Revelation Within On the Go!
Unmasking Modern Idolatry: A Heartfelt Quest for Spirit-Led Living and Eating
Is your heart, like John Calvin said, an 'idol factory'? This pressing question drives our latest episode, where we cast a revealing light on the modern face of idolatry. As we navigate through our daily lives, we often overlook the subtleties of what we prioritize, dedicating time and thought to things that may not always align with our walk with Jesus.
Encountering our idols— the intensity of a high-stress career or an obsession with fitness—propels us to seek a balance that honors godly priorities over societal commendation. Let's peel back the layers of fear and admiration that often cloud our true value, unraveling how these can contort into idols that taint our self-perception. There is liberation found in grounding ourselves in faith, a process that fosters peace and self-worth, independent of the world's ever-changing standards.
In a world where overconsumption is often mistaken for fulfillment, we introduce a revolutionary concept: Spirit-led eating. It's here that we find solace, especially amidst Christina's personal struggle with chronic Lyme disease, which reframed her understanding of productivity and worth. We provide you with five guiding intentions to navigate your culinary journey, advocating for a mode of consumption that is as nourishing for the soul as it is for the body. Join us at our table of intention and grace, where each bite is an act of thanksgiving and appreciation for the body's divine design.
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
Is your heart, like John Calvin said, an 'idol factory'? This pressing question drives our latest episode, where we cast a revealing light on the modern face of idolatry. As we navigate through our daily lives, we often overlook the subtleties of what we prioritize, dedicating time and thought to things that may not always align with our walk with Jesus.
Encountering our idols— the intensity of a high-stress career or an obsession with fitness—propels us to seek a balance that honors godly priorities over societal commendation. Let's peel back the layers of fear and admiration that often cloud our true value, unraveling how these can contort into idols that taint our self-perception. There is liberation found in grounding ourselves in faith, a process that fosters peace and self-worth, independent of the world's ever-changing standards.
In a world where overconsumption is often mistaken for fulfillment, we introduce a revolutionary concept: Spirit-led eating. It's here that we find solace, especially amidst Christina's personal struggle with chronic Lyme disease, which reframed her understanding of productivity and worth. We provide you with five guiding intentions to navigate your culinary journey, advocating for a mode of consumption that is as nourishing for the soul as it is for the body. Join us at our table of intention and grace, where each bite is an act of thanksgiving and appreciation for the body's divine design.
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, yay.
Speaker 1:Where are we going today? Where are we going? Well, we're going into the deep, dark world of idolatry.
Speaker 2:Oh, that sounds like a very serious topic for this room.
Speaker 1:It is serious but if anybody can make it fun, it's us. It was John Calvin who said the human heart is an idle factory. Oh, what does that even mean? Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what does that even mean? I know I've been thinking about what is an idle. Of course, the first thing I think of is how about in my life? You know what's going on in my life. What am I bowing to? What am I spending my time on more than I'm called to? Or maybe, when I look at my calendar, what am I the busiest?
Speaker 1:Or our checking account or our credit card account.
Speaker 2:And then the biggest one is my thoughts. What's going on in my thoughts? Are you know how much of my thoughts are pleasing and glorifying to God, or is there an idle there and idle?
Speaker 1:is what do you think, heidi? I'm glad you asked, because it's good for us to identify that at the front end of our show today. Before I do that, though, I just want to highlight the fact that, in 2002, a show began to be aired and was extremely popular, and has been popular whatever since. I don't think it's been canceled yet, and that's the show American Idol. Yes, isn't?
Speaker 2:that a blessing. It is so popular. I hear people talk about it all the time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:When I first heard that there was this new show that had started up and was so popular I mean, even Christian friends were excited about it I thought, but we're calling something idolatry, it's like. I mean, that's really like celebrating it. Yes, Blatantly.
