Revelation Within On the Go!
Each Pair of Jeans in the Back of the Closet Tells a Story...
We talk this week about changes in our "wardrobe" that have been a reflection of our journeys to be a peace with food, eating, and our bodies. Specifically...our jeans! But we take it a bit further during this show. We look at what our stories have to say about what we value. Then we look at the heart of mind renewal, which is the question, "God, what do you have to say about that?"
What does the Lord call us to? Is it about our jeans, our size, our stylishness? Of course not!
What thoughts do you have in your mind or "thought closet" (Thank you, Jennifer Rothschild) that don't "fit" you so well any more? What needs to go? What needs to welcomed?
We are clothed with Christ now! What does that look like?
Ashley T. Lee Podcast will cover many life issues such as overcoming stress, anxiety...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
We talk this week about changes in our "wardrobe" that have been a reflection of our journeys to be a peace with food, eating, and our bodies. Specifically...our jeans! But we take it a bit further during this show. We look at what our stories have to say about what we value. Then we look at the heart of mind renewal, which is the question, "God, what do you have to say about that?"
What does the Lord call us to? Is it about our jeans, our size, our stylishness? Of course not!
What thoughts do you have in your mind or "thought closet" (Thank you, Jennifer Rothschild) that don't "fit" you so well any more? What needs to go? What needs to welcomed?
We are clothed with Christ now! What does that look like?
Ashley T. Lee Podcast will cover many life issues such as overcoming stress, anxiety...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Hi and welcome to Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Heidi Bilesma-Epperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the Revelation Within Ministry.
Speaker 2:And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within on the Go.
Speaker 1:So, christina, have you ever had to kind of overhaul your closet because of where you're out with food, eating, weight and all of that sort of stuff?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, many, many times I have tried to avoid it in the past. I think I told you my jeans story, so I have been in a place of peace with food and eating in my body for quite a while now and that's been great, but I realized that I was still having some issues. I mean, I'm always growing and always have issues.
Speaker 2:But I realized something that I needed an area of growth. Last summer my son moved out and my husband and I decided that we needed to move upstairs into this beautiful room that was built for my mother-in-law. Anyway, it involved moving our closet right. We had to clean out the closet downstairs and move everything upstairs, and there's nothing like moving something to help you get rid of stuff that you don't need or don't want anymore, right?
Speaker 2:So I thought, oh, I can do this, I'm going to clean out, I'm going to make this huge pile of stuff to clean out that I don't wear, that I don't like anymore or doesn't feel good on me or whatever. So I did and I was in a great mood and I thought this is so good and everything's fine. And then I hit my pile of jeans. So in my downstairs closet we had kind of all these shelves that were kind of in the back and you could fit a lot of stuff on there and never see it.
Speaker 2:Never see it right my kids, who are all young adults. They were helping and so they were helping us move and helping clean out. And all of a sudden I'm confronted with this giant, this ridiculously huge pile, not just one pile, Like if it was one pile it would fall over. It was like so many pairs of jeans. And I was embarrassed and the kids have never seen that and I don't think my husband really knew either. It was just this, my secret stash of jeans, and they were several different sizes, several different styles, and then I had purchased the ones I thought I looked really good in. I had purchased a bunch of those and, yeah, I was embarrassed and I thought, oh my gosh, I didn't think I had a problem with this anymore and you know, jeans are really heavy. So the kids are looking at me like mom, are you okay? And I'm like, well, I seem to have an issue with jeans.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's me too, because I think right now, if I were to clean out my storage shed that Michael and I share, I have I know for a fact a great big tub of one kind of Levi jeans that they didn't even make anymore when I fell in love with them. So I went on eBay and I bought them. Yes, and it's a certain size, a certain style, and, oh my gosh, and I don't think there's any way I'd ever fit in those again. But I refuse to let go of it.
Speaker 1:And I refuse to list them on eBay too.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I feel a little bit better. Maybe somebody out there is also having an issue with stacks of jeans. It was like when I pulled them out and started looking at them, each size and each shape of the jean had a story, had a story and represented a season of my life and a season of my body image issues.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know it's like.
Speaker 2:These are the ones I wore at this season of my life, before I had kids. Right, and I struggled and this these are the ones that I was wearing when I had done that crazy diet and lost all that weight. These are the ones that I bought when I couldn't fit into those other ones anymore. And these are the ones that I wore after the first baby, and then these are the ones after the second and the third.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they all have a story, don't they?
Speaker 2:And I thought wow, you know, and God really met me in that in a very kind and loving compassionate way.
Speaker 1:We'll tell us about that. What happened yeah?
