Week 05 - Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty

If you have been joining us for our study of the Thin Within book by Arthur and Judy Halliday, this week's tentative assignment is to read through Days (chapters) 10, 11, and 12.

At this point (or on day 11), there is a slight shift. There are three phases of Thin Within. If you want to know more about that, you can view (or really listen to) the video below...I made it some time ago and it is LONG...and the video quality is HORRIBLE!



During the first 10 chapters or days of the Thin Within material, the "first phase" is sort of what is the framework of the material. In days or chapters 11-20, "phase two" takes us out of just enjoying our new-found freedom to eat whatever we want between godly parameters into using godly discernment. You will see what I mean as we continue on. Freedom is wonderful and we don't leave that behind, but we begin to see that freedom brings with it a wonderful privilege of responsibility. If we want to feel our best so that we can operate the way God intends in this life, we want to begin to pay attention to, and heed, other signals that our bodies give us regarding foods and beverages. Again, there are no "diet rules," as that would be counterproductive. Instead, we are now free NOT to have to eat something sweet each time we are hungry (for instance). We begin to develop a sense that there is more to this than "Yippee! No more diet foods!"

This isn't just about the physical either. Please don't think we change the focus now on to our bodies. We will need the Lord's guidance more than ever.

In days or chapters 21-30, "phase three" is established.

Let me get this out there though...just because the book may teach "phases," doesn't mean we all live in phases nicely and neatly, going from phase 1, to phase 2 in 10 days (or 4 weeks) and onward into the "mastery" phase. Nothing could be further from the truth!

In my long term experience with this material :-), I have found that I go in and out of these phases...and, truthfully, "mastery" (phase three) is something I may experience for only minutes at a time so far. I know that dwelling there is yet ahead for me.

So, that said, please just enjoy knowing that there is much yet ahead!

In chapter 10 you will be encouraged that when you fail, it doesn't mean you *are* a failure. What we DO doesn't define who we are. God is the only one who that theory applies to. He calls himself "I AM" in scripture because what he does is a perfect reflection of his character! I love chapter 10 and find it tremendously encouraging! I hope you do, too.

Chapter 11 and 12 will continue to lay vital foundation for us in this journey.

Please continue to add to your list about God's attributes and the way he interacts with you, His child. Take time to praise and thank God for 5 of these each day (or more if you want!).

I think my struggles lately have been accentuated because I haven't been taking the time to do this. Truly, I have found when I make praise and gratitude a way of life, it changes everything for me. I have to start practicing what I am preaching!

Vacation Bible School is happening this week at my school and my kids and I are working at it (my kids are teenagers). I have NO idea if I will actually get through all three chapters or not this week, but that is my goal!

Road Kill - The Day After

This video is just a follow up, rambling a bit about where I am today and what I know Jesus is calling me to do.

Chapter 9 - Feel Like Road Kill? :-/

Have you ever felt like roadkill? I don't mean the kind where you can tell what kind of unfortunate animal stepped in the way of a speeding motorist, but the kind that has been on the road for days and that now is nothing but a flattened mass of gray fur barely discernible on the asphalt?

That is me this morning.

Yesterday was, perhaps, the roughest day I have had in forever. And today has begun with a continuation of yesterday's drama because I can't seem to let go. Replaying conversations again and again between myself and someone I care about...it is just serving to make me miserable.

Sadly, today is my daughter's 15th birthday. I really must get over myself and not ruin her day. I can't even give myself the luxury of processing the situation that has put me in this frame of mind.

Today, nothing is left, no one is home. I am spent. I am left scratching my mangled head (and heart) about why God seemed to have led me to do something if it was going to result in such overwhelming sadness for me and for another. Why did I feel *confidently* that he wanted me to leap into oncoming traffic if I was only going to be taken out? I thought (arrogantly, perhaps) that he was using me to run a rescue of sorts. Even as I type this, I feel a sense of "Woe is me...I am such a victim!" Good grief.

This morning, God met me in my grief. I could barely lift my eyes to look toward him. But HIS beauty is what this is about...HIS face, HIS life in me, HIS will, HIS love, HIS plan...and I must do faithfully that to which He calls and, as one wise friend recently stated, leave the response of anyone else to Him. I can grieve that she felt more led to roll over the top of me than to stop and pause and ask God what His plan in this experience was. But now it is time to peel myself off the pavement...or allow God to lift my eyes Heavenward.

What, after all, have I been crowing about here on the blog for the past few weeks?

As I opened my book to chapter 9, I was amazed yet again by God's timing...that today, of all days, I would read these words--words I have read so many times before. Living a charmed life has some drawbacks. When I have an experience like yesterday, I feel totally unprepared, out of my element, absolutely uncertain what to do and how to move forward. So, in my previous readings of this chapter, it is fair to say, I have never been in quite the place that I was this morning.

I highlighted almost all of page 87, in fact. I want to share the words written there. I feel like the fact that God brought these words to my eyes and heart this morning shows his incredibly loving, sovereign, omniscient character:

...our current suffering isn't the only truth upon which to focus. It isn't even the primary truth. What our sovereign God has purposed in Heaven is more real than what we can see. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We can rest assured that no suffering is wasted when it is placed in God's hands. No single heart aches that His doesn't ache all the more. The Scriptures teach that the Lord has a record of all our tears (Psalm 56:8). We know that Jesus wept with Mary and Martha....We know that one day our Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Revelation 7:17).

God uses each and every tear we have shed and every pain we have experienced to form and mold our character, to strengthen us, and to draw us closer to His heart. He wants us to experience His strength and sufficiency. He uses our affliction to cause us to see our need for Him and our struggles with food, eating, and our bodies to send us to Him, to look for His solution. In our weakness, He is made strong. He uses even this personal battle you are experiencing and He will redeem it for His glory. (Thin Within, pages 87-88)

As you might well imagine, reading this and the following pages, encouraged my heart so very much. I felt like God was personally in the midst of my trial--He is!

I must admit, however, that in my tiredness and being overwhelmed emotionally, yesterday, I reverted to old coping mechanisms. Perhaps not to the extreme that I did in the past, but my heart was hardened and I wanted to no longer feel pain...to numb myself. I ate outside of godly parameters and drank Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi outside of godly parameters as well. :-/ I ignored the call of my Savior in these things.

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
-Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)

The NASB renders this verse "He waits on High to have compassion on you..."

Why do I keep him waiting to show me compassion?

This morning Jesus no longer had to wait. :-) He met me in the quietness of my private time with him. What a gentle, loving, kind Shepherd.

At the bottom of page 89, I am asked directly, "Are you currently in the midst of a challenge or trial?" Well, yes...I am. Then, the book admonishes "Ask the Lord to reveal His purposes for allowing this trial..." Ok...so I wait. If nothing else, I am reminded yet again of how desperately needy I am for HIM. Apart from Him, I am lost.

Chapter 8 - What Weapon Are you Wielding?

I have been struck by some thoughts about the incident at the Mount of Olives...when Jesus is with his disciples and a contingent of soldiers and, apparently, some others, comes for Jesus. Judas hands Jesus over. A number of Jesus' followers are, apparently, carrying swords.

I have been thinking about Peter's act--his intentions, his motivation, and his misguided notion that a sword was the answer to the problem...and the video below offers some of my thoughts on the subject.

I was reminded in my quick overview of chapter 8 in Thin Within this morning, that this is so like our situation...we have been given weapons with which to fight. But they aren't the weapons that make "worldly sense."

What makes sense...the quick fixes of focusing on the food, bathroom scales and so on...these things don't really solve the deeper issue and can, in fact, make things so much worse. Just as they did for Peter:

For though we live in the world,
we do not wage war as the world does.
The weapons we fight with
are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

The weapons we are called to fight with are not the weapons of this world! They won't be those of worldly wisdom and what "science" seems to offer! Our weapons have DIVINE power to DEMOLISH strongholds!

Which would you rather, my friend? Hack off an ear? Or DEMOLISH strongholds in your life? :-)

I know my answer.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
- 2 Corinthians 4:18

Chapter 7 Part 2 God is Faithful!

Emotions are so powerful. So often, emotions that affect me are triggered by a lot of things--and not always in the here and now. I have found it helpful to get to the root of what is going on...looking at my behavior...the emotions that seem to be behind it and then evaluating.. "Why am I responding with this emotion?" Sometimes, it isn't even rooted in reality!

For instance, there are a lot of things happening at my church these days. I am very involved and so this affects me deeply. Many people I love a great deal have left and even our pastor is leaving by the end of July. I have found myself responding with a broad variety of emotions...VERY extreme, at times. From absolute overwhelming sadness, to extreme anger...at people, at leadership, at GOD! And I have had a million other emotions, too!

As I analyzed this, I began to realize that some of what was happening inside of me (and subsequently affecting my outward behavior) was rooted in wounds of my past. My extreme emotional reaction that made me want to head for the hills and not look back was because of all kinds of wounds of the past that had not yet really healed. God helped to dismantle my reactions and has begun to work his healing...so that I can do "present time" living--responding now to what is really happening now.

All of this influences my eating--my coping mechanisms of all kinds--whatever I do not to feel so intensely.

I would love to know what the Lord showed you, if you did the emotional eating exercise on pages 68 and 69 in chapter 7 of Thin Within.

God definitely revealed some things to me in my reading and I am so thankful for His faithfulness to do so. For me, for instance, I don't have a tendency to eat too much when I am emotional or tired--not like in the past. What I seem to have now, is a tendency to want to drink certain drinks that have been challenges for me to keep in moderation in my life, like Diet Cherry Pepsi or something like that. It seems now I have to watch myself when I am overly tired or feeling frustrated, angry, or emotionally disconnected from my husband (he travels a lot)...I don't tend to sit down with a half gallon of ice cream or a tub of cookie dough as I did in the past, but I will want to "sneak" a favorite drink that I have to keep in moderation in my life...

