Revelation Within On the Go!
Revelation Within equips people with life-giving, grace-infused mind renewal tools to deepen their intimacy with Jesus so that counterfeit comforts (like overeating) lose their allure, and the joy and hope of Jesus fills their lives, satisfying their souls.
In our podcast we talk about mind renewal, tips and tricks for getting and staying free from counterfeit comforts like overeating (over-scrolling, over-drinking, over-anythinging...)
We began as Thin Within in 1975, a pioneer in intuitive, mindful eating back when diets were in their hey day! Thin Within has taught people how to tune in to their body's natural signals of hunger and satisfaction, remaining present with their meals and delighting in tastes and textures--and the Lord!
In the 1980s, Thin Within became a Christian ministry, showing people that the emptiness that they have felt and often filled with food that their bodies don't require, was really placed in there to be filled full with God through Jesus. He wants to set us free from all strongholds!
We rebranded our ministry and our podcast in 2023 to Revelation Within.
Join us!
Visit us in our RevWithin.Team community as well! (https://revwithin.team)
Find our listing of classes at https://www.revelationwithin.org
Revelation Within On the Go!
Can Boundaries Set You Free?
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A boundary can sound like rejection, but we’ve discovered that it can also be an act of trust. In this episode, we take what we’ve learned about boundaries in Spirit-led eating and expand it into everyday life—our time, attention, relationships, rest, productivity, conversations, and even the places we turn for comfort when we’re stressed or afraid. We talk honestly about common boundary traps, including using boundaries to avoid difficult conversations, trying to control other people, or believing that perfect boundaries will protect us from ever being hurt or disappointed. Grounding the conversation in Scripture and Jesus’ example, we explore how healthy boundaries can create space for life to flourish and how Sabbath reminds us that we were never meant to live at the mercy of endless demands.
We also get practical, asking two questions from 1 Corinthians 6:12: Is this beneficial, and is this beginning to master me? We apply those questions to social media, diet culture content, and the emotional “fruit” left behind by what we consume. Christina shares candidly about what breast cancer treatment, fear, and online content revealed about what she was taking in, while Proverbs 4:23 reminds us to guard our hearts. We also offer practical ways to step away from body and diet conversations—and an internal boundary for responding to cruel self-talk with truth and compassion. Ultimately, boundaries aren’t about controlling life or avoiding discomfort; they’re about learning to trust God enough to choose what helps us live and love well.
If this encourages you, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review. What boundary would be a holy yes to peace for you?
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Welcome And Spirit Led Eating Review
SPEAKER_01Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Heidi Bilzema Epherson, one of your hosts, and the owner and lead coach of the Revelation Within Ministry.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach, and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within. We are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Women.
SPEAKER_01In our previous episode, or in a previous episode, we talked about boundaries within spirit-led eating. We have five intentions of spirit-led eating, and we talked about how the boundaries can be very clear. We return to that clarity of physical hunger and physical satisfaction. And we summarize the five intentions this way. So we're just going to go ahead and review it. Hunger opens the meal, just enough closes the meal. And the Holy Spirit leads us through those two bookends and everything in between.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So we're so glad you've joined us today. No, that's the end of the podcast. No, just kidding. Okay,
Boundaries For Life Beyond Food
SPEAKER_00so today we're gonna widen the conversation because boundaries are not only about food. So, you know, we might need loving boundaries around our time, attention, how about relationships, work, certainly rest, movement, conversations, social media, and all the things we turn to for comfort. There are so many opportunities for boundaries in our lives, life-giving boundaries, boundaries that help.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And we want to approach this topic very carefully because the word boundary can be used in many different ways. Sometimes it means a loving limit. I mean, definitely. Sometimes it becomes a reason to avoid every uncomfortable conversation. Sometimes it becomes an attempt to control what another person does. And sometimes boundaries are treated almost like a magic formula. If I establish the perfect limits, I will never be hurt, disappointed, triggered, or inconvenienced ever again.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, ha, exactly. That's that's not possible. It's just not possible. No, godly boundaries are not a way of controlling life, they are a way of responding faithfully to the life, body, heart, time, and responsibilities that God has entrusted to us.