Speaker 2:well, you know he didn't say Christina, what is your deal with these two? What is the deal with you? Get it together? No, he didn't. He was so kind and loving. Do you ever feel like God is gently like turning your head?
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:It's like, Christina, there's something here that I need you to look at yeah he's gently turning your head so that you see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the first time for what it is.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And it was so good. It was so good to see it and it was challenging. And, yes, there was a part of me that wanted to scoop up all of those jeans and run out the door.
Speaker 1:Yes, Both to stash them for the next time you want them, but also to hide the stash so nobody else knows that you have them.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, exactly. I wanted to like scoop them up. You know how you're running and you look behind you like nobody can see me and you're just running out the door with your stash. That there was a part of me that wanted to do that, but I really thought you know what my kids, my girls, are watching me.
Speaker 1:They know I'm a revelation within coach.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like I got to deal with this. I can't just run away with my stack of jeans. Actually, one of my daughters she, said mom, let me help you, tell me the ones that you have worn most recently. Well, here's what I realized I don't even wear jeans anymore.
Speaker 1:You wear skirts. She's a Bohemian skirt girl.
Speaker 2:Yes, and yoga pants.
Speaker 1:Boho.
Speaker 2:So I thought, oh my gosh, I hardly ever even put them on. I want to be kind to myself, I want to be kind to my body. And since I struggle with chronic Lyme disease, I often have symptoms that go along with medicines that I'm taking my stomach to be bloated, big or small or whatever, right, and I don't want to feel that in my clothes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point.
Speaker 2:I want to be comfortable and I don't want to go back to those years of cutting myself in half when I sit down. So my youngest daughter, she said, ok, we put a stack of the jeans that I had worn the most recently and there was like two. There was a pair of capris and a full length and that was it. And she said OK, but I was still clinging to them.
Speaker 1:Yes, Now are you clinging to the jeans Because you love jeans so much? Apparently not. No, I'm clinging to something else. What are you clinging to?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's such a good question, Heidi. What else was I clinging to? I think I was clinging to those seasons of life.
Speaker 1:For me, it's the image I had of myself.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm imagining, because you're you know, you're a horse girl. So, yeah, I'm imagining kind of a wrangler look for you and like was there a big belt buckle.
Speaker 1:No, no, I didn't do the big belt buckle, but I did have a big belt. I mean it was, you know, two inches wide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm imagining. And the top, was it kind of like Wrangler sort of, or was it a t-shirt?
Speaker 1:It was a t-shirt, but it usually had some sort of horsey design on it. That I'll say myself as a horsey girl.
Speaker 2:When I first met Heidi she still had the horses and I got to enjoy some of that with her. But yeah, I didn't really notice the jeans. Why was I clinging? Still, I was feeling really shaken by this whole experience, very uncomfortable for me. I think I was just holding on to seasons of my life where somehow I just felt better in my own skin and there were different sizes for that. It didn't always coincide with a size, anyway.
Speaker 2:And then you know how it is you buy a pair of jeans that seem to fit your body just right, and then you go back to that store and they're gone forever. So then my daughter, very wisely, she said what is the size that you have not been in, or a really long time? Let's get rid of all of those. And I told her and she said oh my gosh, these will fit me. And then she started digging through the pile and trying on jeans and I thought I'm hanging on to jeans that my 17 year old fits. Okay, how crazy am I? Let's get rid, take as much as you want. And then she invited her friends over. There were three girls that came and dug through the pile and looked fabulous in these jeans.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 2:And then you crancing around like a fashion show, looking in the mirror, and they're like what else you got?
Speaker 1:Wow. Well, I wonder if the listeners can relate to this. The jean story. It's a great one. Many of us have a jean story. For me, it could be those jeans that I want to fit back into someday, or those jeans that are the ones that I bought when I was at my biggest and I don't want to let go of them in case I'm back there again. It's all focused. For me, it's on externals, externals, externals, and Don and me, as I was thinking about this, and also there's a Bible study we're starting at church that kind of focuses on a thought closet. And do we need to revamp our thought closet?
Speaker 1:Like you revamped your closet. You took all the jeans out, you took the piles and put them where they needed to go. So I wonder, you know, there are things that don't fit in our closets. Well, there are things in my mind that don't fit my values anymore, that don't fit the way I think anymore, and there are other things I want to put on and keep safe. Does that analogy resonate for you at all?
Speaker 2:Oh, it does, it absolutely does, it totally goes with the whole closet thing, because it's like why am I keeping these things? When you ask me that question, I mean that's a question I can ask about my heart and my mind yeah, why am I? Keeping these things? Why am I hanging onto beliefs that can't serve me and that really come from the enemy?