Speaker 2:And then in 2002, when that show came out, we had a toddler and a brand new baby, so we were not watching TV, we had no time at all. So it's really not something that I thought about until you brought it up, heidi, but somebody sat down and came up with that name as a way to draw people through the show. So there is something to be said for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's interesting though, because prior to that, I think if you had used the word idolatry or idol to make reference to something that distracts Christians from a true faith in the Lord or a purehearted faith in the Lord, most people would have scratched their heads and said I don't get it. Maybe now the word has come into more general common use again.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's not the case. But what is an idol in the way we're using it today? Is it somebody who's on that show? Well, probably not. I have to say that I do remember during that time when it first was airing, those first three years or so, when it was all the rage, I was visiting a friend and it was out of town and their whole family gathered to watch it. That was my first real exposure to it. I was shocked at the big focus it had. I mean, it was really something it's like okay. Well, maybe this show is itself an idol in our lives, anyway. So the way I've always kind of defined idol or idolatry is anything that I give the privilege of directing my steps can be an idol?
Speaker 2:So like if.
Speaker 1:I go to God. The idea is, god wants to be Lord of my moments, lord of my life, lord of my hours, my days, my weeks, everything. He wants to be Lord in my eating, lord in my sleeping, lord in my what I do with my free time, what I do with my work time. He wants to be Lord of it all. He wants to direct my steps. He wants me to turn to him and ask what would you have me do now? What would you have me say? What would you have me not say? So all that to say what is idolatry in 21st century America? How does it show up If it is, in fact, anything that directs my steps other than the Lord? There's a whole lot of things that I give that privilege to that I don't need to. What do you think, christina? How does it show up in our society today?
Speaker 2:Well, it shows up in very subtle ways, I think. You know, when people first hear the word idol, they might think of really extreme things. But actually the sneakier ones, I think, are even more important, which you know might be things that nobody really even notices that I do like spending time on my phone, you know, looking at pug videos. Or you know we've talked about how what does my calendar look like? And here's another one If something is canceled in my calendar, how do I spend that time? And then, of course, you know, looking at my finances, where is my money going? What am I spending money on?
Speaker 2:So, money and time, and then thoughts. What am I thinking about? What's on my mind, what's on my heart? When I have a moment of quiet in the day, for whatever reason, I'm waiting in line or, you know, something is on hold and I have to wait. What's happening in my thoughts during that time? Those are the really big ones, I think, because they happen every day, all day. It's not like well, last year I dealt with an idol in my life. I mean that's great, but if you think about those little moments throughout the day, those are the sneaky ones, I think.
Speaker 1:Definitely. I do think there have been seasons in probably well, I know in my life, and maybe even in yours, where something that many of the people who are listening have struggled with has become an idol, and that is food overeating, maybe even body image. Thinking about that, I mean, if our thoughts are going to something a lot, that's a really good indication that maybe there's an idol at work. So really, I mean, when you think about it, the Bible says in Colossians 3, 5 and in Ephesians 5, 3 that greed is idolatry, and we can get greedy not just for more food but for more accolades, for the way we look, for the way we sound on the worship team or sound in church standing next to somebody. I mean, there's no end to the things that we can be greedy for more of for sure.
Speaker 2:Food and eating and everything that goes with it I should say the whole dieting world, the whole dieting culture, was definitely an idol in my life for a long time. And how do I really know that? Because I spent so much time, money, energy, thought, time you know, air time in my brain thinking about it all the time. Every spare minute that I had, I was thinking about food, my body, my weight, my size, all the time. It was a huge idol in my life.
Speaker 2:I mean, is that what God has for me? Is that what he's calling me to?
Speaker 1:Definitely not, I don't think so, and it is important for us to invite God to search us and know us. There's even a scripture in the Psalms that speaks of that and specifically invite Him to shine the light on any idols.
Speaker 1:What is there in my life, lord, that may be causing me to take a step that isn't in your will for me, that's causing me to value something that you don't want me to value, anything that might hinder my relationship with the Lord? And definitely he wants us to live according to His calling, and we feel best in living according to His calling when we're at our most energetic, most healthiest self that we can be for the season of life that we're in. So is there any situation in your life that you can recall, christina, that God kind of brought conviction that, oh, there's something really awry here. You have exalted something over me, the Lord, in your life, and I need you to repent of that, actually change your heart about it. Has that happened to you?
