Week 1 – Renewing of the Mind – Thin Within Support

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Welcome to WEEK ONE of our summer study on Renewing of the Mind! If you are on the Thin Within journey, this study will support and strengthen you. I am so excited because this summer will be the summer you realize your godly goals. If you do the work in the assignments shared here –many of which will refer you to Barb Raveling’s blog, you will experience the transformation by the renewing of your mind that God speaks of in Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy,

to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 

holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, 

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—

his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Our transformation doesn’t happen merely by changing the outside of our bodies…how we appear. We all have done diets before and know how to lose weight. What we want, though, is permanent change, that isn’t dependent on an approach that causes us to be so obsessed! You know what I am talking about, I bet…where the scale, food, eating, clothing sizes has your mind in a flurry–ALL THE TIME!  Don’t you just want food and size to be a *non*-issue? We are called to freedom! It’s possible! Let’s experience it. To do that, though, we have to be willing to train our minds. That’s all there is to it. Dieting is easier, to be honest. Training ourselves to think differently is tough work.

In this video, I give you my reasons for making this summer a time to study, learn and do this Renewing of the Mind. I mean, we just DID this study here at the blog, right? So why on *earth* am I revisiting it? Why should someone who hasn’t done this study do this one instead of something else? Why should Thin Within participants do this “non-Thin Within” study? (Barb Raveling’s material is awesome, but she is not a Thin Within participant and prefers another approach for maintaining her healthy size–in spite of my bantering with her about it! LOL!)

Have a look at this video:

We will begin to evaluate what our focus on thin is doing to us. (You can take a moment to journal about this, if you like.) Is it  serving our godly goals? Is hopping on the scale so many times in a day something that draws us closer to God? Are we growing in trust and dependence on God when we have a death grip on food and scrutinize every single nutrition label? Are we condemning ourselves more than we are walking in the wonderful freedom that Christ paid for with his precious blood?  Can we be free from our emotions and thoughts causing us to eat? What if we release our grip on the food? Will that just send us into clothes that are 4 sizes larger than what we are currently wearing? What do you believe? Journal about this.

This summer, we will evaluate  thoughts we have that control our actions. What we think about (especially again and again) affects what we believe. What we believe affects our actions. What actions will result in the transformation we hope for? What actions are needed to experience the transformation GOD hopes for in our lives?

This is the heart of this study, but it will have some VERY practical applications. You will experience great breakthroughs!

In all my years of supporting people in the Thin Within program, I have never seen the large numbers of people having breakthroughs as I have since using Barb’s Renewing of the Mind material to supplement other Thin Within material. I hope you will give this the next three months and really give it a try and see.

To understand a bit about what this summer’s study will be about, please stop here and read this post at Barb’s blog. It is an easy read and explains what we are up to this summer.

In her post, Barb encourages us to look at Ephesians 4:17-24. I have linked it here for you. I would suggest you study this passage, answering a few questions, perhaps. You can do this in your new “Renewing of the Mind” journal if you like. Here is a bible study from this passage that you can use if you like:

1.) From your experience, what describes the way the “Gentiles” (unbelievers, world) live?

2.) What is “futile” about the way the world thinks?

3.) Have you struggled at all with thinking the way the world does–in futility? What examples can you think of relative to your journey with food, eating, size?

4.) As Christians, we don’t have to be concerned about being separated from the life of God since Christ paid the price for us to have access to God, but we can nevertheless remain in darkness in the way we think. We can do this habitually and harden our hearts to God’s voice. Have you struggled with this in your life at all? How so?

5.) In what ways have you experienced less sensitivity to the Lord and given yourself over at times to indulge in impurity with a constant lust for more? The obvious answer may have to do with overeating, but can a quest to be thin also be thought of in a similar light? How so?

6.) What are some practical things that you can do to “put off the former way of life” and the “old self?” (see verses 22)

7.) Do you see any ways that your former way of life was corrupted by deceitful desires? How so?

8.) Spend some time journaling about the promise of verses 23 and 24. How does it sound to you to experience the following:

  • to be made new in the attitude of your mind?
  • to put on your new self created to be like God in TRUE righteousness and holiness?

9.) Journal a prayer to God about your desire to no longer think like you have in the past, but to think differently during the course of our study this summer…to be trained for the rest of your life!

10.) Sit with your journal open for a few minutes. Ask God to impress HIS thoughts upon you…what is HE speaking over you right now? Jot it down. (Share it with us here if you like!)