Speaker 1:Right? They're not true For me. I was thinking about my renewal tools. Those are things I want to take into my closet. I want to be able to put on the mind of Christ, and for me that means being able to have access to ways of renewing my mind. There's a few scriptures that fit here. Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Give up those small sized chains. Put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth sexual immorality and purity, shameful passion, evil, desire and greed, which is idolatry. We have to do a podcast on that someday. You also lived your lives in this way at one time, but now and this is where it gets even better put off these old clothes.
Speaker 1:Put off the old clothes with its practices, you have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Isn't that amazing? In there the word clothed is in there, I know, to put off old clothes and put on new clothes, and Colossians 3 is where you can find those verses and I use the net Bible translation. But wow, we have a lot we want to put off.
Speaker 1:I think about the times when I would go back to that closet and keep trying stuff on and keep trying stuff on and keep trying stuff on, I'd finally just plop myself down on the bed, hopeless and just beaten up, because I wasn't finding the right fit. Things that fit me before didn't anymore, and I think there are seasons in my life where I have to just kind of woman up and say okay it's okay that these things don't fit me anymore.
Speaker 1:I'm a new person in Christ. I want to put off the old clothes, the old way of thinking, the old way of dressing myself, if you will, so focused on externals in my case, and I want to put on the new, what God has created me to be. It's being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. That's such good news.
Speaker 2:It's so good, Well, and I think, okay, back to the closet and the. So why am I? Why am I holding on to clothes that don't work for me, clothes that aren't from this season of life, clothes that don't make me feel? Good clothes that don't bring me life. Instead, they bring me down, they discourage me, they're uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:They're from an old season. We talked about this a little bit in our group yesterday and one of our participants said she asked that very question. She said why? Why am I holding on to this? She wasn't talking about clothes, but she was talking about old beliefs old lies. Can I switch this up so that I can create what did you call it? A thought closet.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and that credit goes to Jennifer Roth's child, because she's a Bible teacher that has a Bible study. Yeah, that's good, I do too.
Speaker 2:So, thinking about you know what questions do I need to ask myself, like what you just asked me, heidi. Why are you holding? On to those things, Christina, what questions do I need to ask myself so that my thought closet is a place of joy and information and truth truth and being drawn into God and His word, so that it's life giving, so that I'm glorifying Him and staying stuck in this old stuff and filling up the back shelves of my closet with all this hidden stuff, all these secrets that really I'm embarrassed about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's being there.
Speaker 2:That analogy really does fit. What are?
Speaker 1:some things that if you were to do an overhaul of your thought closet, of your thought closet wardrobe, what are some things that you would want to be sure are in there and some things that you want to not even give to goodwill, I mean throw away. Think of one thing that you'd want in there. What's one thing you'd want in there in your thought closet?
Speaker 2:my identity.
Speaker 1:Yes, identity in Christ. I think one thing I would want in there in addition to that is a firm understanding of who God is. Yes, you got another thing you would want in there.
Speaker 2:And that that helps with identity in Christ too because, together, hand in hand, definitely. Humility, because I can't learn, I can't grow If I'm not humble, when my pride is in the way I'm stuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, move, I think I would want to. I don't even know whatever the opposite of apathetic is, because apathy kills the thing. Moxie, what?
Speaker 2:Moxie.
Speaker 1:I do not know what that means.
Speaker 2:I guess it's like you know that determination energy. You know a person who has determination and perseverance and just keeps going.
Speaker 1:Well, that's? Exactly it then. Yeah, isn't?
Speaker 2:it, it's Moxie. I love that word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just want to have that towards the Lord and towards his word and for his people as well. What about things that you would want to be sure aren't in there ever? No, not ever, ever. What is something you don't shame?
Speaker 2:Yes, I hate shame. I hate it so much it's. I hate shame. Shame was something that I lived with for so long and I still do at times, but that is one thing where I want that out. Yeah, about closet 100%. I want to be sure that I'm aware when it comes up. So I can bring it to the Lord. Tell myself what is true. There is no condemnation in Christ. Shame be gone. That is the enemy's tool.
Speaker 1:Definitely shame have you ever been in a setting where, like you wear something that's difficult to clean let's say it's a nicer outfit or something and you're in an environment and you come home and you hang it back up in the closet and you don't even realize it reeks. Oh, yes, yes, that's what shame is like for me. It takes everything else in the closet in some way, and so my thought closet begins to be hindered in some way by shame. If I let shame exist, and one of the best ways for me to get it out of my closet is to recognize it's there and and say, shame, be gone, like you did just a minute ago.
