Month: August 2018

Desire

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Our Minnesota summer is winding down with school starting Sept 4. This last week has been busy with back to school events, last minute fun activities, and the MN State Fair.  Since the kids started 4-H it’s been a tradition to spend one day at the State Fair, usually ending with their Share the Fun skit performance.  This year we were there for the 4-H Performing Arts acts as one of our kids received a champion at the county fair.  We were able to fulfill our tradition of eating cheese curds and Sweet Martha’s chocolate chip cookies.

I’m really looking forward to getting back into a routine with kids going to school.  I’m planning to rework my clock schedule and try to stick to it!

One of our classes at
TK with a spiritual
focus was called
“Soul Making”.  We
usually talked about
a specific idea and
read scripture about
it.  At the end there
would be questions
for personal reflection.
This first one is on Desire.

Scriptures used:

  1. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
  2. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1)
  3. Come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Some questions we discussed included:

  • What are some traps that promise love and fulfillment, and why are they so attractive?
  • Who or what has been your source of security? Achievement? Belonging?
  • Have these sources led you to true fulfillment or have they been destructive?

Desire is given by God.
He’s placed in each of
us basic human desires
of safety, acceptance,
and achievement.  These
have somewhat of a
building on each other.
If basic safety isn’t
possible, it will be
difficult to think about
what we are achieving
with our God-given
talents. The layers are
depicted well here…

 

 

In our session we talked about how it’s nice to feel safe with other people, it’s comforting to feel like others accept us, and it’s inspiring to see what we’ve accomplished, AND all of that pales to the safety, acceptance, and accomplishment we feel when we are in Christ and the Spirit is in us.

Here are the personal reflection questions we answered. Feel free to write out your own answers.

  1. What would it be like to walk on a path towards Jesus carrying your burdens?
  2. What would it be like to surrender your burdens or baggage to Jesus? What emotions would you feel – hesitant, excited, doubtful, dreadful, sad, happy?
  3. If you symbolically carried your burden to the cross of Jesus today, what would it feel like? Would you want to pick it back up again?
  4. What does surrendering fully mean to you? What do you wrestle with and what do you know confidently?

New Song posted – Father’s Heart – about His desire for us.

Importance of Faith in Recovery

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One of our sessions focused on faith – now the faith they’re talking about isn’t necessarily in God.  There are a dozen short sections to the lesson we discussed, so I’ll try to boil it down to the important parts.  First is a list of Types of Faith.  After establishing that I’ll write about the rest from a faith in God perspective because that, I believe, is important in recovery.

Types of Faith

  1. The individual has faith in their
    own ability to achieve something.
  2. A person can have faith in someone else to
    help them, such as a doctor or therapist.
  3. People can have faith in ideas.
  4. The individual has faith in God.
  5. People have faith in their religious beliefs.
  6. Faith can be inspired by other people,
    such as when one in recovery sees
    the progress others are making.

 

This lesson was written for those struggling with addiction, but it applies more broadly to anyone struggling with eating disorders, mental disorders, depression, anxiety, and even to someone that’s a new believer in Christ.

The next list was Reasons for Taking a Leap of Faith in Recovery.

  • There may be no amount of evidence that one can see light at the end of the tunnel – overcoming addiction, managing eating disorders or depression, or even how a life of following Jesus is possible.
  • If someone in any of these circumstances is cynical or suspicious of people, they’ll need to set aside that negativity to take a chance or leap of faith.
  • Faith – confidence that life will improve – is necessary until a person’s self-esteem improves due to progress in recovery.
  • A person in recovery needs to trust others to help them or they may not get the support they need.

Faith is closely related to having realistic expectations in recovery. It’s unreasonable that
once recovery begins life will be perfect as recovery is a long process. It takes time to
overcome or learn to manage difficulties
that resulted in a need for recovery. Faith,
then, allows a person to have hope that
life will get better while working toward
that goal, especially in the early days of
recovery which are the most turbulent.
It’s easy in the early days to question the
decision to begin recovery. It’s a tough
time. There’s emptiness left by activities
or thought processes given up, and until
new patterns are formed a person can
feel at odds with life.  Again, faith that
life will get better allows one to continue
working on recovery instead of giving up.