Speaker 2:Yes, many, many times. But the one that popped into my mind when you said that, when you asked me, is work. I was a teacher, a classroom teacher, an interventionist, elementary school teacher for many, many years 28, I think and for those of you that know teachers or are or have been teachers, it is a very difficult, consuming job. It can become a very consuming job and I know that there are many jobs like this. As a teacher, your job is never done, you're never finished. There's always more to do, more to arrange, more to plan, more to organize, and then the kids are there and it's very, very, very busy, and then the kids leave and then we all took big bags and boxes of things home to do at home and come back the next day very early in the morning. Okay, so I was a brand new teacher. I had been teaching three years, I think, three years in Southern California, and basically I was working 12 hours a day at the school. I was there from seven in the morning until seven at night and that was my normal day. I was single and it was my whole life. Teaching first grade was my whole entire life. And then I took things home and my roommate and I she was a teacher as well we would sit on the couch and do lesson plans and do more work, more work, more work.
Speaker 2:So right around that very same time, right at Christmas time, my husband proposed to me and I said yes, and we were looking forward to a life together, married, and just a whole new adventure, and I had been waiting a long time for him to ask. It was very exciting, but he said something to me that I will never, ever forget. Within the first week of him proposing to me, he said Christina, I want to have a life with you, and right now, your whole life is your job. How can we have a life together? And it was, I mean. At first I just thought, well, this is, this is just what it is, this is what teachers do, this is what we do. You know, like, how can I even think about changing it? But then I realized I prayed about it, I thought about it, I listened to my boyfriend you know my fiance and I took it very, very, very seriously and at the end of the school year I resigned. I let go of that job Wow, yes, because it had become an idol. It was taking all my time, all my energy Now.
Speaker 2:I loved teaching and I knew that I was called to be a teacher and so I found a different job. I was only there for a year. It was a different kind of school and the schedule was very different. The demands were very different. I was there for a year before we moved to Colorado and I was able to manage having a life with my new husband at the same time as the job. But that was one of those moments in life where you're just stopped. It's like you're stopped in your tracks and you can't get. You know, it's like a milestone. You have to stop and look at it and think about it. There's no moving on until you do.
Speaker 1:I had something similar happen to me. I was on a weight loss journey, a fitness quest journey, that is for sure. This was like in the 90s, back in the day, and I pursued losing all kinds of post baby weight, as you can imagine, and I was the Weight Watchers Center near me her star pupil, because I lost and lost, and lost and I was at the gym constantly and I gained fitness and muscle mass and I ran a marathon and a single bound no, I'm kidding and I came out of that season. Well, I mean, I didn't know I was coming out of it. I thought I was going strong, but I was so chained to food. Still, it was like I can't have that. Unless I work out more, I can't gain a single ounce because it'll freak me out, I will be afraid. I mean, it was like I had pursued this at all costs. It was like not God's plan for me to be obsessed. It's like does he ever say my will for you in Christ Jesus is that you be obsessed? Your body, not with anything.
Speaker 1:No, many people would say well, you were so healthy. How could that be wrong? It was what was in my head. My head, my heart were attached to that scale. Oh my gosh, if you dared take my scale from me, or if it broke, or if the batteries need to replace me and I didn't have them on hand. Oh my goodness, panic, panic. I've lived in fear and that's a really good indication that there's an idol there somewhere, if we're in fear of something, because God's perfect love casts out fear. When he is given the reins, he says that we can be at peace. We will be in peace if we keep our mind stayed on him, I say at 26.3. I never had body beautiful, but I was muscular and fit and I had lost all my extra weight and I loved it and I needed to recognize what was it costing me? It was costing me my heart, because I couldn't stop thinking about tracking, about weighing, measuring, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:What was it, heidi, that you loved about it? What was it that drove you in that direction with so much force? Like you loved it, you wanted it. What was it that fueled that obsession?
