What can you do when you have been here before…and you have typically caved–eaten outside of your boundaries of hunger and satisfaction? What if you can see it coming? How can you observe and correct? How can you prevent another “failure?”
I just can’t renew my mind too often! I need to wash my mind clean from all kinds of lies and line dry it to have a fresh start by putting PURE truth into it!
Sometimes, an attitude of entitlement or justification taints the way I think about food, eating, and how willing I am to minimize the impact of breaking through the boundaries that God has led me to establish!
My husband just left town for a few days and for as long as we have been married (nearly 30 years), when he is out of town I have some of my biggest challenges with desire eating–wanting to break my boundaries of eating only when hungry and stopping eating when I am no longer hungry. When he leaves, it seems to trigger a mindset of some childhood trauma or something–a sense of abandonment! I know that sounds silly.
Exactly!
If I just let myself feel what I feel about it, or, worse, if I tell myself I am being silly and beat myself up over being such a baby, I invariably end up reaching for food to “comfort” me.
Hosting the bible study by Barb Raveling is SO good for me! This time, I choose to renew my mind right now and each day Bob is gone. This is what it looks like for me to do that:
Lord, Bob is out of town and you know that means I get sort of careless or I abandon all resolve with eating boundaries. I want to inhale food outside of 0 and 5. This time, I will not do that. Instead, I will reach for you as my true Comforter. Food is a counterfeit.
The TRUTH, Lord, is that Bob hasn’t abandoned me. This isn’t my childhood. This is my husband who has always come home to me before, so his track record seems to indicate he will come home this time, too! And no matter what happens–even if he doesn’t, food can’t comfort me like you can.
The TRUTH is that while I was abandoned in many ways as a child, you never abandoned me. You were there all along.
The TRUTH is, Lord, you are with me and will never leave me or forsake me, even if everyone else does!
I know that reaching for food during these days when Bob is gone is not going to satisfy the emptiness that I may feel.
Lord, thank you that I have the freedom to eat any food I desire when I am hungry. The rest of the time, when I am drawn to food, what will really minister to my soul is:
taking a hot bath and letting wonderful Christian music sooth my soul as the hot water soothes my body
All the ice cream in the world won’t make my life better, my marriage more secure, or the trials and insecurities I face go away. I choose you, Lord. I choose your boundary lines.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
– Psalm 16:7
Thank you that I can set my mind not on earthly things, but on things above. What is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. I choose to fix my eyes on the promise that you have an inheritance waiting for me, Lord. The boundaries that you have established for me are pleasant. When I am tempted to break them, I will turn to you. There will be joy in doing so. There will be a deep sense of satisfaction. You will be my Comfort and my Strength.
Amen
How about you? Are you facing a situation that often triggers eating outside of 0 and 5? Will you choose to renew your mind about your circumstances so that you can emerge victorious, capturing this moment for the Lord? 🙂
Hi. Do you have a teen or pre-teen girl living in your home?
I am eager to get the help of some young ladies in developing some ideas for leading a Thin Within group for girls ages 11-17 and their moms or sponsors.
If your teen or pre-teen would like to help, would you please email me? Remove the spaces from this email address and shoot me an email letting me know: t w heidi@ comcast .net
Hi, everyone. The video below may take a while to load. It is a little over 7 minutes long. It is a clip of a friend of mine sharing some thoughts about her body as the temple of God as well as another section on God’s forgiveness. I got permission from Thin Within (and my friend) to share this. Some of the thoughts about the temple may be challenging for some of us to hear, but hang in there–I think it dovetails beautifully with her testimony of God’s forgiveness that follows. I hope you can take the time to view the video. It is powerful. I would love to hear from you about it.
Someone somewhere somehow told FIRST magazine (which I had never heard of before) that I had been using Dance Praise by Digital Praise to assist me in my “dieting” (gagamaggot!) efforts! The truth is, all winter long, I LOVED using Dance Praise, a “game” on the computer that has a mat to plug in to bebop to Christian songs for getting some exercise and also for some praise and worship time! It is a blast. If you haven’t ever seen it before, check it out! It is such a wonderful way to move and worship at the same time. When I am doing “Dance Praise” I don’t really notice time…I just get caught up in the fun and worship. I have found myself face down praising God in the middle of my “workout” time! You can’t beat it! It is SUCH fun to dance around to music by Chris Tomlin, the Newsboys and others.
Since the late spring and summer, however, and with all the outside activities, I haven’t done much Dance Praising. I guess I miss it, though! LOL!
Anyhow, back to the “news”… so FIRST magazine (a secular magazine that you find right next to the tabloids at the grocery store check out stands) is doing an article on using arcade dance games to get rid of weight. Can you believe it? They contacted me, interviewed me and though I crowed all about Thin Within their article IS on dance games…
On FRIDAY (in two days) I am supposed to go to have a PHOTO shoot done! Mind you, I am not a “hair and makeup” kind of gal. I mean, I get up, shower, braid my hair and put a baseball cap on and I am good to go! Truly! So I am not excited about having my face painted and someone messing with my hair. LOL! Ok…what an ingrate… I know, I know…it is probably another form of pride that God wants to demolish…
Anyhow, what I REALLY hope is that SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY they will hear that God is at work changing lives…yes, he uses arcade dance games to give us a lot of fun and fitness, but He also has made our bodies to be reliable for hunger and satisfaction…OOOOOh! I SO hope that this message can come through! If not, maybe they will consider doing an article on non-diet approaches to releasing weight. Wouldn’t that be cool?
So, if you are reading this, could you join me in praying that GOD will be exalted in this article? I mean, if this ends up being all fluff, I will be SO disappointed! I want God to be glorified and to get the word out about Thin Within, too…Wouldn’t that be neat? 🙂
Pray for me to be gracious on Friday, too…and not to cop an attitude. I really hate foo foo stuff. LOL!
Hi, everyone! I have GREAT news! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take time to visit the Thin Within website at http://www.thinwithin.org (the DOT ORG is important!). The Thin Within website now has forums and chat rooms up and RUNNING! WHOO HOO! I am so excited about this change and there are a lot of folks there posting and sharing and encouraging one another! If you are investigating Thin Within for the first time, unsure about it, or if you are a long term “veteran,” PLEASE feel free to visit and join in! Let others know of your interest, experience, questions so that you can be ministered to! God IS doing a new thing! He is moving!