Here is the recorded version of our online class that we held during the week this class originally ran:

These posts have been edited for those of you going through later than our 2013 class. So, you can go at your own pace. The way this was originally intended was for a posting each Monday. Then, the participants (you!) could spread doing the assignment out over the week or do it all in one sitting. Even if you are later in doing the study, you can still comment here at the blog. Some have subscribed to the comments and may respond if you have a question or need support.

Assignment:

1.) Write down what you believe about food, about yourself, about emotions, about your ability to be your natural, God-given size, and anything else that you might want to deal with. Skipping lines as you write in your journal will give you room for the rest of the activity.

2.) Interrogate what you wrote down with truth…use the Philippians 4:8 test… Is the thought TRUE, noble, good, pure, excellent, praiseworthy, etc?

3.) Prayerfully ask God to help you to recognize lies in what you have written down. Reject them. Simply, cross them out. Replace those lies with God’s view of the situation by writing the TRUTH down next to the crossed-out lies.

An example would be I will never be able to get this weight off.

or

I have to be thin in order to ever be happy.

The truth is, these are lies. I hope that thin will be put in it’s place–that we will begin to think God’s thoughts about thin and size and weight. What are GOD’s thoughts about these beliefs? We can do all things through Christ!

4.) Recognize little “t” truths that you magnify or give a lot of time and attention to. An example of a “little t” truth might be I have such a hard time losing weight and keeping it off. This may, in fact, be true. How much mental energy do you give this thought? Is it owning you? Are you condemning yourself for this? Is it a truth that has any right affecting your mood, your thoughts, your actions? How much are you “magnifying” it? Are you making it bigger than God? Would magnifying the Lord make a difference?

5.) Write down Truth – Big “T” Truth – from God’s Word to replace any of the lies that you are now choosing to reject or that trumps any of the little “t” truths. An example of a Big T truth that trumps the little t truth of I have a hard time keeping weight off might be:

God is doing a new thing

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me 

God has begun a good work in me and he will complete it.

Even better if we begin to realize: Being thin isn’t as important to God as I have made it out to be. Really…what are God’s thoughts about this?

For this summer’s study, you will want to have a journal, a translation of the bible you like, and a spiral bound set of index cards. You can purchase the cards this way. More on that during this week’s online class.

6.) If you can either join us for the class on Wednesday by registering here, or watch the recorded version of it–you need to sign up for that, too.

7.) If you don’t have an accountability partner yet, prayerfully consider getting one.

I hope you are taking captive any thoughts that say “I can’t do this much work!” or “This won’t work for me!” or “I don’t get it!” and submit these thoughts to Christ in obedience. Instead, ask God what HIS thoughts are about this study, this work, this hope for you for this summer. Replace the lies or “little ‘t’ truths” with HIS thoughts–his “BIG ‘T ‘Truths!”

HEAL Group Session 6

DSC_5856

Humpback Whales

In March, my husband and I went whale watching in Monterey Bay. We “only” saw two whales. But the show these two Humpback Whales put on for us was ASTOUNDING! They came under our boat, spy-hopped right next to us, waved their pectoral fins right in front of us, launched themselves out of the water and really seemed to be having a competition…I could just imagine the first one saying “Watch this…” Then doing his “trick” and saying to his friend, “See if you can beat *that*!” The second one would then copy cat the first.

These two whales supplied us with and ABUNDANCE of whale antics, joy, amazement and filled me with the wonder of my God who created these marvelous creatures! Who would have thought that we could return from a whale watching tour having “only” seen two whales, but literally having cataloged every single whale behavior known to man above the surface of the water. It was incredible! Abundance…for sure.

To really experience the abundant life that God intends, of course, we have to believe what God says is true. The incredible display that my husband and I saw that day doesn’t even begin to touch the incredible stuff that God does in our lives. The “common grace” of day to day life–just even as basic as our beating heart (have you ever thought about that?) is mysterious, wonderful, and glorifies our great God.

I didn’t say we need to believe in God, though we certainly do that, but…it may surprise you to know that believing in God isn’t enough to experience the abundant life–the satisfying, full, life that Jesus came to earth to see us experience.

We simply have to believe God.

What does he say that we have to believe?

First and foremost, we have to believe what he says in Romans 3:23, that we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. We have to believe what God says in his Word in Romans 6:23–that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. This means that the wages of my sin–of your sin–is death. We have to believe what God says in Romans 5:8 when he intervenes and says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” You see, apart from embracing the truth that God says about Jesus and about yourself, there really is no way to experience the abundant life. It is all just smoke and mirrors apart from the sacrifice Jesus made for you.

So, before we go any further, I hope you will be sure that you have identified that you agree with God that, left on your own, you wouldn’t deserve heaven. That God, being kind and loving has provided a Savior to go in your place to pay the price that righteous holy God requires. Be sure that you know that Jesus paid the price for you–he bought you–he ransomed you–so that you would never be forsaken by God or have to be separated from him and so you could HAVE the abundant life we have studied this week!