Faith in God, his forgiveness, and the peace that follows can make the whole process easier.  Understanding the love of God for us personally is sometimes the only way to move forward.

 

“Clean Eating”

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When healthy eating become unhealthy…

(The following definition and explanations are taken from a document
developed by the Centre for Clinical Interventions and Kate Fleming, Dietician.)

“Clean Eating” can be described as eating only select foods from the major food groups and eliminating foods high in sugar, trans-fats, preservatives and/or additives. It also involves choosing foods based on how they are processed or manufactured.  Clean Eating may appear to reflect traditional healthy guidelines, however it is common for those attempting to eat “cleanly” to progress from limiting their intake of certain food types to avoiding these foods altogether.  Restricting our food intake in this way can pose serious risks to both our physical and mental well-being.

I’m going to boil down lots
of type into a few bullet points
about the risks and then list
some questions that help
determine if someone is
eating to cleanly.

RISKS
  • We may miss out on key nutrients by avoiding whole food groups.
  • It may lead to Orthorexia Nervosa, the obsession with eating righteously, cleanly, or perfectly.
  • We may have hormonal imbalances or heart problems.
  • If it’s extreme our mental health could be adversely affected. The more we attempt to control our intake, the more we feel a sense of deprivation leading to preoccupation with eating habits.
  • If we become preoccupied with our eating habits it can affect our ability to concentrate at work or school, give us a sense of superiority over others, and make it difficult to eat with others.
  • Limiting intake, eliminating whole food groups, and preoccupation with eating habits can impact our mood by causing us to be irritable or depressed, or causing shame and guilt when we can’t live up to the standard we’ve set.

Is your eating too “clean” or inflexible; here are eight questions to ask yourself.
If you answer yes to a couple of these, you may need to seek help.

  1. Have I cut out specific foods or entire food groups?
  2. Do I find myself feeling guilty after eating “bad” foods or a sense of pride/achievement after eating good or “clean” foods?
  3. Is it very difficult or impossible for me to eat a meal prepared by someone else?
  4. Am I starting to limit socializing with others so that I am able to stick to my eating habits?
  5. Do I judge other people’s eating habits or encourage them to eat in a similar way to me?
  6. Do I spend a large amount of time planning my meals in advance?
  7. Do I often spend time researching wellness blogs that stipulate nutritional components of foods and the need to follow specific ways of eating?
  8. Am I finding it difficult to concentrate or perform at work or school because I can’t stop thinking about food, planning my meals, or perfecting how I am eating?

Finally, here are a few suggestions on how to overcome “clean eating.”

  1. Follow a balanced flexible eating plan that is based on dietary recommendations
  2. Include all food groups.
  3. Allow yourself, without feeling guilty, to eat foods such as chocolate and cake in moderation.
  4. Limit the amount of time you spend researching what you “should” eat and critically evaluate the information you do receive.
  5. Get help from a professional – doctor, dietician, etc. – if needed.

 

This list picture shows the good and the bad of what’s been scientifically proven. I think it’s really well done.

 

 

Here are some notes I
took during this class.

  • Balance – core food groups, Variety – balance within the core food groups, Moderation – portion sizes and hunger/fullness cues (Notice in the section above, they reference these three guidelines.)
  • Fats shouldn’t be eliminated because they are needed to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K. (Side note: fats are needed for brain development – it’s been proven that when the country as a whole went toward low fat diets, the rate of Alzheimer’s went up dramatically.)
  • The digestion system doesn’t have a brain; it just does its job to turn food into energy.
  • There is a state of the body called Rest and Digest which indicates the digestion system is doing its job. If the body is in Fight or Flight mode, it can’t also be in Rest and Digest; therefore, the body doesn’t absorb nutrients as well if there is anxiety over a meal.