Yo, God Class

Class today leads us to pray without ceasing as we exercise our minds, spirit and body. Eventually the physical exercise may end but praying without ceasing must go on.

As we learn to pray we need to treat it as a new exercise. One we may only be able to do it for a moment or two at first like my elliptical exercise I do. However, with time and persistence I plan to last longer but it's going to take awhile. Same with prayer.

Therefore, let class begin as once more Yo, God leads us to pray without ceasing to:

•be thankful to God no matter what happens
•have the fruit of the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,
•live and walk by the Spirit
•have the ability to bring out the best in people
•be cheerful no matter what
•not suppress the Spirit
•be steady and determined in my faith despite hard times
•have God make me fit for whatever He has called me to do
•live my life to honor God forever
•have a clean mind, holy meditation, and a controlled tongue
•know wisdom and instructions and perceive the words of understanding
•be wise enough to hear and increase my learning
•have a peace of mind and strengthened spirit




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Yo God

Some of the best things to meditate on when we are exercising our body are things that will exercise our spiritual lives as well. The following are statements from the 16th and 17th century from the Puritans who were really in to giving God the glory and praise due His name. They were also good at self-reflection and taking at look at themselves and see what needed to be fixed, what was good, what could be added and so much more.

So think about these things as we reach out to say once more, "Yo, God....."

•Teach me to praise, adore, and magnify Thee with the music of Heaven and make me a perfume of praiseful gratitude to Thee.


•Help me walk the separated life with firm and brave steps and to wrestle successfully against weakness.


•Give me the power to live as Thy child in all my actions and to exercise sonship by conquering self.


•Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom, not asking whether the road be rough or smooth.

Yo, God Class~~~~~~God is my hiding place

God is my hiding place, He will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance Psalm 32:7 Today as I grabbed for my weights to do my daily exercises the scripture I brought with me to class was the one from Psalm 32:7. As I lifted my weights one by one I reflected on the fact that God was my hiding place where He protected me from trouble and surrounded me with songs of deliverance. With each bending of my elbows stretching out the weights in my hands I reflected on the fact that God wasn’t there to keep me away from trouble. He was there to protect me from the trouble I face. The fact that He was my hiding place wasn’t a place to keep from dealing with life. It was a place where it made it easier to deal with the things going on in my life. Truly what I learned in this minute meditation was something that was going to go with me throughout the day to help tone my life. Knowing I have a place of safety where rest and peace is found is wonderful. It was something far more of a blessing to reflect upon than the negative things in life that like to add only flab to your Christian body. “Yo, God’ Thanks for being my hiding place. My place where I can always dwell.’ I love you, Lord.”

Yo God

Recently when I was at a women's retreat speaking on my journey with stress seizures a lady talked to me about her Yoga class. She was real pleased with the results and she enjoyed the relaxing meditation time she got from it. After the retreat I got to thinking about it as well. One day as I sat at my desk I started thinking about the importance of meditation on God's scriptures. Since my cancer doctor is always asking me if I am exercising I began to wonder if I could put the two together.

It was here that I thought of the phrase "yo God." As I grabbed my five pound weights I started to stretch out my arms in various motions as I meditated on a scripture I pulled out of my Bible to feed upon. It was very relaxing to go slow in my arm movements as well as in my meditation of the scripture in order to benefit from both.

What started as a one time experiment has turned into a daily routine. One that I do daily and whenever I feel my spirit in the need of getting back on track. It has been a way to focus on what is important in order to escape the stress and strain of the world.

Doing these one minute mediations and muscle toning that both have lasting affects has been great. After all our minds were designed to meditate on things, why not make it something beneficial for both our spiritual and physical side of life.

Come with me as we attend our "Yo God" class and reap the benefits of what we are willing to sow.

Pray hard

Growing Beyond~~~~95 Days till Easter Days 85-87

Growing Beyond    Day 87              Jan 3, 2013       Man-Made Rules

On this day I need to concentrate on getting rid of all the man-made rules that hinder my success. Rules such as: 1) I need to eat when everyone else eats, 2) I need to clean my plate even though I’m already satisfied, 3) the clock tells me when to eat, and 4) food gives me comfort when I need it.

