September 2009 - Heleen's Blog

The Good and the Bad of being Busy!

October 20, 2011September 29, 2009 by Heleen

I must admit, I have a need to stay busy all the time! It’s more than a need actually, for years I have equated busyness with power, prestige and value. Fortunately, God has brought about a lot of change in my value system and way of thinking, and these days I’m ready for a slower pace. However, moving at a snail’s pace without purpose or direction can cause other problems. Let’s have a look: The Good: I’ve written in previous posts about the absolute necessity for someone who struggles with food to find again her buried dreams and desires. Those dreams are given to us by God and it makes each one of us unique and our lives worth living. If we don’t follow our purpose and dreams, we will follow something else, even something destructive. So to get busy with your dreams is a GOOD THING! If you often find yourself bored, not interested in anything, tired, depressed and without purpose, you might have lost vision and purpose for your life. This is not God’s plan for you. Living in this hopeless state can cause a person to turn to food again and again. In fact, you might pick up many other idols along the way if you don’t find meaning and purpose in your life. Even good Christians who read their Bibles and pray daily can fall prey to idolatry if they don’t find joy in fulfilling the purpose God has for them on this earth. The Bad: Unfortunately anything we devout all of our time, energy, and money to can become an idol instead of bringing fulfillment to our lives. Take for instance this ministry I have for women who struggle with food. I’ve had this yearning to help other ladies for many years, but I wasn’t sure how it …

Need more Self-Control?

September 23, 2009 by Heleen

This past weekend I was reminded that self-control and controlling other people can not co-exist in my life. I was getting anxious about situations in our family and fell back into my old pattern of controlling people and circumstances. Of course I’m pretty good at “whipping” everything and everybody into shape, but things started unraveling fast inside of me. I was restless. I wanted to eat all sorts of things and I was avoiding God. Fortunately I’ve learned, through much tears and many heartaches, to recognize these patterns in myself. So I was back at the drawing board with God: The Bible clearly says that self-control is part of the Fruit of the Spirit and “should” thus be part of every spirit filled Christian’s life. According to John 15 we will bear much fruit (including self-control) if we are plugged into the vine (Jesus). So having self-control means staying close to God, OBEYING GOD, and daily asking the Holy Spirit to fill us and give us control of ourselves. However, no where in the Bible will you find any kind of command or even an indication that we are suppose to control other people and circumstances. Now if you are immediately thinking “I’m not a control-freak” you might want to first read the following to make sure: Controlling can be blatant or subtle. Trying to please people and keep everybody happy doesn’t seem like control, but by always pleasing others we actually try to control the way they see us, or even what they think of us. Controlling others has a nasty side affect: It robs us of our self-control. If we learn to give the people and things that we can not really control over to God, we have enough peace to build and work on our relationship with God and as …

Your words can change a Life!

September 14, 2009 by Heleen

I can not my believe my little girl turned 3 last week! Her brother will be 10 this week, and I can still clearly remember when he was only 3 with the little chubby arms and legs! I attached a picture of the two little rascals:) While icing some pink cupcakes on Christie’s birthday, I was again reminded of how far God has brought me. Here I was planning her party with, yes cake, but also hummus, wheat thins, carrots, celery and home made pizza (with healthy toppings) Don’t think for one minute that I’m priding myself in all of this! I still have too many parties from my past that haunts me. I am seriously trying to do a better job with my two younger children, but I’m afraid their brothers have had a total different life. They observed the roller coaster ride of my eating disorder for a big part of their lives. Fortunately they don’t have any visible signs of food issues, but I’m always praying and talking to them about it. I still have to stand against the enemy’s voice of accusation some days . He likes to tell me that I have failed when it comes to my older children, and that never mind how I’ve changed I will never make up for the past. The truth: There is no more condemnation for me (or you)! God loves my kids and He will use even my brokenness and the scars it might have left in their lives for His glory. I will keep praying and believing for that… Now, I totally got off track here, but maybe some of you amazing mothers out there needed to be reminded of this. What I really wanted to get to was and incident that happened a few weeks back in the …

Who said Exercise would be Easy?

September 23, 2009September 8, 2009 by Heleen

Nowhere else do I get so much resistance! I’m serious! When it comes to exercise, I have to fight the enemy off with a stick. Of course it confirms that it’s REALLY IMPORTANT, but knowing this doesn’t exactly help with the fact that it’s really difficult ! Yesterday, on labor day, I had one of those famous fights with my own flesh, my family, the enemy, and of course; negative thoughts. I slept in a little because it was a holiday, I wanted to eat pancakes, because it was a holiday and I didn’t want to exercise, you know it…because it was a holiday. On top of that, my husband didn’t want to watch the little kids so I could go to the gym, because it was a holiday, and nobody wanted to give me a hand with the laundry, because it was a holiday… GOOD TIMES! Now on holidays or special occasions these things merely come under the spotlight, but truth be told; it’s a daily battle. Every morning, from the moment I commit to exercise, the enemy will try every trick in the book, and use all the people I know to block me. Seriously; my family, my friends, and even acquaintances! If this doesn’t work he will throw in finances, crisis, sickness, weather, celebrations, discouragement, the list goes on… The worst part: I don’t even need all of the above excuses to take off my sneakers and quit. No, most mornings I already have a fight going on in my head, and just a little push can make me quit on the spot. Maybe you don’t have such a big battle when it comes to exercise, but I tell you, as soon as I open my eyes in the morning, I know that I DO NOT WANT TO EXERCISE! Even …