Speaker 1:What's another thing that we want to jettison from our thought closet?
Speaker 2:Hopelessness.
Speaker 1:Ah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Really, there's no reason anymore for me to live in hopelessness. I lived in secret hopelessness for a long, long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, on the outside I looked like everything was fine. I was really good at pretending, Really good at pretending, which is exhausting. There is no reason for me not to have hope, because now I know God's truth and if I believe that his truth is true and real and active and moving in my life, then I have hope every single day.
Speaker 1:I love that. When I was a kid, my mom and dad were very image conscious. My dad was a medical doctor and at that time it was a big deal. There weren't MDs everywhere and I remember my mom criticizing what I would choose to wear because it didn't reflect that I was a doctor's daughter, right, yes. So she would grab the cutoffs. They were too short and too stringy and all you know they were a pair of jeans that had been cut off, yes, and she would hijack those and throw them away when I wasn't looking. And now, why did she do that? Because it didn't reflect who she felt I was. Now, when we go back to our illustration that hopelessness, wearing hopelessness in our lives does not accurately reflect who God says we are. So who does God say you are?
Speaker 2:I am radiant and redeemed.
Speaker 1:I am his precious treasure. I am a member of his family. I am his delight.
Speaker 2:I am an heir to the throne.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. I am sanctified in him, I am forgiven, washed clean. We could obviously go on for a while, but those are the things we want to put on in our thought closet and because then we reflect who we are Now, my mom and dad being so image conscious. That's not something we want to emulate. But God has said we are this, we have to hope, and we are his precious ones. Do you have anything else about the thought closet you want to share?
Speaker 2:Yes, I do. I was just thinking what do I want? In my thought closet, I want the armor of God.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yes so.
Speaker 2:I've got it here.
Speaker 1:I don't have a hanger that's sturdy enough for it, though I've got a hanger that I can wear Well.
Speaker 2:I get on that shelf where the jeans used to be. Let's put it, take it apart. So first we've got the helmet of salvation and that's heavy, so that's going to go on that really strong shelf. Okay, the belt of truth. So I'm imagining hanging the belt in the closet. So I definitely want the belt there, that's so important I'm going to put it on the shelf.
Speaker 2:We've got to have a place in the closet for that sword, because, wow, is that powerful, the breastplate of righteousness. Let's definitely have that in the closet at all times.
Speaker 1:How about the?
Speaker 2:shield of faith? Yeah, definitely. And then down low the feet prepared with the gospel of peace. Definitely the armor of God. Let's let's make sure that's in our thought closet.
Speaker 1:All right. So I would like to challenge the listeners to clean out their physical closets, to be willing to look, with God, at why am I hanging onto this and see what surfaces. There's no condemnation. Like Christina said, he has demonstrated his own love for you that even while you are off the rails, god gave his son for you. And so just because you want to cling to your genes, they haven't fit for 10 years, that's okay. He loves you, but see if he doesn't free you from that. And then likewise consider what are some thoughts as you're cleaning out your physical closet. Imagine what are some thoughts that I tend to allow to have access to my mind, that I want to get rid of as well, and what are other thoughts I want to have in my mind that are true and noble and right and excellent and praiseworthy, like Philippians. Four eight says yes.
Speaker 2:And actually the analogy goes together in one other place, because when I finished cleaning out that closet with my daughter and her friends and it turned into actually a really wonderful, fun experience after the beginning was so difficult there was freedom there. It felt so freeing to let go of those old seasons in my life that were represented by those genes. Just let go and keep a few pair that I might need for something. So the freedom is also there when we clean out our thought closets. It's so good to let go of old bitterness, old hopelessness, old shame get it out.
Speaker 2:Get it out. I don't want to live with that in my thoughts anymore. Lies from the enemy, about myself, about the Lord, about other people, circumstances.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Out, let's clean out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this listener is why Revelation within exists is to help you do that. If you want some support, some encouragement, some training, we want to equip you. If you feel like you're not equipped, join us at RevWithinteam and we will share with you all kinds of resources that we have. Christina is so clever at posting porch chats and posts that help people right now, today, renew their minds and to have thought closets that honor and glorify God and that bring freedom.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he has written all these wonderful classes. We've got so much going on. We would love to help you come, come and take us out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and clean out your closet, yeah. I hope there's something here that can encourage you today, me too.
Speaker 2:We're so glad that you've been here with us today on this episode of Revelation Within on the go. We'll turn it into a song. Bye y'all, bye, bye.