It isn't so much the *what* that concerns me as the attitude of "sneaking" and "I deserve this!"

Yikes! So the Lord has shown me that yes there IS work to do! :-) How about for you?

Did you read the reasons we overeat? Which of these can you relate to?

I would love to know if anyone here tries the suggestions made at the bottom of page 71 to put signs on the fridge or cupboard that says, "Am I really hungry?" or "Do I want to bury my feelings by eating when I'm not hungry?" or "Do I really want to be my natural God-given size?"

Let us know if it helps you to run to the Lord instead!

As you become more aware of your fat machinery, it really will dismantle a bunch of the reasons you may turn to food for reasons other than physiological hunger.

I hope you keep spending time praising God for his attributes and the way he interacts with you, his precious child!

Week 04 - Assignment...One Foot in Front of the Other!

I am running this morning to do stuff in preparation for Vacation Bible School next week. But I did want to give you the "official tentative" assignment! LOL!

For this week...between now and Sunday June 28th, I will be focusing on the rest of Chapter 7, chapter 8, and chapter 9.

Please continue to keep your list of God's character and how the authors assert he relates to humans. Again, EVEN BETTER if you add to it from your reading in God's Word! :-)

If your list is getting really long now, and I hope it is, each day pick 5 of the things you have written to meditate on (focus your heart and mind on) and to pray a prayer of praise and thanks to God for what that particular thing on your list means to you and how you feel about that. Sometimes, when I am scattered in my thoughts as I pray, I will journal my prayers. Writing them out helps me to focus so much better most of the time!

Hangeth Thou In There! :-)

Chapter 7 Part 1 - Challenge the lies that are your foundation!

• God's grace is abundant.
• God's forgiveness is forever freeing.
• God's love is never-ending.
• God created me to glorify him--to make Him known--to reflect to the world how awesome and wonderful He is!
• Nothing is beyond His restorative touch. (Praise you, Lord!)
• The Lord will meet me.
• He will encourage me.
• God's gentle guiding hands will strengthen me.
• He is with me.
• He will provide comfort, strength, and help.
• He will uphold me as I press on and as I work through the exercises in the book, too!

How many of these things that are asserted by the authors of Thin Within do I actually believe? If I don't believe them is it because they are inconsistent with God's Word? Or is it because of something else? Do my actions reflect that I believe them if I say I believe them?

What I believe about God and how he relates to me is truly foundational. If I don't believe the truth about him, then I approach life and this study with faulty assumptions. These faulty assumptions will undergird my responses to everything--to trials that come my way, to people, to things I struggle with, to God--and these faulty assumptions will continue to affect whether I go to God and trust Him, or if I trust something tangible like food more.

In effect, I will be building on lies...a faulty foundation!

This is why I have been harping on creating your list of God's attributes and how he relates to you...and challenging you to please take time not only to create this list, but to take 5 of these things on your list (or more) each day (or each time you are tempted to eat when not hungry!) and to praise God for them! If you continue to do this, you will be replacing faulty assumptions, lies, with the truth...and this will be that upon which you build! You can't go wrong if you do this.

As circuitous a route as this may seem to get to where you want to be physically, I can promise you that God will use this to transform you! Inside and out! And that the change won't be temporary...it will be permanent. It will also affect any and all strongholds you may have in your life! God will blessedly invade your life!

So here are some thoughts that go with the focus of this chapter...

• Have you been committing (or trying) to focus on other things until your body says it is physically hungry?
• What emotions, thoughts, feelings, have surfaced as you have? (Most people find themselves getting a bit irritated or even angry.)
• What have you done with these thoughts or feelings?
• How has God been meeting you?

When I eat when I am not hungry, there may be some faulty assumptions underlying my rebellious attitude or other feelings or actions. For instance:

ACTION: Eating when I am not hungry.
FEELING: I want it. I am anxious. I want to eat. There will be a "release" in it for me.
UNDERLYING ASSUMPTION: God can't or won't be sufficient. Taking my agitation (or whatever emotion it is) to Him in prayer is a waste. I am not even willing to try.

Let's break this down a bit further...WHY am I not willing to try? Because I don't believe he cares about this issue or will show up. He ultimately doesn't care and I don't trust him.

OUCH! The more I trace what is at the heart of my eating outside of 0 to 5 parameters, the more I notice...it sure seems like it can be traced, ultimately, to a root of distrust...to a foundation of lies about the Lord and His character and a lack of belief that what He says about Himself in His Word and about me in His Word is true.

Bible Study
Please look at this passage of scripture by clicking on this link. (It should open in a new window.)

Deuteronomy 1: 26-32 is an intriguing passage.

• In verses 26 and 27, what were the actions and attitudes of the Israelites?
• In verse 27, what was an underlying assumption that the Israelites had about how God felt about them?
• What did this underlying belief cause them to assume about God's purposes for them in verse 27?
• In verses 29-31, Moses refutes the lies that the Israelites believe with the truth. List the things he included when he challenged the false beliefs and assumptions.
• What imagery does Moses use in verse 31? Describe what you imagine as you consider a father with his child...
• Do you believe God is tender like this with you? If not, it might explain your rebellion, just as the lies the Israelites believed explained theirs!
  

THIS is why I will continue to encourage, exhort and harp on the idea that we MUST keep a list of God's attributes--of truth--and truth about how he relates to each of us! It will cause our rebellion, ultimately, to melt away...as we ask God to help us to believe these things...he WILL. As we begin to believe the truth about who God is, as we allow HIM to fill our vision, be our focus, our desires, frustrations, emotions will have less and less hold on our lives! Just as darkness cannot contain the light, lies can't contain the truth. Truth sheds light abroad in us and the lies that have been undergirding our paradigms will fade like night fades at dawn.

Practically Speaking
When you are faced with a behavior that you know isn't appropriate, take some time to journal the following (suggested in The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee):

1. Journal a description of the situation. Describe it as dispassionately as you can.
2. Emotions: What emotions are you feeling in response to this situation.
3. Ungodly Actions: What ungodly actions have you taken or are you tempted to take?
4. False Beliefs: What do these ungodly actions indicate about what you believe? Do you believe that the hot fudge sundae will make you feel better? Do you believe that "reading the riot act" to your Mother-in-Law will solve the problem? Do you believe that God isn't sufficient to bring about His resolution? Keep breaking down whatever your answer is, tracing it back to its very root, until you can see if it isn't ultimately rooted in what you think about God and His character...or about what you think you "deserve" or something related to self.
5. God's Truth: Hunt the scriptures (or your list of attributes of God) for God's truth to refute the false assumption or lie that you are believing in this situation.
6. Godly Response: In light of the truth that you know, what godly actions would follow?
7. Can you commit to these godly actions? Prayerfully ask God to help you to trade the lies for his truth, an ungodly response or action with the godly actions that follow embracing truth.

Let us know what happens.

This will really make a huge difference! I promise! :-)

Tomorrow I will finish chapter 7. The assignment for this coming week will be chapters 7, 8, and 9. I would love to see you all "check in" and update us.

• How are things going with 0 to 5 eating and the keys to conscious eating?
• How are you doing with your list of God's attributes? Do you believe the things on your list?
• What is God teaching you? :-)

Until tomorrow, you are on my heart and in my prayers!

This is what it is about...

Hi, everyone. I am excited about the new material being woven together for God's precious sheep! YAY! Thank you for your prayers! They were felt mightily. I would continue to covet your prayers!

Needless to say, I didn't get any additional study done in our Thin Within book study! So...I am behind another week!

Today, though, I want to share something with you...a video from You Tube... "Just As I Am" sung in his inimitable way by Brian Doerkson ... it is powerful. As you watch it, if you do, please know to the depth of you being...the LORD LOVES YOU right now...totally. He accepts you NOW, as you ARE...no matter your size, shape, struggles. You can't do a single solitary thing to win his love more. You can't "convince" him you are worthy...he declares you worthy.

And if you are touched at all by this song, could you please post a comment at You Tube? (Just click on the video where it says YouTube to arrive at YouTube to see the video and be able to comment.) The lady responsible for the video could use encouragement herself. I would love for us to minister to her for her willingness to minister to us. Thank you...let Jesus love you through the words of this timeless hymn!

Chapter 6 - So...What IS Fat Machinery?

Have you ever been doing your thing, going through your day, trying to cope with what comes your way and found yourself mid-way through a half-gallon of Oreo Nut Fudge ice cream--wondering "How did I get here?" It is possible that what you were dealing with was what is called "Fat Machinery" in chapter six of Thin Within.

To illustrate this concept, I want to share a video with you. Actually two video clips edited into one.

First video clip: In this clip, we meet two unique beings discussing food. The man on the left has never been human before. He is an alien who never felt hunger or tiredness, but is now being punished for naughty behavior by being made into a human with all a human's failings and frailties. The man on the right is an android. He wants to be human, but isn't. He has earnestly studied humans and human behavior so that he can emulate them in his quest to become "more human." In this clip, the robot offers advice to the alien-turned-human. What he shares is his observation of fat machinery in action.

Please watch the first part of the video clip below, then pause it and read the description of the second clip before viewing it.

View the first part of the clip now. When you get to the girl dressed in pink, click on pause and return here. :-)

Did you view it? :-) Good...now answer these questions:

• What is the fat machinery in this clip? What unconscious behavior pushes the humans that the robot has studied to choose food?

• What did the alien say was his reason for ordering TEN chocolate sundaes? Can you relate?

• The truth is, we sometimes DO feel better when we eat when in a bad mood. But (and this is an important "but")...the greater truth is we still have to cope with what made us unhappy or in a bad mood.

