What's the Difference?

So here I am bushwhacking my way toward a deadline. Well, it seems that way. You should see my house right now, in its neglected state. No, never mind—you should not see it. And if you do show up at my door, you enter at your own risk. No guarantee you’ll find me.

But I am here, and right now I’m pondering the topic of Internet use gone wild. One guy I talked to recently admitted he was completely pulled in—he would say “addicted”—to MySpace, WoW, and porn.

He told me, “You reach a certain point after a while—and it doesn’t take much—where boom! your conscience is seared and you convince yourself that what you’re doing is OK. Your innocence is drained. You can do it, and do it, and do it all day long.”

That's intense!

In trying to overcome his Internet obsessions, he said an "accountability partner" wouldn’t work for him unless that person was willing to sit next to him every time he got online—which would be a lot. Otherwise, alone he could go online and do whatever he wanted, and then it wouldn’t bother him one bit to have to confess it.

Here’s the thing that got me: He said, though an accountability partner wouldn’t work for him, a godly mentor would—someone who could pour God into his life.

After we talked some more, I realized he saw the "accountability partner" as someone who checked up on him, kept him on track with what he was supposed to do—even if he couldn't, or wouldn't, honestly aspire to their standards.

On the other hand, to him, the "mentor" would be the person who took the time to be in relationship with him and to help spur him toward being in relationship with God.

In his mind, the mentor relationship is the one that would make a difference--the one that would lead to God transforming him deeply and impacting his online choices.

Sure changes up my thinking about friendship, accountability, and mentoring. Still thinking about this one. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Jan

http://www.choose2livefree.com/

Stand Out

I’m still spinning, even since my last post. I’m looking forward to slowing down for the holidays. Yes, compared to the rest of this year, the busyness of the holidays will feel like slow-mo.

So just one thought from me this time:

Stand out.

How?

Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant.

Matthew 23:11 The Message

Hmmm . . . Just when I think I've got that one down, I realize I don't. I've got some more "stepping down" to do.

Jan

http://www.choose2livefree.com/

One thing at a Time

The other day a friend gave me a book on nutrition that she found extremely helpful. After a pretty intense battle with depression this past year, and a scary experience tying to wean myself off my prescribed medication without consulting my doctor first (not recommended AT ALL), which triggered a setback, I felt desperate for something that I could implement in everyday life that might help in addition to all the other things that I’d tried. I knew many people who found that improving their diet improved their mood overall so I eagerly cracked open the book.

The author had a whole section on brain chemistry and how our food choices affect it. At first I was horrified by her report on sugar, caffeine, and other foods that I gravitate toward. Apparently women with eating disorders (including those who battled them in the past as I did) had tweaked brain cells too. Another strike against me! As I read on I saw that I didn’t eat nearly enough protein or vegetables and had enough preservatives running through my bloodstream to keep a package of low-fat turkey eatable through the winter at least. My family ate fast food on occasion (apparently we don’t even want to know what’s in it), the French vanilla creamer that sweetened my coffee each morning was loaded with life-zapping chemicals, and I baked with white flour. I was lucky to be alive! Talk about depressing!

But hope awaited me in the next chapter. One could repair the damage done and feel better for life. At first I only felt more overwhelmed as I viewed lists of good fats, all the foods that contain hidden sugar, and what I should and should NEVER eat. Then I stopped. How could I possibly expect to make all these changes at once? For one, my family would be very unhappy with me if we suddenly went sugar, caffeine, and pleasure-food free. Secondly, I didn’t have half of the suggested foods in my cupboard, and finally, I didn’t really need to do everything suggested. So I started with a few things:

1) Eat more protein (my parents were very happy to hear this—they have been bugging me about it for years), veggies, and fruit
2) Eat less sugar
3) Cut back on coffee refills
4) Cut out foods that I absolutely know are garbage
5) Make a list of healthy foods to buy during our next grocery shopping trip

And you know what, even with these small changes I feel better. Now I am actually looking forward to trying one more tip from the book, then another.

My new health craze reminded me that, when God points us toward a path to change, He doesn’t always expect us to dive in head first immediately. True lasting change takes time. When we try to do it all at once we only become overwhelmed and discouraged. And what happens? We usually give up? However, when we take needed change a step at a time we have time to see that change work for our good. Then we are anxious to try even more.

Is there an area where you see a need to make some changes? What small steps can you take this week?