praise-Fest of your own and go back over all of them at once as a prayer to God? Do this out loud when you can do so without feeling embarrassed and overheard! LOL! Or maybe that would be a GOOD thing! 🙂 Keep on adding things to your gratitude journal.

5.) Read and complete Days 10, 11, and 12 – through page 130. Be sure to be prayerful as you go, give yourself the time to finish all the material without rushing. If you *do* feel like you need to linger longer with a concept, give yourself grace to do so! Nothing about our schedule is cold and fast. 🙂

6.) Chapter 10 opens with this question: “Today, will you choose to ‘press on’ rather than spend time reliving your defeats, or even your successes? Today, will you choose to continue to allow God to renew, restore, refresh, and remake you? He brings glorious wonder from what we think are defeats.” What is your answer to this? It might be good to write this question down in your journal (or copy and paste it) each day and answer it. 🙂

7.) Chapter 10 speaks about failure. As you read this material, prayerfully consider if you agree with it. Continue to jot down anything you are reminded about the attributes of God.

8.) At the bottom of page 101, there are some questions to ask yourself. Try this and let us know how it impacts you!

9.) Continue to add to your “Fat Machinery Log.” Did God reveal anything new during the past week?

10.)  Chapter 11 begins to focus us on developing discernment. Please keep in mind that this doesn’t mean we leave freedom behind! Not at all! Freedom remains the foundation! Can you identify with the attitude behind the statement “This is my body and I can do with it what I please” ? How so? What is God calling you to do, say, think, feel?

11. ) Complete the activity on page 113. Did God reveal anything to you about the lies you have been believing? (This reminds me of our discussion about truth journaling…have you been doing that? If not, how about giving it a try? If so, can you post and let us know how it is going?)

12.) Chapter 12 evaluates further the lies we believe and the value of replacing lies with truth. It is very easy along the path of God’s provision to hop back on to the path of my performance. It usually begins with a subtle lie or shading of the truth. This chapter encourages us to really evaluate our thinking and to be circumspect so as not to allow ourselves to become focused again on our performance. We do this in two ways, typically: 1. We are proud of how well we are doing and want the world to see our new body and how great it looks in the next size down. or 2. We are ashamed of how poorly we are doing and want to quit altogether. The truth is, whether we are releasing weight or not, God is doing a work in our hearts and we want to keep submitting to that process! Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness.

13.) Turn to page 125-127 and read this list out loud. Even better if you can stand in front of a mirror and  read it as if you were giving a speech to someone (yourself!). The statements here come from Scripture. Do you believe them? Ask God to help you to trade the lies you have been believing for his truth. The challenges we face with weight, food, self-loathing are truly a battle of the mind. What will we choose to believe? We will live out of our beliefs.

14.) Join us at one of our chats this week! Or visit a different venue to offer encouragement to others. (You can find them all at our God Is Doing a New Thing website).

God IS doing a new thing! He IS! 🙂

The Blessing of Grace – Observation and Correction

by Heidi Bylsma | Jun 16, 2010 | Blog

The sun is waking the world. Nestled in your armchair, bible open in your lap, God’s presence is palpable. You truly sense him delighting over you with singing just as scripture says in Zephaniah 3:17. What a treat to begin the day this way! The Word speaks to you afresh.

You launch into a new day, filled with great intentions and anticipation. You purpose resolutely to glorify God with your eating and drinking today, in response to the exhortation issued in 1 Corinthians 10:31.

As the day continues, however, the fire in your heart, kindled in the early hour spent sitting at the feet of your Savior, cools. 

By mid-day, all your great intentions have fallen by the wayside. You hadn’t even realized you were eating. “How could this have happened?” A pass through the breakroom at work at 1pm (or the kitchen at home before picking the kids up from school) and your “failure” seemed sealed.

The voice of condemnation follows you around like a familiar companion, taunting you with lies that seem so believable. You have been here many times before. Discouraged, the accusations of the Enemy come thick and fast: “You will never change.” “You are destined to always overeat.” “You thought you could change…HA!” “So much for a ‘New Thing!'”

How did this happen?

And, more importantly, what do you do now?

Many of us have the self-condemnation routine down pretty well. Now it is time to BUCK that system!

At moments like this, rather than be taken captive by runaway thoughts, we must take these thoughts captive and subject them to the scrutiny of Scripture. We reject the temptation to allow our feelings–or even our own experience–to determine fact. Truth is defined by our great and marvelous Savior, Jesus Christ. It is not, nor will it ever be, determined by our feelings or experience. Truth is truth. We want to renew our mind in it.

So, even if you have eaten past a 5 for the 100th time in a row, or even if you haven’t waited for hunger again, no matter what it is, let’s allow this to be a stepping stone out of a pit of despair instead of one more brick blockading our progress forward.

In Thin Within, we are taught a biblical application of confession and repentance. Thin Within refers to this as the Observation and Correction tool. Whether you have the Thin Within book or not, are studying with us or not, you can try this, too!