Truly when spiritual issues and sensual indulgence are not tackled or addressed and redirected using the good news of Jesus Christ, then all we have are man-made rules. It’s hard to understand how we will follow a man made rule in a heartbeat but ignore the rules set out by God.

Why is it we are so willing to self-destruct using man-made rules and ignore the things designed to give us life not take it away which are the rules of God. Too often people think the Bible is outdated that the rules shouldn’t apply to the current century. Well let me ask you, “How long ago did man make up the rule that if you murder someone you will be convicted and stand the possibility of being put to death yourself?” That is an old rule made in an earlier century therefore it should be considered to be outdated. Right? Wrong!

As much as we would like to believe that rules were meant to be broken they aren’t. They are there for a reason but we need to make sure we are following all the right rules when it comes to our eating habits or our spiritual lives. God’s way is better than any man-made rule that ever could have been designed. Therefore its up to us to stay away from the man-made rules that have only lead to our self-destruction and follow God’s design of eating right. Rules such as: 5) eating when you are hungry not when the clock says to; 4) eating till you are satisfied not until the plate is empty; 3) getting my comfort from God instead of chocolate covered donut I thought was my friend; and 2) Eating when its right for me not when its right for everyone who happens to be eating at the time.

The number one rule: 1) Allow God to rule in my life, to have control over me instead of food and my desire to eat it whenever I want.

 

 

Growing Beyond    Day 86     Jan 4, 2013                    Desire for Extra Food

Whether I want to admit it or not I need to get rid of my evil desire for extra food. No, evil is not too harsh of a word as it really does describe it well. Just because I love something I’m eating doesn’t mean I need to eat more of it than I should. When I allow food to call my name and eat beyond what my body needs that is, evil. It goes against God’s plan for me to wait for my body to call for food and tell me when it’s time to stop.

I won’t die if I pass the opportunity for a maple bar donut. The extra helping of scalloped potatoes I think I need really doesn’t do a thing for me except round my hips out a little more.

 

I need to live my life taking in the food my body needs, not the extra my mind wants.

 

Growing Beyond    Day 85   Jan 5, 2013              Self-Control and Self-Discipline

Ten days into my 95 days till Easter journey and I am now thinking of self-control. Duh! The whole journey is about self-control and self-discipline. It’s almost a test to see if the spirit of God is alive and strong in me. Or maybe what I should say is it’s a test to see if I am going to listen to the spirit of God in me to use His eating system designed in me from the moment of conception. 

 

The extra rolls of fat on my belly, the added weight showing up on the scales shows just out of control I am when it comes to eating. My eating habits are at their worse and my body advertises that as I jiggle when I walk. I have no one else to blame but myself. McDonald’s is not to blame; it wasn’t Burger Kings fault I got fat. Dunkin Donuts had no clue of my intensions to over eat and carry with me on my hips the extra calories I consumed.

 

As much as we would like to blame everyone else, we are to blame. We are the ones who need to learn the dying art of self-control and self-discipline. This doesn’t apply to food only. It is something that needs to be practiced in everything we do. In our handling of money, the desire to do drugs, the way we treat others, studying for a school exam, coming to work daily on time, and the list goes on and on.

 

Now is the time for us to start controlling our own lives and stop allowing food or our emotions and desires to control us.

 

95 day journey till Easter ~~~~~ Days 90 to 88

Day 88       Jan 2, 2013       It’s me not the food that needs to behave

One thing I’ve learned over the years is the fact that it’s not the food that needs to be obedient. Too often we try to give the task of being obedient to the kind of food we eat. After all it should be the one who behaves as we do our part and eat all the “right” things, whole wheat, all natural, diet drinks, fat free, or whatever else. Needless to say if we eat more of those “right” foods than our body can burn up we are going to gain weight anyway. Once when I was on a fat free diet I figured I could eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted as long as it was “fat free.” Guess what? Yes you guessed it, I gained weight.

 

The food was being obedient but I wasn’t. On diets we’ve had success with often once we lose our weight and stop dieting we gain our weight back. Why is this? It’s frequently because we haven’t taught ourselves to be the one who obeys God’s rules for healthy eating by eating when we are hungry and stopping when we are satisfied.   