Let’s dismantle our fat machinery…we do this by acknowledging it and rejecting it! Ask yourself the question...WHY am I eating!?

In the second video clip, we will see Princess Mia (dressed in pink). She is in line to inherit the throne of Genovia. She has been groomed by her Grandma for this job (played by the inimitable Julie Andrews). At a ball, Mia danced with the man who introduced himself, simply, as "Nicholas." She accidentally stepped on his foot in the ball scene (not shown) and there had been much made over it. The evening had ended without her ever learning more about the "dashing, mysterious" Nicholas. Now, in the scene you are about to view, she is told someone is challenging her right to the throne of Genovia and he is coming to stay at the palace. In this scene, she greets the nasty person who wants the throne, only to discover it is the gentleman she had been so taken by at the ball...As we begin our clip, Mia is dismayed and disgusted by "Lord Devero's" claim to the throne...and even more so when she sees who he is.

Watch the rest of the video now. When you get to the end, return here. :-)

Did you watch the rest of the video?

After you watch the rest of the video clip, answer these questions:

• What emotions did Mia have that she was trying to bury in the Haagen Daaz?
• Can you identify with this at all?

In the book, another example of fat machinery is discussed...It is the way we use, and our responses to, the bathroom scale. Last week I challenged you all to get rid of your bathroom scale. My accountability partner drove off with my scale and I am still THRILLED--but, honestly, it has taken me two and a half years to be willing to do that!

Read the comments by the authors on page 59 about the bathroom scale. Please prayerfully consider the challenge to let go of relying on your bathroom scale--just for the summer if you can't imagine a lifetime without it! Instead, wait on the Lord, focusing on HIM for what he will do inside your heart and on your body as you trust Him to lead and direct you!

The more we abide by God's hunger scale (hunger and satisfied cues in our body), the less we feel the need to rely on the bathroom scale. Remember it is about so much more than our size! After we release all our extra weight, God will continue to use the hunger scale to direct our eating.

Here is a thought...so often jumping on the scale is something we do to see "Did I get away with it?" more than anything else! This isn't a godly approach. Do we really want to endorse it in our lives? I have to give that up. It is HARD for me...I must admit. But I know this is one thing God wants me to work through.

For your consideration:
1.) If someone were to video a scene in your life, would they likely find you turning to food for comfort like the alien or Mia? I know they would me! Invite God to help you to wait on him in moments like those...and to allow HIS truth--that HE is sufficient--to be what you feast upon!

2.) Can you develop a list (maybe on index cards) of bible verses that you can use to "feast upon" when flesh machinery has kicked into high gear for you? If you have a "scripture pantry" of sweet words to feast upon in moments like that, perhaps you can defeat a tendency to run to food outside of physical hunger. Feel free to share any verses with us that God may use to encoruage you in moments like that!

3.) What other examples of fat machinery did you become aware of as you read the chapter? I remember in 2006 when I read this for the 10th (or so time), I became aware of a new one for me...it was weather! When it was storming outside I felt the need to bake! I am a weather weanie and used food to "comfort me" when I was worried about lightning striking a tall pine tree and smashing my house (I need a sanctified imagination! Can you tell?)

4.) Continue to keep your list of God's attributes and take a few moments to praise him for his character and how he relates to you. My list grows each time I read the book. Sometimes it grows more than other times...But by now I hope you have a pretty long list...Why not pick 5 things on it and spend some time praising God for what these attributes mean to you?

I am heading out of town this evening for a couple of days...I may fall "behind" my tentative assignment for this week. I will actually be working with Judy Halliday on a new project (YAY!). I welcome your prayers for the Lord's will in that.

Chapter 5 Part 2 - Mechanics? Or Surrendered?

The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
- Isaiah 29:13

God has used my horses many times to teach me truths about His awesomeness or ways in which He is working on my character. This morning, as I spent time making my way through the rest of chapter 5, one of these lessons came to mind.


In the photo above, you can see that Harley is moving his feet forward...going in the direction that I ask. See if you can see any differences between the picture above and the picture below...



Do you see it? His feet are going the direction I have asked in both instances. In the picture on the top, where does his heart appear to be? Where is his thought? Look at his body--his neck is all upright and rigid--and you can see what we call "brace." His physical brace reflects that his heart and his mind aren't with my heart and mind--they are braced, too. They are distracted. Going the direction I have asked is well and good, but my desire is for him to go with his heart...with his thought. In fact, when it comes to horses, this is important for *safety* (but that is another story all together!).

In the second picture, Harley is "with" me. He is coming along as a willing partner. I am the lead partner...and he isn't just taking his feet resentfully where I ask. His mind and heart are there, too. Do you see the softer looking muscles in his neck? His eye is softer too...His ears even reflect that he is WITH me. It is a great start of the two of us doing what I have asked with willing, eager, united spirits.

He is doing more than just mechanically going where I ask him.

God told me to do Day 5 in the book. So I dutifully got up this morning and finished the Mirror Mirror Exercise and the rest of chapter 5 in the Thin Within book.

But it was mechanical. The "feel" wasn't there. I did it with my body and mind, but my heart was far from the exercise. I was like Harley in the first picture...my mind and heart were *not* with what I was doing. I was braced. I tried...but I felt like I just am not able to really offer God a whole-hearted "yes, Lord" like I have before when doing this exercise.

This has exposed some work that needs doing...definitely. I must welcome the Lord to search my heart and know my anxious thoughts...and expose what is there...allowing him to root it out.

I don't want my relationship with the Lord to be about "rules taught by men," or about "should dos" when I go through a chapter in a book or other things that I might "do" because I feel compelled to if I am going to be "a godly woman."

I want my heart to be so earnest for the Lord...I want to have godly passions so that "giving in" to my desires actually results in something that glorifies God for a change!

So...that is where I am today.

For your consideration:

How about you? Are your "feet" mechanically doing what God says to do? Or are your heart and mind in the process as well? Are you experiencing His touch so that you are willing and, like Harley "softened" to the idea? Or are you "braced," resenting somewhat the intrusion on your life?

Let's take time to ask the Lord to soften our spirits and minds so that when our feet follow His request, it is with a heart sold out in wild, loving, abandon and surrender! This is what he is after!

Chapter 5 Part 1 - True Confessions About Being "Reconciled" To My Body

I have been putting off facing into this chapter, I think. I read the pages up to the place where the Mirror, Mirror Exercise begins. Funny how I did that...It is dated 4 days ago...haven't touched the book since.

I realized last night as I thought about getting up and including the Mirror Mirror Exercise into my quiet time this morning that I was making excuses. This morning, I am heading out of town with my kids, my accountability partner and her kids to San Francisco. No time! I wanted to spend time in another study (or two) that I am doing...hmmm...Of course, as is typical, God faced me with the truth while I was in those other studies.

So I come to this blog to confess to you that I guess I have more "issues" to deal with than I thought. The thought of doing this exercise, while not as horrific to me as it used to be years ago, nevertheless causes anxiety.

I thought I would make "Part 1" about chapter 5 today about those other things in the chapter that I liked...and realized...I am just procrastinating. God is calling me to do this exercise.

Frankly...I don't wanna.

So, I am stuck. I will give in to His will, but I know I won't do it this morning...and I felt a sense of responsibility to tell you why.

I guess I still feel at some level betrayed by my body...But even writing that doesn't resonate as truth. Maybe I don't feel betrayed by my body so much as I feel betrayed by me. My behavior...my unwillingness to really lay down some strongholds...specifically this insistence that I get to have something sweet in my mouth all the time. :-/ It used to be diet cherry pepsi...and it is a battle now not to use diet drinks the same way. I am not, thankfully. I know that the battle isn't so much about aspartame and the damage it can do, but it is a battle of my will...my taste buds being an idol in my life...my bowing down to them. And the damage that does!

While I haven't been giving in to this temptation lately, I nevertheless feel like some of the weight I now have on my body IS related to giving in to my lust for sweet. Sweet apart from aspartame means sugar, means extra calories coming in when I am not hungry... :-/ That is the truth of things.

I have simplified things again and recommitted to drinking only water or carbonated water unless I am at a 0. I hadn't realized just how much that boundary had eroded...and this will help, I know. Help not just with finding my natural God-given size, but, more, with conquering this stronghold.

Anyhow, when I look at my physical body like I am supposed to in Day 5 of the book and I know how much it has changed since the "after" picture was taken...I am faced with some truth...sure, I don't need to be as thin as I was when I drank a lot of caffeine and aspartame...but some of the weight on my body, I believe, is there because I have continued to bow to sweet foods/flavors outside of God's will for me. It is hard for me to accept about myself. That I am so weak. So rebellious and unwilling.

I know I have posted here about feeling ok about my body and all since then. I guess it is something I will struggle with on and off possibly my whole life long. All I know is that the thought of doing Day 5 in the Thin Within book has brought this to the surface and I am glad that I see the truth of it.

So tomorrow, I am carving out the time to do it in the morning...even setting my alarm to do it. I have an appointment with God in my bathroom...with the mirror. Gulp...

For your consideration (and mine): Consider going to iTunes and downloading Steven Curtis Chapman's song, Fingerprints of God. (It is only 69 cents!) This is an amazing song with a lot of truth in it. When I lead TW classes going through the book, I make sure to include this song as part of our class time. Prayerfully ask God to show you if you believe the truth that this song speaks of. Let's pray for one another today...to be fully reconciled with God and to our own bodies, laying down anything that hinders or entangles us.

Week 03 - Plugging Away

I will post more later, but this week's assignment (tentatively!) is to pray through and complete chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the Thin Within book.