Speaker 1:for you? That's a really good question. I think the biggest at the top of the and this indicates yet another idol, because really the idol of being thin and fit and all of that and food and tracking it and what. There's so many idols there, but it was driven by the idol of people's accolades. It was driven by the cheers I got at Weight Watchers every week for being amazing. You know what I mean. Seriously, it sounds ridiculous. It was the people in church saying, wow, you look amazing.
Speaker 1:You know what, though, once you've kept your weight off for six months, people stop saying, wow, you've lost so much weight. And if you live for those accolades, they stop coming, not because you've gained weight, because you haven't necessarily, although that happened too, because I was pursuing fitness at all costs. That means that the cost of using my brain well. I didn't think well and I over trained. I trained for a second marathon before I had even finished running the first one and I got injured, big time injured, and boy that sure revealed the idol in my life that I still bowed to my taste buds because I gained a lot of weight back. And there's nothing wrong with various sizes and shapes of bodies, necessarily. But when one little thing like having an injury or being sick for two weeks or whatever, ends up resulting in a huge change, a cataclysmic shift, and you're panicked because of it, that's a good clue that there's something out of whack, out of God's beautiful, perfect order.
Speaker 1:At least it has been for me over the years and I've learned that I need to look and be circumspect. So I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just thought of another huge, huge one of those times in your life where it's like, oh my gosh, I'm faced with this and again you can't move forward until you deal with it. It's just one of those things. So I didn't really realize this, but obviously, performance and ability and the ability to get things done and how much I could do and how much my family could do, and all that, obviously that was a big idol in my life.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that it was, but I took a lot of pride in how much I could do. You know how much I could get done in a day, how many things I could take the kids to, how many things we were involved in all those kinds of things. I was buried in a life that I had created, helped create, and then boom, I got hit with chronic Lyme disease. I didn't know it at the time. It took a really long time to find out what it was, but I was suddenly so sick that I couldn't work. I was suddenly so sick that I was laying on the couch or in the bed all the time, very fearful of what was happening with my body and thinking, okay, this is going to be over with very soon. And it wasn't, and it wasn't, and it wasn't, and it still isn't. And that was nine years ago.
Speaker 2:And so I was faced with what is your worth, Christina? What is your value now? I mean, I really and I see a lot of moms especially, but you know all kinds of people who definitely look at their day and decide this was a good day because I was able to do all of these things and I can do this well and this. Well, and then I have my got my whole to-do list done, and I mean, I was totally faced with that because I wasn't getting anything done, Not according to what I thought was valuable, Right. So God had a very, very big lesson for me to learn and I still struggle with it, but it's much better after nine years.
Speaker 2:In fact, I kind of joke about how I turned around the to-do list because you know, I flipped it on its head. Basically, I don't write to-do lists at the beginning of my day anymore. I haven't for years. I actually write them at the end of the day and I write down what I accomplished, whether maybe it was just a talk with one of my kids Maybe that was the most important thing I accomplished or following one basket of laundry. I mean, my whole view on the topic has completely turned around and I think that happens a lot.
Speaker 1:Let's talk for a moment about overeating and idolatry, then. One of the first points I think that's important for us to recognize is when I grasp for more food than my body's really calling for and this is said with not one shred of condemnation intended to be targeted at anybody but what ends up happening when we grasp for more food than our bodies are requiring is I'm showing that I'm not really satisfied with what God has given me, that I'm seeking more than I actually need, and that is kind of the position my heart goes to when it is after an idol. It's grasping for something that God hasn't called me to grasp for Ouch, ouch. Another thing that many of us who have struggled with overeating can recognize is that overeating can actually lead to other overages Obviously gluttony, but there's laziness too, like resting more than I know I'm not talking about those of us with chronic illnesses or injuries or recovering from different things, but when I know I mean I am guilty of this. This is the truth. When I know that I have the ability to do some things that God's calling me to do and I don't do them, that's tricky because I am disobeying him. I really am.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, overeating feeds that greed oh that was yummy. I want more, or I want to drink more. I'm really good at being greedy for more diet soda, and Christina knows me. She knows me well, she's seen me struggle with this over the years and not struggle with it when I have gladly given in to more and more diet soda. And then there are, you know, there's pride that filters in, especially when there's an idol there. So there's scripture references too. If anybody's interested, we've got Proverbs 23, 20 to 21, philippians 3 19 and Colossians 3 5. But we have some suggestions relative to food and eating. They're rooted in thin, within eight keys to conscious eating. But we're kind of shifting. As you may know, we are rebranding, we are revelation within now and we're going to share our keys to spirit led eating. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it, I absolutely love it, and spirit led eating, I mean it's. It's one of the names that we have called eating for a really long time, really long time. And then within we did as well, but it's wonderful to kind of bring it out. Yes, this is what we want. We want to be Holy Spirit led.