 

It doesn’t matter what food we eat. We can eat a candy bar if our stomach is truly hungry and we stop when satisfied. However, it’s always smart to eat the food that is best for us nutrition wise such as vegetables and fresh food but don’t think it’s the one that needs to be obedient. Obedience to proper eating habits is our job. We are the ones who need to behave not the food.

 

Day 89          Jan 1, 2013     God’s Word In Action

A good task for anything we do is to keep God’s word in our heart. This is how I conquered my stress seizures over 20 years ago and this is how I can defeat my weight problem. Scriptures such as “I can do all things (lose weight included) thru Christ who gives me strength (Phil 4:13). God’s grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9) I don’t need food to complete me or my life. My body is a temple of God (1 Cor 6:19,20) I need to take care of it and use it to glorify God not disgrace Him by my choice of eating habits. Earlier in that same chapter in Corinthians it talks about how we may think all things are lawful for us but all things are not helpful and we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be under the power of any of it. It goes on to say food is for the stomach and the stomach for food but eventually God will destroy both.

 

The ice cream I thought I needed, the fulfillment lasted about as long as the ice cream bar did. Once it was gone it all was gone including the satisfaction. What I need to do is concentrate on the fact that what remains is my spiritual temple I’ve been assigned caretaker to. It is the thing that will last forever and it’s up to me to see to it that it is cared for properly. It doesn’t require ice cream, pie, cookies, or extra food servings. It requires care, nurturing, attention, and the proper feeding of spiritual food instead. It entails me to allow God’s word to be in action in all that I say, do, and eat.

Day 90    12-31-12   The Fight Against Frustration

In attempt to do anything in life whether it’s dieting, going to college, working, training horses, riding cows, building bridges, etc we will always run into some kind of frustration. Recently as I weighed myself to see if I had lost any weight the scale went up instead of down.

 

Instant frustration could be felt over the fact that all my hard work wasn’t paying off. At the rate I was going I might as well quit now instead of trying to go on. The same old tape recordings in my mind began to play once more, “this is the way it always is, and no matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to lose weight so why bother!”

At the risk of trying to lie to myself along with everyone else I truly wasn’t trying. My ratio of efforts was reflecting on the very scale I stood upon as I pointed my finger at it yelling “liar, liar!”

 

When we lie to ourselves we are only adding to our frustration instead of taking away from it. Frustration is grown on the root of stress and it needs dealt with properly like everything else. Yes, life has its frustrations but that is no excuse to yell and scream and point our fingers at everyone else without looking at what the true problem is.

 

Frustration has a way of setting us back but we don’t have to give ourselves permission to stay there and make matters worse. Its better we stand upright once again and keep moving forward stronger and better as we overcome each of life’s frustrations and setbacks one day at a time.

 

© 2013 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing for Growing Beyond

 

 

Day 91 until Easter~~~~~~Death to Self

Dec 12-30-12

When I think of the subject of “death-to-self” the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I get offensive. After all, I’m an adult and have been for several years I should not have to deny myself anything. I have a job I can pay for whatever it is I want. If I want a banana split I can get it, I don’t need mommy around anymore telling me what I can or cannot do.

Wrong!

 

The job of mom if you think about it is to do their job so well that they work their way out of a job. As the child grows up they are to take over where mom or dad left off and are able to care for themselves. One of the lessons to be learnt is the lesson of dying to one’s self. To be able to say “No” once in a while in order to maintain proper discipline and good choices.

Just because I can say “Yes” doesn’t make that the right answer. If I’m eating too much and I’m gaining weight I need to die to myself and the desires I have to eat in a greedy, glutton, selfish kind of way.

 

After doing this for a while I have found that I still manage to live, duh! It doesn’t kill me totally to say “no” to a cookie today because tomorrow I may be able to have one if I’m truly hungry and one cookie doesn’t turn into a jar full of cookies.

 

By nature we are selfish people and we need to learn the lesson of dying to ourselves. Learning quickly how to say “No” and to think of someone more than ourselves. Once again just because we “can” do something doesn’t make it right. We need to be living our lives in a manner that glorifies God and benefits us and those around us. Dying to one’s self doesn’t kill us, it causes us to grow in the right way and mature more and more into the person we need to be.