Please continue to keep your list of attributes of God and how he relates to people as asserted by the authors. Feel free, too, to add to it when you read the scriptures, of course!

Take time to use your list or part of your list to praise God for Who He is and how He relates to you.

Post here about what you experience! I would love to see it!

The Foxes are At It!

Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,
our vineyards that are in bloom.
- Song of Solomon 2:15

Foxes are omnivores--they eat all kinds of things. They will eat rodents...which can be a GOOD thing, but they also eat fruit, berries, grasses and may even dig to reach tender roots or shoots of new plants.

Imagine your life, my life...and the new habits we are hoping to sow--what we think about, what we do, what we believe--as a vineyard. The vineyard is vulnerable, tender, young. We haven't had much time to establish these new habits...these new plants. There is a promise of a fruitful future as we continue to "work the soil" of our hearts. There is hope and yet the work is hard so early on.

Have there been "little foxes" running through your life trying to spoil the work that God is doing as you partner with him in the tending of your vineyard?

What kinds of things act as foxes in your life right now, today, during the past week?

The past two days have been challenging for me! I am not sure why! I woke up on Friday morning with a declaration, "I don't FEEL like trying to be godly any more! I am DONE!" What is up with that? :-) I couldn't even blame hormones!

Actually, that thought of "I don't FEEL like trying to be godly any more," wasn't just a "little fox," but was like a huge bear! I needed to nip it in the bud immediately! Because I didn't catch that fox, it wreaked havoc on Friday and Saturday. Nothing blatantly evil...but just making its way through my life, here and there...all day long...pulling up, as it were, the godly thoughts and behaviors I was attempting to sow--the root of a tender heart--I was trying to cultivate to the Lord--any hope of fruit that was evidence of a life given to God.

I am behind in my reading...I hope some of you can use the extra time to catch up. This coming week, the assignment will be to read and work through chapters 5, 6, and 7...more on that tomorrow, but I did want you to know where I was with the reading.

Today, I think I will ask the Lord to help with the damage left from the indiscretions of the last two days...it doesn't have to be really blatant. The "little" foxes can do plenty of damage with constant peck pecking at the roots and tender shoots of my life...I need the Lord, the Master Gardener to get this "vineyard" back in shape again.

Time to wait on the Lord...

For your consideration:

1.) What "little foxes" are assaulting your "vineyard?"

2.) What can you do to "catch" the little foxes?

3.) What can you do to more adequately care for, nurture and protect your young "vineyard" of thoughts and behaviors that will glorify God relative to food, eating, body image and all the other related things?

Chapter 4 - A Path of My Choosing Part 2

The battle is not "of the bulge." It is more pervasive than that! The battle we fight is for our minds.

While trying to focus on God, maintaining godly goals, applying principles such as the Keys to Conscious Eating in Thin Within...we find ourselves with thoughts being fixed on ... US!

We fight condemning self-talk as we continue on this path. In fact, we may struggle with thinking about ourselves CONSTANTLY. "Am I at a zero?" "Is this what 3 feels like? Or is this 5?" "Can I really eat this and not gain weight?" "This didn't work for me before, why do I think it will now?" "Will I really lose weight?" "This is going to take forever!" Then we answer some of our questions with any host of me-oriented answers, "No, it won't work...nothing ever 'sticks'...why would that change now?" or "Yes, look at me go! I can feel the weight melt off me already!" or "I am going to look GREAT!" or "I wonder if those jeans fit now!" or "I will hop on the scale again (even though I just did 32 minutes ago) and see if I have lost or gained any more weight!"

ME ME ME...

Even if we have "self-talk" that is positive and upbeat...we are sowing a habit that is about ME. I know this from experience. It does NOT serve us well or the goal of becoming Christ-like! If we don't nip this habit of being SELF-focused in the bud, it will bite us in our ever shrinking rears later. I know this. BELIEVE ME! Even if you release all your extra weight, but have sown the habit of thinking about yourself all the time, God will allow you to find that place of thinness...empty in your soul. He wants your heart. Let us not sell our souls in exchange for thinness.

We want to train our minds and hearts for godliness, instead.

We want to sow habits that will exalt the Lord!

Keep praising Him for His attributes, his provision, His grace, His love...any thoughts of self, trade them, replace them with thoughts of "Oh, God! How GREAT you are!" "I need YOU so much!" "Thank you for all YOU do and are!" "Thank you that YOU are bread for my hungry heart!"

This is important...vital. THIS is the Path of God's Provision. It is paved with stones of God-exaltation!

Chapter 4 - A Path of My Choosing Part 1

Hi. If you have just joined us, we are studying Thin Within, by Arthur and Judy Halliday. This week's assignment is to prayerfully study, read, complete chapters 3, 4, and 5. Chapter 5 is a BIGGEE...a potentially pivotal point. So we may linger there for a few days. I hope those of you joining in now will not feel burdened to "catch up!" It is more important to take as long as you need soaking in the material and allowing the Lord to bring it home to your heart in His special way. It took me the better part of 5 YEARS to honestly get through chapter 5 the last time through. LOL!

As we read, there are two on-going assignments we have:

1.) Keep a list (add to it all the time!) of God's attributes and the way he relates to you, His child as asserted by the authors and/or through His Word or other sources. (Extra Credit: Use this list to pray by praising God for the specific attributes and traits you discover about Him.)

2.) Keep focusing on the LORD.

These two "assignments" dovetail. The key is, you do NOT want to make this be about SELF! That is what diets do...put all the focus and attention on SELF and how "bad" or "good" we do or *are*...typically with the scale being our judge. We know how these end...badly, with self-condemnation.

Even if you have gone through the TW material before, I challenge you...let the Lord ALONE be your focus!!!! It makes the difference we need. He is our strength. He is our deliverance, he is our hope. He is our...well...our everything!

Another thing I have challenged you with is to throw out your bathroom scale and dare to believe God that he can work in you this summer without the crutch of a man-made bathroom scale. So often we go to the scale to get approval! He has created your body to be reliable, so you can depend on the hunger scale as described in the Thin Within book--a way of describing the God-given cues of physical hunger and satisfaction. If you eat between 0 and 5, you will land at your God-given weight. I believe it! I know it! Who cares what number that is on a man-made bathroom scale!

Whew! As you can see, we are really doing a lot already! If we could hold steady just with these things for now without any additional reading we would really be experiencing some major life transformations!

Add the reading to it and VOOMBA! What a prescription for life change and metamorphosis, inside and out!

I guess, truthfully, this is what chapter four is about anyhow. Will you choose the Path of My Performance, filled with self condemnation, resentment, performance or the Path of God's Provision, with His joy, His peace, His will, His way, His liberty? The book explains this in an awesome way (if I DO say so! LOL!).

Most important of all, however, is the in-depth description of one of the most crucial concepts in the Thin Within book--Observation and Correction. Please oh PLEASE be sure to read pages 36-38 (and the rest of the chapter) really carefully.

In summary, observation and correction can be described like this:

Observation is choosing to dispassionately evaluate my behavior. For instance, I was emotional upon receiving some difficult news. I went to the fridge and without considering my hunger numbers, proceeded to eat a hot fudge sundae. Obviously, this behavior is not congruent with my goal of eating 0 to 5 and surrendering all of my eating to the Lord, allowing his Spirit to guide me so that I might glorify him with my eating and drinking.

Upon reflection of my behavior, I can:
1.) beat myself up (this is NOT what we want to do!) - "I KNEW I would never be free! I say I want to be free and look at what I do first thing...how can I keep visiting the blog site and interacting with others there!? I am such a hypocrite! What must my husband think, since he SAW me inhale all that ice cream!"

2.) go into denial "That really wasn't so bad...I *was* really wounded, after all..."

or

3.) dispassionately recognize that this behavior doesn't agree with my godly goals. "Lord, I could have run to you with my emotions. Instead I ate my way through the ice cream and hot fudge."

Notice with the third option, there is no condemnation. This demonstrates an accurate handling of the word of truth (see Romans 8:1).

So, as described in chapter 4 of Thin Within, I recognize this behavior as being outside of God's will for me and not in agreement with my godly goals and I do so without a truckload of emotion. What next?

Simply...I make a plan for change--called "correction."

For example: "I will establish a boundary. The kitchen is off limits when I have received news on the phone, in the mail, or via email. Before I go to the pantry or the fridge, I will take time to pray, acknowledging the difficulty of the news I have received. I will intentionally WAIT and choose NOT to eat, looking to the Lord first to satisfy my wounded heart. Then, if HE leads me to eat out of true physical hunger, I will choose something that feeds my body in a positive way, as a spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1,2)."

Other examples...
Observation: I overate in the car driving home from work.
Correction: I will not eat in the car, but will stop and eat, focusing on giving glory and thanks to God for my food.

Observation: I eat too much when I go to Chinese Buffet.
Correction: For a short season I will not go to the buffet. In a few weeks, after I have developed a greater sense of commitment in the face of temptation, I will try again.

or...

When I go to the buffet, I will take my own tiny plate and have a boundary of eating only one plate full of food...no food overlapping the edges, no food touching another food. (I know a TW participant who did this...she asked the managers ahead of time and they even gave her a discount since she wasn't going to eat very much!)

Observation is agreeing with God...or confession.

Correction is planning for change, turning a new direction...or repentance.

It is GRACE filled...it isn't a tool of condemnation at all.

I will say it again...

We can not hate/condemn ourselves into positive change!

With Observation and Correction, with The Path of God's Provision, the focus is on the Lord and what HE wants...what he wants is to be our sufficiency. He doesn't condemn you for looking to food in a moment instead of to Him. He asks you to declare the truth, yes "I blew it!"...and then, with grace, he says, "Go and leave the sin behind..." Jesus came with grace and truth both...not just truth...not just grace. (See John 1.)