Speaker 2:Yes, and from that comes good things like peace and balance and joy and all the things that we really would love to see. Eat as we eat or not as we don't eat as we listen to our bodies Right.
Speaker 1:And one of the things I love about the idea of spirit led eating is it does kind of fly in the face of this idea of idols that work in my life, other than the. It's weird calling the Lord an idol, but the idea is, what are my gods in my life? There should only be one, and it's the Lord, god of the universe. Jesus Christ, who has paid the price for me to have a relationship with the God of the universe. So one of the things I love about the idea of spirit led eating is he, the Holy Spirit, is leading me in the way I eat and the way I abstain, instead of one of the other idols in my life. Hopefully those are being crucified, they're being cast in the farthest reaches. Spirit led eating is a wonderful way of thinking, of casting aside anybody else's ways of eating, whether it's Weight Watchers, as it was for me for so many years, or any number of other ways that people tell us we should eat. The Lord has an opinion on this.
Speaker 2:Well, and it really comes down to surrender. And that's why I love the word or the term spirit led eating, because that means I'm not leading.
Speaker 2:That means I'm getting out of the way, I'm not leading. I'm listening to the spirit for his leading, and so I know and I know that most of us know, but maybe we don't want to admit I know that there are days and times when I am not surrendered and I am hanging on to something. Maybe I'm having an emotional issue, maybe it's a fear, maybe it's my pride, or maybe it's just me saying I want my way, I deserve this. You know those kinds of things. That's when I'm the one who's leading, but surrendering, opening my hands and saying, lord, what you have is so much better than this that I've been stuck in for so long. I want you to lead now. Right, you know what?
Speaker 2:Yesterday was a day for me when I really struggled with food and eating. I was not surrendered. Now, I didn't eat a whole lot. Honestly, that wasn't the issue. I was still able to stay mostly within my boundaries boundaries of hunger and satisfaction, but I didn't want to be there.
Speaker 2:I was not surrendered and I talked about this with the Lord late at night because I thought, wow, I hate the way this feels. I feel like I was white-knuckling it all day and, like I said, the day turned out fine as far as the food and eating, but it wasn't fine because I know what it feels like to be Spirit-led. I know what it feels like to be surrendered and that's what I really, really want. So I talked with him about it last night, late late last night, and he showed me that I was dealing with some emotional things, specifically with my daughter. That was bringing me back to some of my past struggles with food and eating and weight and it was bringing me to a place of fear and frustration and that's what was getting in the way. So when he and I were able to process through that and talk about it, I was able to once again open my hands and surrender and let him take over and today feels so much easier with the food and eating.
Speaker 1:Yay, that's wonderful, so let's share. These are such a great approach really, as opposed to that struggle with I want more, I want more, I want more. So just see, imagine yourself in that place. Where am I going to give into my greed, which is idolatry, according to the scripture? Am I going to give in to something else, directing my eating, some other program, some other plan, or what am I going to do with that? Or am I going to experience what the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, wants for me? So I'm going to call these for now, the five intentions of Spirit-led eating. Here they are. Do you have them in front of you, christina? I do.
Speaker 1:All right, so go ahead and read the first one, won't you?