Any time I have made a choice that isn’t in line with my godly goals or God’s will for me, I dispassionately step out of the picture for a moment and observe. Prayerfully ask God to help you to see things apart from emotion. (Even if I am SO disappointed again that I haven’t lived according to my intentions…let’s not go there. Set that aside!)

I imagine my actions of the previous hour or day displayed on a TV screen as if it was someone else’s life and evaluate: “What actions led to the action that I now regret?” It might be mindlessly wandering into the break room or the tiredness I felt mid-day and not having a plan prepared for dealing with it. It might be having had one more conflict with the neighbor next door over my dog barking and the agitation I felt in response to that. Simply observe the events that led up to the experience of overeating. This is the observation part of the Observation and Correction tool.

Observation is done best when, as you do it, you speak to God about what you discover. The bible calls this confession. You are agreeing with God about the facts of what happened. There need not be a lot of fanfare. It may break your heart, certainly, but right now, try to look at the facts. We tend to emotionally charge things or to somehow think that true change happens when we cry more tears over the thing we wish we hadn’t done. This may not be the case.

In fact, often, we stop there. We confess to God and then we proceed to knock ourselves over the head repeatedly for not being different. We may work ourselves into tears over it, but here is the thing–we stop short of making godly correction–plans for what to do differently next time–which is what repentance really is! Repentance is changing our behavior.

So, rather than begin the downward spiral of beating yourself up, let’s take this a step further. Prayerfully ask the Lord to show you what you can do differently in the future so that you are mindful and willing to respond to your body’s satisfied signals. As you have considered what led to your overeating, now replay the tape in your mind inserting a different set of choices. What will you do differently next time?

It might be to choose not to enter the breakroom at work (where a bounteous supply of snack foods are always set out on the counter) after lunch is over. Or you might plan next time to go to bed an hour earlier so that you aren’t as likely to have weakened resolve by mid-day. You might plan to take 15 minutes to pray for your neighbor immediately after the next altercation and establish a boundary that you won’t walk through the kitchen for any purpose between the hours of 1 and 4.

The key here is to make a plan to change. Scripture refers to this as repentance. Repentance is not feeling bad about my sin. It is planning to change. It is fully intending to be different with a plan for this change in mind.

This is appropriating God’s grace! His grace is intended to be a moment-by-moment provision for my need including my response to sin or disappointment. As I observe my behavior dispassionately and refrain from the habit of indulging myself in self-deprecation, as I move past this place to making godly correction, I rest in God’s grace and experience it afresh. I ask him for strength to help me to act on the changes and then I “break camp and move on.” He doesn’t want me camping at this place where I feel like a failure. He called me to cast off such labels.

How about you? Think about the last time you didn’t live according to your godly goal of eating between 0 and 5–what led up to the behavior? What corrections can you plan for the future so that you do something different? Will you? 🙂

Who Are You Going to Listen To?

by Heidi Bylsma | Jun 11, 2010 | Blog

Some internet “appointments” are every bit as divinely inspired as “real life” ones. So, when I ended up at http://got2havefaith.wordpress.com a few days ago, I knew God had directed me there. I instantly thought of all of you and knew I had to ask blogger, Jeri Stunkard, about sharing her post with you all.

Jeri describes herself this way:

I am a mother to 2 beautiful daughters (ages 8 and 3) and wife for almost 14 years. I am an Ozark country girl living in the big city of Denver, Colorado…a hillbilly in the city. When I am not playing taxi driver, entertainment coordinator or top chef to my family I am working full-time as a graphic designer. I love to read (mostly biographies), travel, and document my families adventures through digiscrapbooking. I document my life, which is an ever changing journey in faith, love and the spirit that guides me.

 I pray that this post from Jeri blesses you as much as it does me! Be sure to visit her blog.

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Who Are You Going to Listen To? © Jeri Stunkard

According to Him…I am beautiful, unique & perfect whether I wear as size 20 or size 2, I was created by a master artist (the same artist who created everything in this world), happiness isn’t found in a can of Slimfast or a bottle of Xenadrin; it’s found in His grace.

According to them…My face has wrinkles, my hips are too wide & I have stretch marks, I should nip it, tuck it, plump it, lift it, lipo it, and/or fill it to obtain your idea of beauty.

According to Him…He is more concerned about the beauty in my heart & spirit rather than my body, He took special care to create me…so handle His creation with care, He wants me to be unique, original, myself and to be real.

According to them…My body is a sexual object, it can be used to sell anything from clothes, to cars, to coffee, to shampoo, my breasts are for your sexual enjoyment and fantasies therefore, you don’t want to see me feeding may baby in public with them, even if that is what they were created for!

Today little girls as young as 7 are on diets… Today young girls are “sexing it up” to sell their pop albums… Today young women never feel good enough in their own skin because they are trying to live up to the perfect airbrushed images on the cover of a magazine…

Today I want my daughters to know that they are perfect just the way they are…they are who they were meant to be.