He loves you, approves of you, welcomes you...he does NOT condemn you! So why condemn yourself! That isn't Christ-like. No matter what your goal is from day 3, being more like Jesus should trump all the others. Condemnation has no place in a heart that wants to be like Jesus! God sent his son into the world NOT to condemn the world, but to save the world THROUGH Him! (John 3:17 I think it is...)

So, which path are you on? What can you do to switch to the Path of God's Provision?

Can you look back over your day and make 3 observations and 3 godly corrections? I know you can!

Get used to using this tool, applying it with grace, inviting God to help you with your thinking, and you will experience a freedom from condemnation AND freedom from behaviors that derail your godly goals!

Chapter 3 - Going For Godly Goals - Part 2

Just a short word of caution...

Please don't let the goal become an idol.

Goals are godly ONLY when they do not have the power to direct my steps. Only God should direct my steps. Only HE defines my worth and value and He has decided I am worth the universe to Him.

As wonderful as our goals may be...and as eager as God may be to show us his amazing proficiency to do all of these things and more...he will NOT allow goals to usurp his leadership in our lives.

Let us not allow the goal to become an idol.

It IS a challenge to have goals while maintaining our focus on the Lord...If at any point we feel our focus slipping off of him on this journey together, we want to stop and ask Him to fill our vision with Him and Him alone. The goals are NOT worth forsaking our focus.

Chapter 3 - Going For Godly Goals - Part 1

As I approached chapter 3 in Thin Within, I continued my running list of God's attributes and the way he relates to me, His child. Praising Him for these truths sooo lifts my spirit and starts my day with my focus where it belongs...on Him! I only read, studied and prayed my way through the bottom of page 31.

Before I go ANY further, I want want WANT you to know how I feel about the "goal setting" activity. THIS IS IMPORTANT! :-) Thus, the additional video:

Giving Glory to God is the foundational purpose for your life. (Thin Within, page 28)

Note what is NOT the foundational purpose--that of being THIN! Or of weighing 135 lbs ... Or a million other things that we might tend to chase after!

If we allow God to form and shape our character, we will become more like Jesus... (Thin Within, page 28)

Truly, this should be our #1 goal and the goal through which everything else is sifted! If goals that we set and our response to our behavior about these goals keep us from becoming more like the Lord, then we have to do some serious adjustment either of our goals, how we are thinking about them, or all of the above.

Therefore, I URGE you, I BEG you...do NOT make your physical goal a number on the scale! My goal is worded this way on page 31...as I shared in the video:

"After praying about it and inviting Him to indicate His will to me, my goal for [the end of the summer] is to be able to have more wiggle room in my Levis jeans (which are currently tight). I want to be able to move in them, work in them, ride horses in them without being goosed or rubbed raw."

This is my physical goal regarding my size. It is NOT a weight. It is not even a "size"...it is "this pair of jeans will fit this way..." more than that.

If you feel like God wants to really shrink you down in size a lot by the end of the summer, then I encourage you to word your goal differently, too. "...my goal is to be...able to sit in the airplane seat in September without a seat belt extender..." or "...to be able to shop for clothes in Nordstrom's instead of 'Big and Beautiful' stores" or... "to be able to sit in the chairs at the dentist office in August, without feeling the sides pressing in on my hips uncomfortably..."

See what I mean? :-) PLEASE ask God if he would have you do the same. Tell us about it here, ok? :-)

PLEASE DO NOT USE THE BATHROOM SCALE AT ALL!!! I know this is radical, but you know how I have been singing the song "Focus on the Lord Focus on the Lord?" The scale is THE BEST WAY TO STOP FOCUSING on the LORD and to focus on yourself and your supposed performance! PLEASE DON'T GO THERE! You and I both have done that before and has it served us well? NO!

For the summer, will you PLEASE do something radical? Ask a best friend to keep your bathroom scale in the garage at her house and not to give it back to you until September? Or, better, throw it away?

PLEASE!

Judy Halliday likes to say that if we put as much effort into hearkening our God-given signals on the God-given HUNGER SCALE as we do on the man-made bathroom scale, we would release any excess weight and have lives of peace and joy! The scale is a tool of condemnation and can you condemn yourself into positive change? NO WAY!

Oh, my...I really am making a BIG deal about this. I mean it!!!!! In fact, I meet with my accountability partner in just about a half an hour...I am going to walk my talk and do that very thing...ask her to take my scale and lock it in her trunk!!! I don't want it back!

Who is WITH ME!!!

Week 2 Assignment! Keep Focused! :-)

Hi, everyone! Wow! We are hitting the trail running...or it seems that way to me. Let's see how it works this week if we have as a very tentative goal, that of reading and working through three chapters--chapters 3, 4, and 5. I think this is a bit ambitious for me personally...but let's see what happens! Let's each go at the pace God directs us personally!

Here is the video for this week. I apologize that it is about 5 minutes long. I get excited about this stuff...



As you read chapters 3, 4, and 5 (or whatever the Lord leads), please do the following:

• Keep adding to your list of attributes of God and the way he relates to you, His child.
• Take time daily (or more often) to pray praises to Him and thanking him for these attributes on your list, asking him to make them more real to you. (I give an example of this in the video.) Praising and worshiping him in faith even if you struggle feeling the reality of these things makes a HUGE difference in our perspective and our walk on this journey (for our entire lives!)
  
• Keep asking HIM about which "tools" mentioned in the book you should use right now. The tools can be tools of grace, but some of us need some more distance from dieting charts and graphs before we can use them that way. Just keep asking Him.
• Invite HIM into your eating. If you make eating a time of fellowship with the Lord, I believe that the keys to conscious eating will (super)naturally become a part of it...for instance, if you say, "Lord, thank you for this food...thank you for providing tasty fuel when my body needs it," you are likely to get a check in your spirit if you are NOT at a "0" yet! Ask the Lord to help you to get to know your body's physical signals and then use what you learn to praise and exalt GOD, not the food, not the "good job" you are doing This is HUGE! It made all the difference in the world for me and will again! :-)
  
• As you consider each bite of the food and the swallow of the beverages you choose, again, focus your attention on and praise the Lord. Tell him how wonderful the tastes and textures are and then ask him to help you not to eat more than you NEED. I like to "offer" back the last couple of bites of any food I have been enjoying. Even if I took a very small portion, I can give back something to him. Typically, I have found that giving up those couple of bites doesn't keep me from a comfortable "5"...and it sure helps to curb my tendency to be greedy. It is one way I keep my flesh in check, I guess (but it isn't a law!) The fact is, I can get more to eat if, in 20 minutes I still feel hungry. I feel like I am most in the heart of God's will when I delight in HIS creativity, HIS provision during my meals...It is ALL about HIM! :-)

Remember most of all...if you focus on HIM and HIS greatness, you will experience a satisfaction in your soul that NOTHING else can touch! There are *reasons* we are drawn to food when we aren't physically hungry and, often, at the heart of all of these reasons is a big emptiness that God alone can satisfy. If we develop an ability to focus on Him, praise Him, pray to Him, we will find that those things that lure us to food when we aren't physically hungry will fade! Honestly! Not only that, but a lot of other challenges in our lives will fall into their rightful place. It is the "Seek first His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well" principle again!

If you have time and feel led, I do hope you will post here what God shows you in your time with Him. Or post the link toyour blog entry if you are doing it that way. I don't want to miss any of it!

Big hugs to you! Oh, how you thrill his heart! :-)

Chapter 2 - Getting To Know the Me God Has Made

We are studying the book, Thin Within, by Arthur and Judy Halliday. Come on along and join us! We are doing 2 or 3 chapters each week...so you have time to get the book and dive right in. Even if you don't do the chapters at the same time that I post here about them, you can read whenever it suits you and join in here at any time. These blog entries aren't going anywhere. In fact, if you go way back to the beginning of this blog, you will see my study of this book from November and December of 2006! :-) Still there! The internet is an amazing thing.

As you read (past tense) or read (present/future tense) chapter 2, I urge you to continue your list of God's attributes.

Everything depends on our understanding of Who He is... (page 18, Thin Within)

Before I share my continued list, let me ask you...WHY is understanding Who God is so important to our journey? Why do you think the authors make this a focus? Why do I keep harping :-) on it here at the blog?

So, here is my continued list...along with some other quotes I want to highlight:

• God ordained that I would be here now.
• All the challenges and wonders that life offers, he knows about.
• Nothing about my life is hidden from him.

As I was writing these things down, I was prompted by God to share with you that I definitely see myself as running from God...or running from something. I am doing this by being far too busy and over committed. I have written about this before. But I see that I need desperately to BE STILL AND KNOW that HE is GOD! In the past week, I have been reverting to old coping mechanisms and while diet soda consumption hasn't returned to my life, I still have been depending on caffeine to get me jump started again! I share this by way of confession. It only took 4 days of not getting enough sleep and presto...here I am...So, by admitting this struggle here, I want to add to my accountability...and, perhaps, solicit prayer. It is important to me that I not just treat the symptoms...but get to the heart. To do that, I will have to be still. I have structured my life so that I feel like I can't be still. This isn't ok...so I have some difficult choices to make. Do I believe what I have said here and what I read in Thin Within and the Word of God about God's character?