Speaker 2:I will honor my God-given body by eating when I get a hunger signal indicating my body needs fuel. I love this, heidi. I love it because, first of all, it's reminding me that my body is not my own and that my body was a gift from God that he made for me. He designed it for me, he made it fearfully and wonderfully, as it says in Psalm 139. So I do. I want to honor my God-given body and I want to honor the one who made my body and gave it to me as a gift. And you know what? Without this body, I wouldn't be around, I wouldn't be alive, I wouldn't be here breathing, with a heart beating and talking and sharing and laughing and living my life. My body allows me to do all of that. So I love the way that's all in that very first intention. And then, so, so simple I will wait for my hunger signal. My body was made in such a way. God's design is that when I need fuel, I get a signal.
Speaker 2:I really do. I really do, and I love that. I love how simple that is, but I love that God made a design so that I would be able to hear those signals and know what to do next.
Speaker 1:If you are somebody who feels like you don't know what your hunger signals are, that's okay. You can invite God in and ask him to show you. It probably isn't going to be a sound like a growl, but ask him to show you what it is. Everybody's made uniquely and wonderfully by our great and creative God, so just ask him and he'll show you. Secondly, I love this because I, as much as it rests on me, I can reduce distractions. I can eat peacefully, intentionally, savoring the food that I choose to eat, with gratitude in my heart. So this is a big one, because we want to become peaceful eaters. When we're peaceful eaters, our bodies work best, digest best, absorb nutrients best and we're really in a much happier place, and so we want to be able to do that. We want to be committed to that. That's why we call it an intention. I want to be intentional, to do what I can to reduce distractions.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're a mom of three very young kids or two, it doesn't even matter how many, but if you're a mom of young kids or grandma or dad or a grandpa certainly there's you're not going to put them in closets while you eat your meal. So, yeah, as much as it rests with you. I did have a client recently talk about her dinner experience and the thought that came to me was sometimes we can focus our attention on those we eat with for the time that it takes to get them settled and situated. Maybe they're going to eat their entire meal, but then afterwards we can sit down and have a. We sit down with them, but maybe we're going to have our meal from start to finish after they're all done. I don't know. That's just something that we could do and that way we can eat in peace.
Speaker 2:Well, I remember thinking about this very topic, I guess, about reducing distractions and being able to eat peacefully when my kids were school age. That's when I started thinking about this because I was renewing my mind and following the keys to conscious eating and thin within and all of that, and I thought, oh my gosh, our dinner table is so busy and so crazy. And then, heidi, just recently, you sent me an audio of all of us sitting at the table at the time. Heidi was visiting us back then when my kids were school age and it was so funny and so crazy and silly to hear everybody laughing and telling stories and carrying on, and I think one of the kids fell on the floor during. It was just, you know, fun and crazy and I love those times. You know I miss them now. They're great memories. That was a great season of life. And then we had teenagers and it got even crazier and they ended up having all their friends over and things were very busy and loud and boisterous at the table.
Speaker 2:But I was able to be peaceful on the inside Even while all of that was going on. I had to practice, I had to be intentional. I was better at it some days more than others, but I definitely had found a way to be at peace on the inside and slow down with my own plate and my own food, while everything was, you know, going on around me, and that was pretty exciting to me that I was able to do that. Number three I will sit down and focus on my food when I eat, welcoming God into each eating occasion. So my favorite part of this one is welcoming God in, absolutely welcoming him in, whether, whatever I'm doing, whether I'm at a football game, whether I'm at a dance recital, whether I'm in my own kitchen, whether I'm at a restaurant, wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, inviting God to be with me in the meal, and then with gratitude again.
Speaker 2:I mean that was in the last one, but welcoming God into each eating occasion with gratitude, that really changes things. It gives me a focus that is God honoring and glorifying and I love that. I have to admit, sitting down is hard for me sometimes, especially because I do now that I'm coaching at home. I sit down a lot and I got to get up and move or my body gets really stiff. So I'm going to admit to you that I stand in the kitchen sometimes and have my lunch so that I'm not sitting all day. But I can do that intentionally and peacefully, with gratitude, welcoming God in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think this intention is for the purpose of the person who tends to do a drive-by in their kitchen. If you will walking through grabbing whatever they can, or heading into the pantry and standing there eating in front of the other foods on the shelf trying to decide what they're going to eat next. Obviously, the person who's caught in that kind of behavior has other work to do in order to be intentional for spirit-led eating.