 

Growing beyond the size I am today into the size of clothes I should be requires death to self and the bad choices I’ve been making that got me to where I am today weight wise. It’s a choice, a discipline worth taking. In the long run it causes me to gain something much more than extra pounds. I gain maturity and satisfaction in Christ.

 

© 2013 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing for Growing Beyond

92 Days Till Easter~~~~~~~Falling Links

December 29, 2012

Well its 92 days till Easter and already I have noticed some links falling off the chain that had me bound. As nice as it would have been to have the whole thing drop off instantly it just doesn’t work that way.

 

That’s one of our biggest problems is patience and waiting for the results to happen. We live in a society that expects everything instantly. We don’t have time to wait. We expect the traffic lights to turn green the minute we get to them. We expect the bank teller at the drive thru banking to be helping no one but us, after all isn’t that why they are there waiting in that booth just for us!

 

Whether we noticed it at the time or not the chain we find ourselves attached to, went on one link at a time and that is exactly how it’s going to come off. For me I find the link of making bad food choices is starting to fall off. Also the link of not being able to say no to the temptation of food is beginning to lose its grip.

 

Thank you Lord for giving us the ability to remove the chains we ourselves installed. Forgive us for our laziness and unwillingness to do our part. Having the right attitude going forward is one of the biggest pliers that will help remove unwanted links to a chain that doesn’t have to be there as long as we stick with You Father God. Praise you for this journey and may I learn what I need to learn and share with others what needs to be shared in order to help them remove the links and uninstall the chain.

93 days till Easter~~~~~~~~Enslavemenrt

December 28, 2012           Enslavement
                                                             

Too often we are enslaved by something and don’t even know it. Even when we know it we don’t want to do anything about it. We accept it as our new norm instead of putting out the effort to free ourselves from what it is that has a hold on us.

 

The other day as I looked through old pictures of myself, I noticed I have been overweight my entire adult life. Thirty years or more I’ve been enslaved by something I just would not take the time to free myself from.

 

Once again isn’t that what Easter represents is the freedom that Christ has set us free for. Not the freedom to do what we want but the freedom from the enslavement of sin. God put the key in the door of that entrapment to sin and unlocked it with the blood of Jesus Christ. However, for some odd reason we remain standing in the jail cell that once held us. Indeed the jail cell of sin wallpapered with our acts of doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted and ignoring the commandments of God.

 

How foolish is that? Pretty foolish I must say. Every time I eat what I shouldn’t be eating the clicking sound of the key to my cell needs to go off in my heart. A sound to remind me whether I’m going to accept my enslavement to food and bad eating habits or walk free out of my cell that God already released me from.

 

We don’t need to be afraid, we need to be determined to take action and truly find the opened door to our freedom in Christ. Daily by our choices we need to accept our new norm of not allowing things like food, drugs, alcohol, money, sex, attitudes, and more to control us.

 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Free from sin, not freedom to sin.

Growing Beyond~~~~~~Hunting bad eating habits

Remember Elmer and his rabbit hunting? That's what I am doing but it's habit hunting instead.

Bad Eating Habits …      Just to name a few :(

*eating by the clock

*because its there

*seconds just to eat more

*while cooking

*Socially

*eating after certain things, after walking, during a movie, etc

*have to finish what I started eating

*emotional eating

*overeating after 5pm

*inability to say NO cuz I might hurt someone’s feelings

*out of control eating on weekends

*acting as if I have to eat it because this will be my only chance to eat a sundae, pie, cake, cookie

*mindless eating, eating without even thinking about it

94 days to Easter~~~~~~~~~~~~~Habit Hunting

December 27, 2012

It is now 94 days till Easter. My task today is to go out hunting habits. To get rid of the old habits that feed my desire to eat what I want, whenever I want, as much as I want. Habits such as eating by the clock, eating because I happened to be in the kitchen, eating because I’m upset, eating because everyone else is eating and eating beyond full just because I can. Other things that need to be hunted down and gotten rid of are the habits of eating too fast and eating while cooking as well.

 

The hard part about dealing with habits is the fact that they happen so automatically that you commit the bad habit before you even realize it. Suddenly tonight as I was cooking dinner I found myself snitching yet another bite of food from the pot. There was no pre-meditated decision only an old habit that took control once again.