• God is love
  
• God is creative
• God created me uniquely and very specifically
• All of creation (including me) speaks of His wondrous glory

His divine imagination thought of you in eternity past and He created you especially for this space and time. All of creation, including you, speaks of his wondrous glory. (page 19, Thin Within)

• He created the starry host and vast oceans.
• He wants me to know Him.
• He wants me to be authentic before Him <--this is what I am running from, at least in part! Go figure! :-/
• God loves me.
• God reveals himself.
• He will meet and surpass any great expectations I have of Him
• He is trustworthy.
• He meets me when I am honest.
• God is compassionate and gracious
• God is slow to anger (please, let's take note of this! :-))
• God is abounding in love and faithfulness
  

So what on EARTH does any of this have to do with my NEED, DESIRE, EARNESTNESS, QUEST to lose weight????? :-) I am so glad you asked!!!

...God...wants to be your constant companion on your journey to healing and wholeness. (page 20, Thin Within)

If you think of God as a Cosmic Killjoy, you won't likely want to depend on him on this journey. If you think of Him as angry and mean...you are likely to feel stomped on when you have a misstep or "blow it" in some way. The truth is, our God LOVES you as you are. He doesn't operate the way so many of us think or have been taught! We want to know him as he really is.

• God is gracious, loving and good. (Did you see this in chapter 2?) :-)
• God is wise.

Here is one connection between why we want to know God better and our desire to see changes in our physical bodies...

Since your body is one of God's masterpieces (and since God is all of these things that we have been listing), it can be trusted. (page 20, Thin Within)

But, again, I want to reiterate...if we continue to focus on ME ME ME, we will miss it. We really will. So the most important reason that I will continue to shout from the rooftops that we must FOCUS on the Lord is because He is most concerned about the state of our hearts, not the size of the clothes we wear. He knows that when our hearts belong to him, everything else will fall into His perfect order and place in our lives and isn't that we want, after all?

Getting back to chapter two, then, we now turn to some of the practical aspects of Thin Within relative to food and eating.

God is trustworthy.
God made my body.
Therefore, my body is trustworthy...I need to learn to listen to the God-given cues of hunger and satisfaction.

When I do this, simply put, I glorify and honor the God of this universe (I esteem his creation and exalt Him as wise and wonderful!) and I respect myself in a way that he desires.

Over the next few months, you and I will get to know these masterpieces that the Lord has made, our bodies. Instead of fixating on them, though, we will do it with a Godward focus. We will ask HIM questions we have. We will praise HIM when we experience a breakthrough. We will depend on HIS strength, not our own. We will not give in to the temptation to beat ourselves up. That is NOT His will and grieves His tender Father's heart. (How do you feel when you hear your child say, "I was SO stupid!")

I urge you to prayerfully read pages 20-23 where the physiological aspects of this process are discussed. Please don't allow this to become a diet for you by fixating on this.

To honor God, who walks with us, and who leads and directs us, we need to honor the unique and amazing body He has made especially for each of us.

I loved reading (again) the quote from Isaiah 40 on the top of page 25...God doesn't beat me up when I am weary (as I am now). He doesn't have one ounce of disapproval in his heart...instead, he gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.


Oh Lord, I am so weary and so weak right now. THANK you that I can run to you...you have promised not a "holy beating," but to give me strength and to increase my power. You love me and accept me as I am and hope for loftier things for me than that which I settle for. Help me to run to you, to wait for you, to hope in you. To cease the striving...to trust the body you have given me. When it says it needs rest, to rest...when it needs food, to eat, when it needs water, to indulge heartily! Thank you for all your provisions. In the precious name of Jesus...Amen.

Observation and Correction Chart

Hey, folks...this may be entry number 2 for today, but this is a quickie. If any of you would like to, you can download this pdf file of an Observation and Correction chart and print it out any day you choose to use it. Since we aren't going through the book in 30 days and some of you might like to have these to record the Keys to Conscious Eating that you apply, I thought I would share this link. (They are in the book at the end of each chapter, too.)

Remember...charts and graphs are NOT things you NEED to do unless GOD says! Some of us find ourselves getting caught back in a legalistic dieting mentality when we try things like this...If that is the case for you, this might be a season that you don't want to use these charts...it is ok!

But for those of you who the Lord may be leading to use this, there it is for your benefit as he leads! :-)

Chapter 1 Part 2 - Free to Enjoy God's Lavish Love

Well, did you have the chance to go through chapter one and highlight, underline, and/or make a list of all of the attributes of God or his treatment of you asserted by the Hallidays? I did. Let's compare lists. I am pretty sure this is only a partial listing:

• God has a plan and purpose for me.
• He has a future and a hope for me.
• God has brought me to these pages...NOW.
• He is a "mighty Way Maker."
• He is the Lover of my soul.
• He is the Designer of my body.
• He purchased my liberty.
• He longs for me to see his handiwork.
• His love for me is unfathomable.
• His love for me is not based on my performance *or* size.
• God transforms me.
• God is crazy about me.
• God loves me the way I am.
• God is able and willing to lead me to freedom from food rules.
• God wants authentic living for me.
• He created me to be unique.
• The Lord will meet my needs.
• He wants to free me from worry and infuse my life with peace.

Again, this is likely only a partial listing. But...wow...if I BELIEVE these things...and I am pretty sure you could find support in scripture for all of them...I wonder how my life would be different?

If we are going to make this "leg of the journey" different than what has come before...we will have to focus on the Lord, focus on the Lord, focus on the Lord.

Let us allow him to remake our view of him, too, so that our focus is not on some false image of God. Let's beg him daily that he would helps us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12). We have focused on "fixing ourselves" long enough! We have tried not to think about food long enough...it is like trying NOT to think of a pink elephant! What do you think about when I tell you "Don't think about a pink elephant?" Probably about pink elephants! So trying NOT to think about food causes us to think about it more. We have to replace our thoughts of self, food, weight, body with other thoughts! Let's replace "diet thoughts" with thoughts of exalting our God. Let's make this journey about getting to know him and praising the God we get to know.

Trust me...as we do, we will see transformation from the inside out. He wants our hearts...let us make room for him by kicking out thoughts of self! Let's press on to KNOW him...the REAL him...not what others have taught us about him. Many of us have views of God that are plain old WRONG! It is no wonder we don't want to focus on him...he is a cosmic ogre in our minds! Let us allow him to reform and reshape our view of him in TRUTH and then let us set our minds on that...on Him. Let us lift HIM up and magnify HIM instead of magnifying our "issues."

Right now, I must confess my sisters...I don't know if it is hormones, lack of sleep or what, but I am feeling so weary...and all about me. I want to whine right now! :-/ I disappoint me a lot! So in the list above of all of God's attributes or treatment of me, the one that resonates the most for me right now is that His love for me is not based on my performance. I am so thankful for that.

• Which from my list or yours from chapter 1 resonates the most for you?

Let us allow these things to be what our hearts are set on today...not on an image of health, thinness, or finally having our "issues" resolved. We want Jesus...we want Him high and lifted up. As we do that...I know that I know that I know that the rest will be worked out. I think, in a very real way, this is what Jesus meant when he said:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
- Matthew 6:33

Some other thoughts from the chapter that hit me afresh...on page 4, the Hallidays mention that we don't want to go through this process resentfully. So often that is what we do when we diet. We should eat or not eat this or that and we hate it the entire time. How can we live like that? We can't and don't! (And shouldn't!)

So, this time, we will develop a heart change...and if we make this all about God (as, indeed, it IS), then he will perform in us that which delights him...including the heart change! He transplants our hard hearts with a tender heart of flesh.

I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh.
-Ezekiel 36:26

These are things HE promises that HE will do! And as he does, we will thrill to surrendering our lives, our food, our body, our minds to him!

One other important thought...Being involved with Thin Within for a long time now, I have heard many people "come and go" and some say, "I feel like quitting." Others have said, "Oh, I quit Thin Within..."

Here is the deal...Stick with me here and I hope this makes sense...I am not sure how we can "quit" once we start...as this isn't about our bodies or diets or about Thin Within at all! It is about pursuing Christ for all we are worth and giving him access to our hearts, our appetites, our lusts, our emptiness, our need, our emotions, our passions...EVERYTHING. This is discipleship!!! We can't quit that. Not really.

Sure, you could stop eating 0 to 5 (and maybe that is what those people mean), but what are the options...eating when the world's diets tell you to? So that means my body's cues don't matter? That God doesn't get to have a say over my physical body, but other diet plans will? You see, this isn't about "doing" Thin Within. This is about "doing" GOD! :-)

I hope that makes sense--or I think it will as we go on. But if you think of this as "doing" Thin Within, I think you may be disappointed..."doing" Thin Within may not "work." It will be like a diet.

But if you are "doing" God...well...GOD WORKS! :-) It gets back to that heart thing. This may seem like the long way around, but, again, we know how to lose weight (and to find it again). We want the heart change that diets don't form in us. Only God can do that heart transplant.

Does this make sense? :-)

More points from the reading:

...much of your eating has been triggered by something that food can't really satisfy.

BINGO! As you "wait" for hunger (and, again, this is NOT going to be a "growl"...please don't insist that it be a growl!!!)...turn it to waiting for GOD. Waiting ON God.

Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
- Isaiah 40:31 (NASB)

and

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.

- Psalm 130:5-7

Waiting for the Lord will never leave us wanting. He WILL meet us. He WILL satisfy. This is where the wording of things is a bit awkward...If we wait for hunger, our focus is on our body, ourselves. But waiting on the Lord, our focus is on HIM. He will then say, "Guess what, dear one? Your body needs fuel now. Come and dine with Me!" Isn't that a glorious thought? :-) No guilt, no condemnation, no self-focus. Then our meal time can be a time of praise and worship... "Lord, thank you for the amazing flavor and texture in this food. You are so creative! Thank you for the abundance. Thank you for supplying my needs. You are an awesome Provider! Thank you for my body that YOU have created--fearfully and wonderfully!"