Apart from embracing these truths, there is not only no abundant life on this planet, but there is no heaven. Please be sure this is settled for you today if you haven’t done so previously! Here is a link to a presentation of the 4 Spiritual Laws if you want a thorough, but clear understanding of these truths.

This week’s “Group Session” video is here:

God’s Word–the Bible–is Truth. What it says is reliable. So often we balk at the passage in Psalm 139 that says I am fearfully and wonderfully made. We just can’t let ourselves accept that. Here is a file that, perhaps, can convince you that God isn’t kidding. He thinks you are an amazing work of His creative genius. Download this file and have a look at it…Read what it says out loud each day and see if you don’t experience a transformation! Click here: Who I Am In Christ 02

Psalm 139 tells us that we are precious in God’s eyes as his wonderful masterpiece.

At the same time, we are encouraged in verses 23 and 24 to remember that we are the creation and he is the Creator. He wants us to invite him to search us and know us and tell us what needs adjusting. It is vital that we be willing to welcome him into our eating and body image issues. He is the one who knows what we need and what will enable our bodies to be at their best. He alone knows what our “natural God-given size” even is! We want to trust him to feed us in our proper time and to show us what a “0” really feels like for us and when we are at a “5.” We want to invite him to tell us when we are acting out of greed or trying to deceive ourselves and when we can celebrate even the smallest of victories! He is doing a new thing and wants us to sing and shout about it!

In order for us to really invite him to search us and know us like the Psalm demonstrates, we want to learn to be still in his presence.

I don’t mean a “quiet time.” If you are anything like me, your “quiet times” can be quite BUSY. Not quiet at all. I mean, where you just sit in his presence with no agenda. Just waiting on Him. If you have acknowledged him as your Savior (see above), then He says that His Holy Spirit is present living within you. He is present with you even if you don’t “feel” him.

It is high time we cease from letting our feelings dictate what we believe is fact. Our feelings are soooo impacted by our struggles with our weight and eating and that just shouldn’t be the case when you consider all that God has offered to us! The truth is God is present with us PERIOD. Isn’t it time that we let FACTS (as GOD defines them) dictate our feelings, instead? We have WONDERFUL news! The “Who I Am in Christ” list is incredibly great news! So is the gift of salvation! So is the fact that God is present with us wanting to guide and direct us! Let’s let these truths saturate us with the joy that Jesus says is ours. He says HIS joy can be IN us! This IS the abundant life (at least in part).

This ABUNDANT LIFE that our God offers us is distinctly different from the life that the world offers us. So, in the comments, we are going to create a sort of cumulative list (in the book, this activity is on page 103).

What is the LIFE that the WORLD offers us? What words or phrases describe this WORLDLY LIFE? Please respond in the comments, using magazine reference or other advertising references or just your own good observation skills!

What is the ABUNDANT LIFE that the LORD offers us? What words or phrases describe this ABUNDANT life? Please respond in the comments using a bible dictionary or concordance to flesh out the meaning of “Abundant Life.” 

I am leaving an example of the format you can use to respond.

Then, come back later on …today, later in the weekend, or next week and read out loud all of the words and phrases that people have used to describe first “LIFE the WORLD offers” and then “ABUNDANT LIFE that GOD offers.” When you do that part, then please respond to this:

How does your soul feel when you speak the words and phrases out loud that describe the LIFE the WORLD offers?

How does your soul feel when you speak the words and phrases out loud that describe the ABUNDANT LIFE that God offers?

Finally, YES! We WILL be having a study start on Monday! More on that tomorrow!

Accountability Ideas and Resources

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Many of you are taking the plunge with accountability partnership! I know it is a bold brave step! I applaud you! Thank you for stepping up and believing God for the NEW thing that he is doing!

Today, I want to provide some resources for you and your partner.

Here are some previous posts on Accountability here at the blog.

  • How to pick an accountability partner. This post goes through some considerations you might want to ponder as you select a partner. If you already have a partner, this post isn’t likely to be terribly helpful. 🙂
  • This post shares a glimpse into how accountability can work for you as I share how it worked for me with my partner.
  • A post and form that I tried with my accountability partner a number of years ago. Click here to go to this post.