 

Truth be known over the years of trying to “diet” the one thing that crashed most of my diets were the habits I couldn’t seem to break. Nice try, Karen, but no cigars or candy! As much as I would like to blame all those bad habits the true culprit was me. It was me that allowed something to control my behavior, it was me who easily gave in to temptation, it was me who chose food over God when I knew the consequences. It was me not McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Papa Murphy’s pizza, Dunkin donuts or anything else to blame for my obesity.

 

So although indeed the bad habits have to go I’m the one responsible to make sure that happens. They are not going away on their own, and they are more than happy to stay as long as I welcome them into my life.

 

 

95 days till Easter~~~~~~~~~~~~~Committment

December 26, 2012

On my journey to be free from my slavery to food it is now 95 days till Easter. On this day I make a commitment to stop dieting. It's time to stop trying to make food behave and place the responsibility on myself. Wow! That is so opposite of what the world starts on January 1st, the commitment or resolution to diet.

I need instead to do it God's way and stop doing anything that makes me talk about, focus on, lust after food, or allow it to control me. Eating by the clock, savoring the smell of food, lusting over a mere picture of food, or falling for the power of suggestion to eat what I don't need all have to go.

In my commitment the battery on the clock needs to be removed. There is no more eating in the morning because that's what we are supposed to do or eating at noon or six o'clock because they are the appointed times to be hungry. I need to allow my stomach to tell me what the appointed time is not the clock.

My desire to keep my commitment to myself and God needs to be stronger than my desire to eat what I want when I want it. A good scripture to think of here as I begin is, Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

Growing Beyond ~~~~The master of food

The purpose for Christmas is the fact that Jesus is the reason for the season. Praise the Lord for that. Soon Easter will be upon us and the purpose for that occasion is the fact that we are the reason for the season. Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, on Easter we celebrate the birth of ourselves in Christ through accepting the gift of His love and forgiveness.

However, what about the time in between the two seasons of the coming of Christ and His death and resurrection for our salvation. One year I had an elder at the church challenge his Bible study group to find something to be thankful for each day between the two seasons. It was a really interesting assignment as I made sure I went beyond naming simple things like "I'm thankful for my toes" one day and "I'm thankful for my ears" the next day and so on. Also a challenge was making sure I had something new each day.

This season I have chosen something different to pre-occupy my time in between the two seasons. I will be taking a journey "out of Egypt." Not Egypt the country but Egypt as the symbol of a place of slavery as the Israelites were in, in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Years ago I went through a program called Weighdown or "Exodus out of Egypt by Gwen Shamblin when I did I lost 60 pounds. The focus of her program was to stop trying to make our food behave and take on the responsibility of self-control ourselves. The object of the program was to eat like God designed our bodies to eat, to do so when we are truly hungry and to stop when we are satisfied.  

 
As successful as the program was for me since then I have found myself back in that imaginary place that is real, that place of slavery once again. The idol of food that I vowed to never bow down to again slowly returned and I have only myself to blame for the self-inflicted chains I bound myself into once again in extra pounds and bad eating habits. Indeed the minute I was diagnosed with cancer I gave up caring about my weight. I had bigger fish to fry, problems to solve, battles to fight. I didn't need to concentrate on my weight.

Wrong! There is no excuse good enough to justify purposely doing damage to my body simply because I love food and don't want to exercise self-control. When I went to the Cancer Treatment Center in Arizona they told me that body fat in a woman produces hormones, the very thing my cancer is made from. For every extra fat cell I have I'm feeding my cancer. How nuts is that!

It's time to break that chain of slavery I have wrapped myself in and get back to what God wants for me in my life. He wants my undivided love, no sharing it half and half with food. My total worship, no dividing it up between the donut I'd love to eat or the extra serving I think I need and God. He wants me in control of me instead of allowing Satan to control me with his temptations and lies.

Instead of growing beyond my current pant size I need to grow beyond my slavery to food and other things in my life. Therefore journey with me to Easter starting the day after Christmas. Your bondage may not be to food, it can be to alcohol, gambling, tobacco, sex, money, drugs or other things but its still a form of slavery. As Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

The time is now, to stand firm, gain control of ourselves, and walk as Christ designed us to walk. Time to grow beyond our slavery and set ourselves free as Christ's death and resurrection intended for us. Let the journey begin.