Let's DO Key to Conscious Eating #1: Today, how about if we diligently apply ourselves to this...to wait on the Lord and eat only when you are physically hungry. If you aren't sure if you are hungry, ask Him. Don't focus on your body by yourself (and definitely don't obsess about it!), but take your questions about your body and how it feels to him and focus on Him and what HE says. "Lord, is this what my body feels like when it needs fuel?" He will give you a sense in your heart of hearts that "Yes, child...it is..." or not.

One final thing. The "Observation and Correction" tool is meant to be dispassionate and there will be a more detailed discussion of it in our reading ahead. If you find yourself straying...in any respect...in the way you treat your family, in something you did at work, in your eating, in your thinking or speaking...in ANY way...you can dispassionately observe. "I did _____. This doesn't work if I want to maintain the godly goal of _____." That is observation. Please don't beat yourself up! That isn't God's way! Instead, plan a godly correction. "In the future, when that mean co-worker says she wants to meet with me, I will stop everything to pray for a moment and keep my mouth shut!" or "When my mom and I get together, I always feel so drawn to food after she leaves...I will plan some time with the Lord so that I don't run to fridge the minute she leaves..."

It really is that simple (not EASY, but simple!).

Observe: "I get emotional when my mom comes over and eat as a response..."

and

Correct: "The minute she walks out the door, I will take a few moments to take my feelings to the Lord. I won't even walk into the kitchen!"

None of this: "What a rotten, no good, ungodly person I am...I will be fat forever and I will probably die of a heart attack, so I may as well inhale the Oreo ice cream..."

NO WAY. None of that. We will allow God to transform our thinking and renew our minds according to His Word and He NEVER speaks to his children that way!!!"

As we continue into chapter 2 of the book, even though it is an opportunity to get to know ourselves a bit, I challenge all of us to continue making our lists of God's attributes and how he relates to us according to the authors. See if you can add anything to your list.

I have out of town company coming today...so I am hoping to steal time away to prayerfully read chapter 2 and to blog tomorrow or Sunday. I may get behind a bit already in my blogging though! Hang in there, though! I am praying for all of us!

Chapter 1 Part 1 - Free to Enjoy God's Lavish Love

I realize this is the second post today...but I felt like the Lord wanted me to share thoughts about Chapter one...more tomorrow on that...
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Chapter One...Ho Hum...here we go...again. Or so my very tired thoughts were this morning.

So, aware of my flesh wanting to minimize everything...I asked again for God to let my read-through of this material be NEW. I know that he can do anything, so I asked and then sat on the edge of my seat, looking forward with anticipation to just how He was going to do this. :-)

And ...well, he delivered. Immediately. Wow. Today, the title of this chapter struck me. I didn't even get to the reading before he said, "How about this???"

Think about it.

FREE to enjoy God's Lavish Love.

I want freedom to experience all God has. What keeps me from this freedom? What will this freedom look like? Wow...it has struck me that God's Lavish Love is there to experience, but something often hinders me from it...I want to throw that stuff off. The chapter title really challenged me. All of the things I tend to TURN to when I feel weak...those are the very things that get in the way of me experiencing in REAL time...of enjoying...that which God has offered to me.

That is deep. I could sit and ponder/pray over that for a while.

Free to ENJOY God's Lavish Love.

One thing I have learned is that God loves it when I am joyful...when I ENjoy something that He offers. When I don't ENjoy his blessings, I miss it...and I think, to some degree, He must feel a sense of disappointment. He longs for me to ENjoy his Lavish Love...so...I think I will! :-)

Free to enjoy God's LAVISH love.

1 John 3:1 says: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Used as an adjective, Dictionary.com says "lavish" means:
expended, bestowed, or occurring in profusion

God pours out his LOVE on me in this way. How great the Father's LOVE is for me!

I want to ENJOY it freely! :-)

If you have not yet read chapter 1 in the book, I want to encourage you to underline, highlight or take note in your journal of everything that the authors say God is or does. They make a lot of assertions about God's character and intentions about you, His child. Jot those down whether they are quotes from the book or implied only. Ask God to show you if you believe these things!

I challenge you to begin to wait for physical hunger before you eat. (Yes, I know some may take issue with this phraseology, but I think it fits for people just starting out or others of us who "pre-empt" hunger by eating for a variety of *other* reasons!). Note when you are drawn to eat and *aren't* hungry and ask God to show you if you are not hungry, what it is that is making you think about food--why are you drawn? Food only satisfies physical hunger. All other "needs" or wants require something else to be satisfied.

What do you learn about yourself and about God as you wait for physical hunger before eating?

"Before You Begin"

One very enjoyable part of this study this summer will be to see how far God takes you. At the end of this study of the book, you will get to take the survey found in the "Before You Begin" section again...and you will find that your answers will be different. It will be one way of seeing somewhat objectively (well, sort of) that God has in fact been doing a new thing!

Since we BELIEVE what God says...that He IS DOING a new thing...whether it is measurable or not, visible or not, perceivable or not...we can KNOW that it is true. I anticipate, though, that by the end of our study, you will see some changes in how you answered these questions! It will be fun to use this little tool!

So please write in your book and answer the questions. It will be important and you will be glad you did it.

I am in a weak place today. I am overly tired and feeling a lot of pressure of things weighing on me. When I am in this place, I know I am vulnerable. Vulnerable to run to other things rather than to the Lord for comfort. Go figure! It seems crazy, yet there it is.

This morning, sleep deprived (the sky fell here in Cool, California at 4am...an electrical storm that lit the sky with an amazing display of cloud to ground lightning and hail 1/2 in diameter!) and feeling a bit lonely (hubby is traveling) and overwhelmed (wanting to have a clean house before I pick up a friend at the airport tomorrow, preparing to lead worship on Sunday morning, etc...), I turned to The Prayer That Changes Everything by Stormie Omartian this morning during my quiet time.

I felt God impress upon my heart that maybe someone here can use the encouragement found in some of the words that were a part of the prayer at the end of the chapter...

Lord, You are the only answer to the emptiness I feel when I am not with You. The fullness of Your being is what I crave. The intimacy of Your embrace is what I long for...Help me to make You the first place I run to when I have longings in my heart. I don't want to waste time turning to other things that will never satisfy the need I have for intimacy with You. My soul waits for you, Lord. (Psalm 33:20) Amen.

You see, when I am vulnerable, I am prone to being "needy"--to feeling empty. This is when I can start reaching for anything to fill the emptiness. I reach for the very busy-ness that keeps me feeling stressed (figure *that* one out!). Or, I reach for food, for the internet, for escaping into reading--even godly Christian books... While none of these things are wrong, necessarily, the problem is *why* am I running to them? Simply put...to avoid what I am called to...and I run to these things instead of running to God.

As you and I continue the early part of this sojourn we want to ask God to make each of us--I want to ask Him to make ME--to be aware when I am doing this before it happens. This is the crux of much of our disordered behavior and disordered eating. It really isn't about the food, the computer, the books, the busy-ness. It is about my heart, about your heart...and, mostly, about GOD.

Today, in the crazyness of my day, I want to have a heart that is still and knows that He is God. I want to feast on HIM internally, even while I am scrubbing the downstairs bathroom externally. :-)

Foundation - The Introduction

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands,
he was not aware that his face was radiant
because he had spoken with the LORD.
- Exodus 34:29

Each time upon Moses' return from being in the presence of the Lord in Exodus 34, his face was radiant. The Israelites could barely stand to look upon him because he was all aglow!

Have you ever known someone like that? Someone who seemed like they had been with God and reflected that outwardly? They might not have been beautiful by human standards, but something emanated from them --causing them to glow...and it spoke of intimacy with God.

The photo to the left is of my mother-in-law who is now with the Lord. Oh! How I love her! In this photo, Phyllis is eagerly opening a Christmas present. To make use of both hands--one of which had been occupied by holding a cookie she was enjoying--she held on to the cookie with her mouth instead. What a character!

I wish I had a picture that shows just how much she glowed with the radiance that only the Lord can do in a life. No matter what came her way, she had an outward gleam...and you could tell that while her feet may have been touching the pavement of this earth, her heart was in the presence of the Lord. It was obvious outwardly!

Likewise, God is after our personal spiritual formation and transformation! Often, this transformation results in outward physical changes. Definitely, when we allow him to have a hold of our hearts, it happens from within...and radiates outwardly. Sometimes it will affect our countenance. Sometimes, it may even affect our physical shape. But being with HIM is what makes the difference.

Try as we might to look a certain way--to look like Moses did after coming down from the Mountain--we can't generate that on our own by outward constraints. The only way lasting transformation occurs is by walking/being with the Lord.

Likewise, the kind of physical changes that most of us want in our bodies...

So I guess this is the bad news. I may as well lay it out there right now! This is hard. In fact, it is likely harder than making changes to our bodies alone! For instance, how many of us know how to lose weight? If you are like me, you know how to do that really well. But what we haven't quite gotten down is how to do this genuinely, authentically--without resentment or "feeling ripped off"...and in a way that lasts without obsession seeming to be necessary to keep it up.

This is what we are after. Or what I hope you are after with me.

God wants our hearts to belong to him (not to some "skinny" ideal or even to some vision of "health and wholeness!"). As we relinquish our hearts to him, we WILL change from the inside out.

---

Thoughts for you to ponder:

1.) What is really your priority right now? Is it:

a.) "To get this weight off!"
b.) "To do and be what I want."
c.) "To depend on the Lord and to grow in my dependence on Him"

Obviously, most of us want to answer "c.)" but what is our honest answer? What does our behavior say? Or put another way and perhaps something that will tell us the truth about what our priority really is...What do you think about the most? That is usually a clue as to what you really want the most...as to what your priority is. Am I thinking about food all the time? Am I focused on the body that I don't have but want? Or do I long to be more like Jesus? Ouch! That is convicting. At least to me!