Speaker 1:So sitting down can be helpful in those cases, and then there's others of us who sit down in front of a TV or a computer and want to eat at the same time, and that's not what we're talking about either. Or sitting down in the car, driving and eating that's not what we're talking about either. So yeah, capture the spirit, if you will, of these intentions, and I think it'll kind of be consistent for you. The fourth intention of spirit-led eating is I will relish the flavors and textures of foods I choose to eat for fueling my body. This has some important pieces to it. Yes, god wants us to enjoy food. That's not a sin. Food was not put on this earth to torment us.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, here's this tantalizing, yummy food and you can't have any. That's not the way our God works. Instead, we can relish the flavors and the textures and the explosions the parties in our mouth, absolutely. But I also love another piece of this intention, which is I'm choosing to eat, fueling my body, and over time I will take that into a little bit more consideration. At the very beginning, I love freedom that I have with this approach to eating, because nothing is off limits. But as I continue, I begin to be aware some foods fuel me better than others and they still are wonderful to taste and wonderful to chew and crunch and munch and all of that. So I want to enjoy, relish the flavors and the textures of the foods that I choose. Anything I choose to eat as fuel for my body, yes.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. I love reminding myself, renewing my mind about food being an abundant gift from God. I mean, just look what he made for us it's amazing all the textures and flavors and colors and the variety.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, it's amazing. Okay, the last one. I will enjoy a just right size portion and stop when my body is satiated. So this is the one that I would say most people that come to us struggle with, and they would say I'm okay with all the others. But boy, that one is a tough one. And it is tough for those of us, including me for many years, who weren't used to listening to those signals.
Speaker 2:And the signal of satiated or just enough is not really a signal, it's just kind of a nothing. It's just kind of a peaceful nothing, and so it's a little bit trickier. You know, we could say well, lord, if you had created like a little bell or a little sound, a little horn, something that would help us to know okay, stop now, christina. But it takes practice, it takes time Over time. You know what it is, you realize, you know what it was two bites ago, or you know what there it is right now.
Speaker 2:And now I have a choice to push the food away and say I'm done, my body is fueled up, I'll save this for later, or give it to the dog. The dog Don't give it to my dog, she'll throw it up. Anyway, enjoying a just right size portion, and what I say to myself and to others is ask God to help you with this. You don't have to carry this on your own. Ask him, lord, in this day, give me joy in eating Just right size portion. I need help with this. This is a struggle for me, lord, invite him in and he will show up right there at your meal. He loves to be asked for us for what we need.
Speaker 1:Yes, and what I love about talking about these intentions of spirit-led eating is it is a great way, practically, practically speaking, to combat that tendency that I have for my heart to be an idle factory relative to food and eating and body image. It's very, very practical If I recognize the fact that my heart is pursuing food and copious quantities of food and I want to get into a rhythm that is more healthful spiritually, emotionally and physically. I can use these five intentions of spirit-led eating. Let's just read through them one more time real quick, christina. I'll start Number one. I will honor my God-given body by eating when I get a hunger signal indicating my body needs fuel.
Speaker 2:Number two, I will reduce distractions. Eat peacefully and intentionally, savoring the food with gratitude in my heart.
Speaker 1:Number three, I will sit down and focus on my food when I eat, welcoming God in to each eating occasion.
Speaker 2:Number four I will relish the flavors and textures of foods I choose to eat for fueling my body.
Speaker 1:Number five I will enjoy a just right-sized portion and stop when my body is satiated. I love those. I love those and it is a really great recipe for defeating greed food idolatry in my life. It's a very practical way, definitely it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are so glad that you have been with us today. Thank you so much for coming and we hope that you will join us on our next episode of Revelation Within On the go.
Speaker 1:We'll see you next time. Bye for now, bye-bye.