Trying to be something we are not is telling Him that He didn’t do a good job creating us to begin with. In the end His opinion is the only one that matters. Girls, you are beautiful & bright & strong, no matter what “they” say. Because He says so. In the end I would rather my girls listen to Him rather than them. I wish I had been listening a long time ago.
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What can you to today to affirm that you believe God, that you have been formed by His loving hands? How can you cooperate with his desire to renew your mind and your thinking so that you no longer believe what the voices of magazines and advertisers tell you, but embrace, instead, what your loving Heavenly Father says is true?
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Don’t forget! We have one more book giveaway. Win a copy of the Thin Within book. Post a comment here and your name will be entered in the random drawing. Winner will be chosen Sunday night, June 13th.

Be sure to join us for our Thin Within book study beginning June 14th!

I Am Second

by Heidi Bylsma | Jun 9, 2010 | Blog

This little girl is wise beyond her years. What she shares in this video is really at the root of so much. I hope you enjoy!

How would having faith like Bailee change you, your eating, your living, your view of yourself, your view of God? What can you do today to allow God to renew your mind and transform your thinking?

Ok, so “I LOVE MY THIGHS!”

by Heidi Bylsma | May 21, 2010 | Blog

I have a friend with thin thighs…she is in a wheelchair and can’t walk. :-/

My thighs aren’t thin, but I am blessed to be able to walk and run and leap.

I love my thighs.

I can’t get the little girl in the video I shared yesterday out of my head. (I do wonder where that little girl is today, nine years later, and if she still stands strong in affirming so many things about life and herself or if she has fallen prey to the joy stealers in life like so many of us do.)

The little girl really got me thinking about affirmations. Does it honor God for me to say “I like my thighs,” “I like my hips,” “I like my arms…” etc? Or is it, like my teenager suggests, lying? That is a good question, but yesterday, as I played tennis with my daughter, I found myself wanting to emulate the young girl in the video. I said it out loud to “try it on.” Chasing down tennis balls, I declared with boldness (after looking around to be sure no one was likely to hear me): “I like my thighs!” and you know what? In that moment, I really did! Saying so, really seemed like a huge step of victory for me! Without my thighs and legs and knees, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy playing tennis or any number of other things out there. No, I may not like the way my thighs look, but I know that the function of my thighs is worth far more than appearance and I think my wheelchair-bound friend would agree.

A couple of days ago, even before I shared the video with you all, I posted something at the Thin Within forums (found at http://www.thinwithin.org/forums) in response to someone lamenting that they don’t like the way her body looks. Since I have had so many changes in my own body, I responded:

I understand frustration with physical appearance. I used to think in my arrogance (I am ashamed to say) that people that blamed menopause for any number of things didn’t want to “own it”…but now I see that there are some legitimate things that come with menopause.

In my case, I lost 100 pounds using principles of Thin Within. I finally was a “success story.” Kept it off relatively effortlessly (though with fear, I must admit) for a year…and then started gaining some back. I threw out the scale a year ago. I have no idea how much weight I gained before I stopped gaining and, for me, it all connected with the timing of “The Change.” I started going through “The Change” of life when the weight came on and I stopped gaining when “The Change” was over.

Now my size has stabilized again and I feel like I am eating like I used to back when I was smaller, but it is sustaining a bigger size. (Please note, I know that I have not been “stellar” in obeying the Lord’s voice in my eating as well. )

So a couple of things are different for me… my “natural God-given” size may be different than I thought…and my shape is different…and…well, I look at my body now and I carry weight where I didn’t carry weight before…my thighs. I mean…disproportionately, it seems. Even at 250 pounds, I don’t remember my thighs ever looking like they do now.

But I can still walk, run, leap and play.

God is helping me work through a disdain for my body all over again…something that I thought I was past in 2006.

I have been pregnant three times and carried two babies to term. I have nursed them. I have climbed mountains, ridden horses, worked to build fences, played in the snow with my kids, run around tennis courts, stood to sing praises to God, bowed low to worship my God, held, hugged, laughed and cried. I have stroked away a child’s tears, I have loved my wonderful husband. I have worked to exhaustion and played until I could drop…My hands have strummed my guitar as my voice has led God’s people in worship. My hands have held rags that have wiped faces and my feet have carried me a million places…my body serves me well. It has for 48 years and it will continue to do so.

Goodness, my body is an amazing creation! The size, the shape, the lumpiness, of it really doesn’t seem nearly so significant. When I feel disdain for my body’s appearance, I realize that I am stuck in the mindset of the world and I now beg God to renew my mind so that I can have changes in my thinking.

I love my thighs…


How about you? Can you take time right now, in faith, to affirm your body, knowing that God has given each part of your body to you as a gift? Let’s ask Him to help us renew our minds and to truly delight in the amazing creation–our body–that he has entrusted to us!

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