Don't allow the Enemy to use this to beat you up and please don't beat yourself up! On page xv of the introduction we are told we will put away our "club of condemnation." So let's not get it out now. We will learn instead "to walk in newness of a grace-filled life in the present moment."

If you find yourself honestly answering a.) or b.), never fear. God can work wonders when we are honest with him. Read Psalm 51--especially verse 12 and make it your prayer to God, "Lord please grant me a willing spirit..."

2.) Are you willing to foster an awareness of Jesus' presence in every moment of your life? You can do this in your heart even in the midst of a hustle bustle work schedule or being with your kids or running errands or whatever you do. Truthfully, there is no way to experience the kind of lasting, deep, penetrating transformation that we really need apart from developing an awareness of his constant care and presence with you. Truly, this can be quite simple, but it is NOT easy!

What is your plan for being sure you depend on the Lord through this journey? How can you set yourself up for "success?" What I mean by "success" is not about eating or food, but about the heart change we need in order for the outward changes to "take" and "stick." Right now, we may care most about physical changes...we want to lose weight! We *have* to lose weight! Truthfully, that is not God's priority. Heart change is. I can't say this enough!

---

In the introduction, we are reminded that we may have to "unlearn many things we have come to depend on over the years..." As we launch our study, many of us might slip into a "diet" mentality... You may not even realize it! These are things we will have to unlearn.

As we are reminded on page xv, "...our focus won't be only on externals or appearances."

I hope that message has come across loud and clear this morning as you have read through this entry. I know this is something I struggle with and that God yet is working with me on.

The prayer on page xv says it so well...and some of my prayer today for each of us is borrowed from there:

Lord, please open our eyes and release us from the chains that bind us. Help us to focus not on outward appearance or the changes that we want in our size or physical condition. Help us, instead, to focus on being willing to depend on you, lean on you, to need you...when something inside us lures us to food or drink or anything apart from you, cause us to wait on you instead...may we develop such a dependence on you that we stay in your presence throughout the day and our countenances reflect the radiance of those who are in the presence of the Lord. Remake and change us from the inside out. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Thoughts as I head off...

Just a reminder: My blog entries may be daily, but please don't feel like you have to visit the blog each day, read every word or answer every question. Be gentle with yourself! Ask God what level of participation he has in mind for you and then ask him to give you the strength to do what HE wants...no less, but also NO more! Ask for him to help you NOT to beat yourself up if you feel you haven't "kept up!" He will use whatever time and heart you invest in this process!
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Wow. I so enjoyed beginning my reading yesterday. Even as I read the acknowledgments pages and the About the Authors...I was touched that the Lord raised up the Hallidays to bring this material to the printed page.

I was also reminded about the blessing that God gave me...when I was so deep in my own struggles, that he invited me to participate with the Hallidays as the collaborator with them on the book. I bring this up not to elevate myself to you. NO! Please don't put me on any kind of pedestal. I just want you to know that, given where I was when I was invited to participate, that there was NO merit in me--not writing ability, not a "successful" track record...nothing--it floors me how gracious and merciful our God is. He is with EACH of us. Every time I think of how I had the privilege of participating in the Thin Within book project and it was so clearly ALL about God and not at all about me, I am reminded that he calls the things that are not as though they are (Romans 4:17 - read the context, too...it is amazing!).

He loves to take what we think we "know" and surprise us in a huge way with just how awesome he is.

I hope you will take this as encouragement on this journey. Whatever you may think you "know" about yourself...forget it. :-) God knows better. He is calling the things that are not in your life as though they are, because in him, he can speak it into existence! THIS is the God we serve!

In the acknowledgments pages, I underlined things like these: "gratitude," "faithfulness of our sovereign God," "His message of freedom and hope," "freedom in Christ," and "inerrant Word of God." As I mentioned previously, these kinds of things in the opening pages allow a reader to sort of "get to know" the authors.

In the "Meet Judy Halliday" section Judy says that she has joy, peace, and contentment relative to food, weight and her body. In recent months, when I have spoken with Judy on the phone about my own struggles to accept my body as it has changed without the help of tons of caffeine each day, she has encouraged me so much...She reminded me first that perhaps this IS my GOD-given size. What grace she expresses. I needed the reminder...

I share all of this because the very grace this author teaches in her book, she expresses and offers. That says a lot.

This time, as I read Judy's testimony, something hit me that has never hit me before. I share this with you all here in keeping with my commitment to be honest on this journey...She speaks on page x about Thin Within becoming her identity. She says:

"It was my family and my passion, which I served seven days a week. Thin Within had become my god. I deified it just as I had deified food and exercise. I was without a weight problem, but I was not really free. I had simply changed addictions!"

I believe this is what happened to me relatively recently! I had allowed being a "poster child" for Thin Within to become my identity...and in many ways, I had deified that role...YIKES! Reading the words on the page yesterday, my heart testified as to the truth of this in my life!

I want to maintain a godly perspective...a deep awareness of the blessing that God has called me to participate in His ministry to people through Thin Within, without elevating Thin Within or the Hallidays improperly. Balance in all things...an appropriate focus.

Judy says on page xi:

"...my performance had nothing to do with my identity; it was about Him giving me a new heart."

This little statement hiding in the About the Authors section is powerful! So often we bash ourselves about our performance. When I gained some weight after giving up my caffeine addiction, I did this very thing. I allowed myself to be obsessed with my "failed performance" and all I thought it said about me...If you had asked me, I would have told you that of course this isn't all about the physical body. And yet, somehow I had made it be about that so that when my physical body changed, I felt like a failure.

God is at work doing a heart transplant in each of us. I have found that he is perfectly willing to allow me to come to the end of myself in order for me to see that my focus is wrong...that I have clung to something that is out of his will for me. Even GOOD things can steal our heart if we allow it!

In Dr. Halliday's biography section, he closes with something that ties in perfectly to these thoughts and I just have to challenge each of us with these words...

"God loves us and accepts us as we are and where we are right now. He will gladly enter the life that is surrendered. He doesn't wait for us to get it all together first."

God chose to give us Jesus while we were yet sinners. Why do we act like he disapproves of us when we sin? He disapproves of the sin, yes...but he totally loves and accepts us! Oh, that we would ALL believe GOD about what HE says to be true of us!

Thoughts for you to ponder (this is optional!):

1.) Is there anything that you have "deified" like I did Thin Within? It may even be a good thing that has too elevated a value in your life. Prayerfully take this to God.

2.) How likely are you to get a sense of your identity from your performance, be it performance trying to lose weight, or any other thing that you may strive to do well? What do you think you should be aware of about yourself and this tendency as you begin this journey?

3.) Do you believe God? Not believe IN God, but believe God--believe what he says about you? Do you believe that, if you have come to Him through Jesus, that you are now 100% acceptable to him? How might this impact you as you begin this journey?

4.) What does God say about you in these verses? Romans 3:19-28, Romans 5:1-11, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 1:22; 3:12, Hebrews 10:14, Titus 3:7, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:24, Hebrews 9:22. Do you believe God and what he says in these verses?

Lord, I pray that each of us will experience freedom, peace, and joy relative to our bodies, food, and weight. You are after something so much deeper than a physical change. I pray that we would believe what you have to say about us and to us. Change us, Lord. I pray for my sisters here (and any brothers if they are along!) that we would just surrender ourselves to you to do with as you please. The thought is frightening, Lord...we want to maintain our illusion of control. But you are good and wise and loving...and you have a new thing in mind for each of us. You are doing it right now. I pray we might perceive it! Lord, some of us have gone through this material so many times and it feels tired to us. I pray that you will infuse us with a new perspective. You have called us to this place again for a reason. Truly, we have never been quite where we are today with the life experiences that we have now, the insight, the thoughts...so that alone shows that this isn't the same old same old. You have been working on us. Help us to believe you that you will continue to work in and through us. Help us to believe you that...what you have begun, you WILL complete. Help us to cooperate with you in it today! Renew our minds by your word, Lord! In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Week 01 - Let's GO!

Well, like I said, it sure isn't Lifeway or Beth Moore...but I just want to sit down with ya all and talk with you! I picture you when I talk out loud to you...so...here ya go. Under 2 minutes. YAY!

The text I use for this little video "Hurrah!" is Hebrews 12:1-3. I urge you to meditate on it as you begin this journey. Prayerfully ponder what is entangling you or burdening you down? What would keep you from being "successful" in "hiking" forward with the Lord?

Most of all, PLEASE...FIX YOUR EYES ON HIM! Every time we focus on our past failures (or current ones) or our past "track record," we lose momentum...Fix your eyes on what is AHEAD. Jesus has gone before us. He suffered and kept at it all. We want HIM to fill our vision!!!

I think I have posted three entries for today! That is way over quota and I don't want anyone discouraged! So I will shut my yap now! :-)

The assignment for week one is found here.

Modification of Assignment Week 1

Some of us are studying Thin Within, by Arthur and Judy Halliday this summer.

If you have already seen the assignment for this week in my previous blog entry, I have just modified it to include chapter 2. These are goals only...so don't worry if you don't get it done. I may not. I scheduled out tentative goals for each week so we could finish by the end of August, but, again, this is only tentative.

If you do not keep the pace I suggest or even the pace I keep (which may be slower still), please do not beat yourself up...just hang in there. It sometimes takes longer to digest the more nutritious aspects of a meal, right? Likewise, to really assimilate the important teachings that the Lord has for us.

So here is the assignment for June 1-7 again in case I have made this utterly confusing already!

Please read from the title page through page 26, highlight, make notes, answer the questions in the book, etc! Cover your experience with prayer and keep referring to your bible whenever possible. That is the most important guidebook for this process!