Wednesday, June 18, 2008

New Insights!


Hiya, everyone!
It's pretty late tonight, but I just wanted to pop in and say hi to y'all.
Last week I really struggled with my thoughts, and was tempted to eat lots of naughty foods. I must admit, I gave in a couple of times, too. But I'm learning to encourage myself, and continue with the discipline of healthy eating. Where previously I would feel a strong sense of defeat, and be easily persuaded to give into temptations, now I find I can get back up, and keep on heading towards my goal- praise God!!!
Today at the gym I had my weigh and measure. It's been 2 months since I started there, and I've lost a total of 24.5cm (almost 10 inches!!) off various body parts, and about 3kg in weight! I'm so glad I haven't given up when I've struggled... I'm still on the road to victory!


My darling husband and I are about to start facilitating a fantastic marriage enrichment course called Making Marriage Better. (Click here to learn more about that!) We're really excited about it, and looking forward to ministering to many others through the course! But to facilitate (lead) the course, we first have to do the facilitator's course- naturally! My DH has already done it, and has been facilitating mens courses since last Feb., but I am in the midst of my training now.

The reason for all this chatter is to tell you about the wonderful insight I learned on Saturday, while watching the training videos. It was something I'd heard before, but on Saturday, the penny really dropped! I believe it's something that will really help me, and it may also be of help to you, so here goes...
The trainer, Helen Meyer, was discussing four areas of recovery: areas of a person's life which may need work in order for healing to take place. These areas are: spiritual area, cognitive area (thought life), behavioural area, and feelings or emotions.
Very often, pastors, counsellors, facilitators, etc. lean towards one particular area, and therefore they may try to help a person using only a narrow approach. (I hope you're following me!!) An example of this may be using cognitive techniques, but failing to address the spiritual roots of the issue, or conversely, using prayer and deliverance ministry, but not acknowledging the need to process emotions! "OK, OK," you say, "just get on with it and tell me the new insight you had!!"

Well, it was this: I realised that I too have a bent towards a particular area- namely the Behavioural one, and that my difficulties in conquering some of my lifelong issues (such as lateness and unhealthy living) may be due in part, to my lack of focus on the other areas of recovery! To explain what I mean a bit more, I'll detail what behavioural work consists of.

Behavioural work is:
  • Taking responsibility for your behaviour
  • Structuring your life for behavioural change
  • Making it easy to do the right thing
  • Making it hard to do the wrong thing!
  • Putting off/putting on - taking action
  • Support and accountability in a group or with a friend.
Wow, I hear bells ringing!! That is me to a T! Any of you who have been reading my blog for a while will agree, that's what I'm all about.. it's in just about every post I write! Sooooo, of course, the Holy Spirit was giving me a bit of a nudge, saying "What about the other 3 areas... perhaps it's time you looked at some of them a bit more seriously."

A challenge for all of us, perhaps, to move out of our comfort zone and explore a wholistic approach to our own change! How very strange for me, being confronted with this new truth! Even now, I'm trying to avoid a behavioural approach, such as putting in place a structure so I can address spiritual issues etc. Hee hee, isn't that funny!
So I will avoid it. I won't strategise, I'll just carry my course book around a bit, refer to it now and then, and wait for the Holy Spirit to speak some more. That was fairly loose, wasn't it??!?

I'm sure you want to know what the other three areas entail too. I've abridged them, because of course, they're under copywright, but at least you'll have the general idea!

Spiritual work includes:
  • Conversion, Baptism in the Holy Spirit
  • Forgiveness, Inner healing
  • Deliverance, Spiritual warfare, and devotional life.
Cognitive work includes:
  • Renewing the mind, Bible study and replacing negative self talk with Biblical truth
  • Challenging faulty beliefs and lies
  • Learning new truths about yourself (eg Who I am in Christ!)
Feelings work includes:
  • Learning how to identify and express feelings
  • Allowing yourself to experience feelings (eg suppressed feelings!)
  • Expressing feelings responsibly
How do you work through things in your life? Do you focus on one of these areas in particular? I hope this new insight has been helpful for you! I'm off to bed now, but will continue to think and pray about these things in the days ahead. I'd love to hear your comments about this!

Have a great week everyone!



Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

Monday, June 16, 2008

Lemons!

Just wanted to share the laugh with you...

Remember those alarm clocks I bought 2 posts back?
Well you guessed it- they were lemons!... Not one of them worked!!!!
Can you imagine my flabbergastered-ness (is there such a word??), when I got up at 6.30a.m. and investigated these silent creatures...
despite fiddling with the various settings, and trying again numerous times to get the alarms to activate, the biggest alarm evident was a small line on the digital display which flashed when the alarm time was reached. No loud siren, no flashing red lights, just a little flashing line next to the time display!
My response: "Well, that's really going to wake someone up, isn't it!!"

At least, by then I was well and truly awake, and we did of course get to school on time!!

Back again in a few days for our next installment of Give a Hoot!
Hope you can join me!!

Blessings,

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Alphabet meme...

Hi to all... I'm not wanting to overshadow my earlier post (please read it- entitled "What?!? Late again?"), however, I've been wanting to do one of these memes for a while now, and there never seems to be the perfect time, as I'm always in the middle of a topic! So here goes, enjoy some light reading about moi!!

I got this from MamaBear at Bears In Exile (see my favourite blogs list on the right hand side), and I also spied it last week at Shortybear's Place!