You and your accountability partner will want to discuss what works best for you each. What works best for one of you might not for the other, but you could still be successful partners together. For instance, there are some tools at the Thin Within website that some of you can use and benefit from. Some of these, might cause the rest of us to go right back into “dieting mode.” I have experienced both extremes during my own journey, but I share these tools with you now in case they can be supportive to some of you:

  • Food_Log – While different from the usual “diet” food log, it can, nevertheless, trigger dieting behavior, so only consider using this after praying and sensing God’s leadership. Then, perhaps, try it only for a week (or less) and evaluate with the support of your AP (accountability partner).
  • Hunger_Graph – This link shows two pages. The first is a sample page of how the graph looks when filled out. The second page is the blank one. Again, only use this if you think God is leading you to try it. It can be a temporary tool that can help us focus, but it can also challenge some of us with dieting triggers!
  • Observation and Correction– Each time you practice the Key to Conscious Eating, you make a special mark on the screen indicating as much. 🙂 At the end of the day, if you don’t see many marks next to that key, then you know it is likely to be a key you want to work on. Some people use #1 and #8 as their primary boundary (0 and 5 eating) with #s 2-7 being secondary boundaries. It can be best to focus on only one or two of the secondary boundaries at a time.

No matter what you have decided about accountability, you probably want to be structured with your partner to talk about these things each week:

1. What successes have we experienced in our Thin Within journeys? (There should be something here each week. If there isn’t, please email me for input. It could be your partnership isn’t functioning quite the way it is intended and a little input can help.)

2. What successes have we experienced in our accountability partnership? (Hopefully, you are seeing some of these within the first week. These things might include “Our schedules are compatible,” “We both like to text a lot and that is working for us,” “My partner likes to text and that works for me, but she can also talk on the phone every 3 days which is my preference.”)

3. What challenges or hurdles have we experienced in our Thin Within journeys?

4. What observations and corrections have we made?

5. Each of you will want to ask your partner: How can I best serve you in our partnership in the week ahead? If a partner needs more support, if a partner needs less, talk about these things and see if you can reach a happy medium.

Evaluate these things with a simple “Is this working for me?” approach:

  • Number of check-ins – does one of you feel like it isn’t frequent enough? Too frequent?
  • Nature of check-ins – does it feel like the emails are too long? Too short? No response?
  • “Venue” for check in – is the texting, phone calling, emailing approach work for you? Or do you need

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

– Galatians 6:2

Do you have an AP yet? If not, don’t wait any longer! Jump on board. Let’s have an updated response here on this post. If you still need an Accountability Partner, say so HERE on this post, ok? Then, please type out your email address like this: heidi bylsma at gmail dot com (no spaces) or harleys heidi at comcast dot net (no spaces). Then, if you see someone who intrigues you, go ahead and send them an email. No need to wait for me!

Encouragement from YOU!

Doc and Heidi Rebuild Trust

Doc and Heidi Rebuild Trust

I get so much encouragement from you all. Sometimes, you encourage me in your texts or emails. Sometimes in your comments here. I want to share some of these tidbits of encouragement with anyone who comes to the blog.

Last week, Michelle posted a comment that bears highlighting.

When faced with an “opportunity” to eat something–anything–when you are not hungry, but especially when a sudden “surprise goody” is made available, ask yourself this:

“If I eat that, then what?”

Will I only eat one (whatever it is)? Or will that send me down the path of eating even more? What will the rest of the day look like if I continue that way?

What if I were to, instead, invite God into this moment? Could it be an opportunity to grow in my intimacy with him?

Thanks, Michelle!

Adriane created another Sound Cloud file that I must share with you!

We have to hang in there. We *can* do this. We *can* train ourselves in godliness. Adriane points this out beautifully!

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/93526121″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

What do you need to do today to “get back on that horse?”

Commit! Like a Marriage!

I am soooooo excited! I can hardly STAND it! I have something to share with you! (WITH permission, too, I must add!) OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!!!

I have had the pleasure of coaching a wonderful lady…named Adriane Sims. She is just a doll! You will love her, too.

Like all of us, she has struggled, but this lady is a fighter. I watch her and I think of the passage in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;

perplexed, but not in despair;

persecuted, but not abandoned; 

struck down, but not destroyed. 

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, 

so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

One day this past week, Adriane was really, really discouraged, like many of us. At first I thought “Oh, no! She is going to throw in the towel!” Do you know what? This precious lady got back on the horse. Not only did she get back on the horse, but now she is leading the CHARGE! Here is a sound file that she created for us. I am so excited to share it with you!

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/92368398″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

If you want to read it, here is a file that has her commitment in it. Adriane – My Commitment to God

How about you? Will you make a commitment to God that even when you slip it will NOT spell disaster? That you will keep on keeping on? What if you were to read Adriane’s (or a similar one YOU write!) commitment to God each day once, twice, or maybe three times? Would it make a difference?

THANK YOU, Adriane!