A)Age-32

B)Burger of choice-Homemade- lean beef patty on soy & linseed roll, with baby spinach, fried onions, beetroot and mustard- yes, I really am living well!
C)What kind of car you drive-2005 Corolla Levin Wagon- sporty model in dark blue (with plenty of dust, as we live in a dusty town, and have become used to water restrictions!)
D)Dogs name-Do not have a dog. (Have a friendly cream coloured cat named Glory!)
E)Essential item you use everyday-Computer- that was predictable, wasn't it!
F)Favorite TV show- Dr Phil, previously loved Alias!
G)Favorite game to play- Word games... surprised??
H)Hometown-Melton, Vic, Australia
I)Instruments you play-None
J)Favorite Juice-Don't really have a favourite these days, but I used to love Apricot Nectar
K)Whose butt you would love to kick- Nope, no-one's coming to mind at the moment!
L)Last restaurant you ate at-Taj Agra- delicious Indian food in Ringwood, Vic.
M)Favorite Muppet-Does Ernie count??? - He's a lot like me!
N)Number of piercings-One in each ear.
O)Overnight hospital stays- 4- 3 were bouncing babes, and one was for a fractured radial head... (broken arm, in earth speak!)
P)People you were with today- My very good friend Camille, and my spunky famille.
Q)What you do in your quiet time-Snuggle up with a good book.
R)Biggest regret: Well, MamaBear said "Between me and God", and after pondering it a moment, I realised that my biggest regret is also staying between me & God- you guys all don't need to to know about that ole thing!
S)Status-Very happily married.
T)Time you woke up-6:30a.m.
U)What you consider unique-My Mad Menggie- second born daughter, with a way out personality! (And loving it!!) ------------->>>>>>>
V)Vegetables you love-Pumpkin!!! Mushrooms!! Eggplant... (don't tell Mum- I hated eggplant when I was a kid!)
W)Worst habit-being late for things.
X)X-rays you have had- Back ( long time ago), and elbow (when fractured, obviously.- 2001)
Y)Yummy food you ate today- I made a delicious vegetable & barley soup last night which I had for lunch, and then!!!! a delicious steak smoked on the barbie, courtesy of my highly skilled hubby! (for dinner!)
Z)Zodiac sign-Well, I don't like zodiac signs, never read them, but if you have to know, It's Aquarius.

Blessings,

What?!? Late again?

(Time to give a hoot about being on time!)
“I have noticed that the people who are late, are often
so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.”
- E.V.Lucas (English Writer, 1868-1938)

Tee hee, is anyone else laughing?? I think there are a few more darlings like me out there- fun, likeable, but terribly undisciplined in some areas of their lives! It's true, I have struggled with lateness for years ('scuse the airing of dirty laundry!). But, where once it was just me running to the school office for a late pass, now I have three adorable offspring doing exactly the same!

"Oh," you say, "That's no laughing matter!" And you're right, but it's not an easy thing to change! Over the past few months alone, I've tried schedules, bribes, early morning TV to get them up, no TV, 'cause it's too much of a distraction, porridge, scrambled eggs, cups of tea, promises of McDonalds brekkies (naughty mum!), loud music, getting grumpy, early morning cuddles, and delivering stern lectures in the car on the way to school! All this, and we're still arriving late almost every day, getting detentions and notes home from school.

(Despite this horrific divulgement, please don't leave me and run off to another blog where the author has her life more under control! I'm gonna get better... promise!!)

Isn't it weird how we tend to blame ourselves for our dysfunction, but then not actively try to fix it! Having had the problem for so long, part of me recoils at the idea of trying to address the issue yet again. But that's not what this blog is about, and that's not what this year is about! I don't want to remain the same as I have always been! I don't want to be a victim to the bondages I've always had! So it's time to tackle the problem head on, to go out with all guns blazing, and all the rest of the colloquialisms we can think of! (except the one about sticking your head in the sand!!)

Step 1: Today after school (and 2 detention notes- head hangs in shame...), I went straight to The Reject Shop and bought 3 alarm clocks. They're not just any alarm clocks, either- they're siren clocks with a rotating light like the ones you find on a police car- sure to make the slumbering sweeties jump out of their skins!

Step 2: I set them all to go off at different intervals: firstborn's at 6.30 a.m., followed by 6.31 and 6.32 for second and third-born respectively. This way (hopefully...) subsequent alarms going off in other bedrooms will keep all in a state of semi-alertness!

Step 3: I've set my own alarm for 6.15, so I will be up and ready to take advantage of their semi-alert states.

Step 4: Needing a bit more fire-power, I turn to the Bible for something to help me. Ooh, just what I'm looking for:
"The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the
path of the upright is a highway." (Proverbs 15:19)

Wow, this really speaks to my issue, and yours too, if you struggle with a similar thing! It means that if I am lazy or have a resigned attitude about my problem, then all I will encounter will be obstacles and troubles. Indeed, if I look with that mindset, I may not really try to walk the path at all! But if I have a right mindset, and diligently work to be on time all the time, then it will become an easier road to travel!

Rightie-o, then (...you British chaps, how exactly do you spell that word??), it's time I started putting all this into practice.

Lord, you know how much I struggle with this lateness issue! Please help me to be diligent to get up when I need to, and be there to help my girls get organised. Help me to remember to turn to You when I'm struggling to do the right thing! Amen.

Lovelies, I'll be sure to report back to you, so stay tuned for further installments of Give a Hoot! If you feel you also need to address some of the poor habits in your own life, and would like to follow along with this theme, you can find the original explanatory post here, along with a button link to declare that you, too, are giving a hoot about the things in your too hard basket!
Until next time, lovelies, have a great week!
Blessings,