Scripture Shows Boundaries Help Life
SPEAKER_01Amen to that. And boundaries do appear throughout scripture. It can be a fascinating study. In the creation account, God brought order to what was formless. He separated light from darkness, he distinguished land from water, he established days and seasons and rhythms, and the boundaries God created allowed life to flourish.
SPEAKER_00Well, and God also gave Adam and Eve a boundary in the garden. Have you heard this story? I think I've heard this story. I think so. They were surrounded by abundance and permission. They were free to enjoy the trees God had provided, except for one. And that one tree, that one tree was outside the boundary that He had given them. That boundary was it was an invitation to trust God's wisdom. Have you ever thought of a boundary that way? As an invitation to trust God. Whoa.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then there's Sabbath. Sabbath is a boundary around endless productivity. It says, you are not a machine, you are not holding the world together. You do not have to produce every minute of every day. Oh my gosh. You may stop, you may receive, you may trust. I had a friend once who, instead of asking me how my day went each day, uh, when I talked to him, he would say, Heidi, have you had a productive day? It's like, no, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yes. You know what? That is a boundary that many of us desperately need. We may think a boundary is mainly about saying no to harmful things. I mean, that makes sense. It's harmful, we should say no. But sometimes a boundary actually protects something that's beautiful. Rest, prayer, family, sleep, creativity, unhurried time with God. So important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I remember when we built a fence around our property in Kool, we had this little dog, and she was a crazy dog. She uh, golden retriever, who I think her parents were related to each other. Good old Daisy.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, she was such a sweetie. I loved her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and the fence we built was a boundary. It was not intended to squelch her fun, but it did keep her in because outside of that fence line, there were cougars that were roaming the canyon. There were deer, and deer can be very dangerous. Um, and so it kept things that were dangerous from coming inside, and it kept what was precious from going outside. We didn't want Daisy running all over the countryside, running into rattlesnakes or other critters that might harm her. And I learned so much from watching her deal with the boundaries. You know, when a squirrel was on the run and she had to stop at the fence and the squirrel leaped over single bound. Anyway, I think of the Lord's intention for our boundaries as somewhat like mine were for Daisy, though God is perfect, of course.
Jesus Loves Without Being Controlled
SPEAKER_01But even beyond that, we see boundaries in the life of Jesus. We absolutely do. He was compassionate, he was generous, he was available, but he was not controlled by every request or expectation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is true. And and I think of Mark chapter one. Wow, the day had been so busy the day before, and he'd been healing all these people of all these different diseases and even being demon-possessed. And so the next morning it was early, early, early, and he withdrew to pray. He knew he needed time with his father to get kind of recharged. But you know what? The disciples found him and called him out and said, What are you doing here being quiet? Everyone is looking for you, they want another chance. Yeah there were needs waiting, there were people who wanted his attention, there was more he could have done in that one location, of course. But Jesus didn't allow that urgency of the crowd to determine his next step. He remained responsive to the father.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, yeah, it's so good. Sometimes I wonder, I mean, we see it so often in the Bible that he went away, but like, how often did he really? Was it every day? Was it more than every day? I just wonder sometimes about that. I'm so glad we can see that in his life here on earth.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know what? That challenges the idea that love means always being available.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00I mean, some of us believe that if another person wants something from us, love requires for us to provide it like right away, then, you know, be available, do it now. I used to be in a pattern like that with several different people years ago. Um, and I thought that was what I was called to do. If someone is disappointed by our no, it's like we assume, oh, I blew it, I I let them down, I did something wrong, you know. That's that's not okay. But Jesus loved perfectly, and people were still disappointed with him. People misunderstood him, people demanded explanations, people wanted access that he did not always give, even though he could have really. I mean, he was God, he was perfect. But he did model that for us in a very beautiful way, I think.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, you know, he didn't heal every person in town, he didn't raise everybody from the dead. And see, this is fascinating to me because so often we think we have to be the be all and all to people in our lives. But Jesus, even at the end of his life, he says, I have done everything the father has given me to do. Everything the father has given me to do. Were there still dead people? Yes. Were there still injured or diseased people? Yes. Could the healing have gone on? Yes, but he wanted to do only what the father was directing him to do. So he didn't answer every accusation, he did not remain in every place where other people wanted him to stay. He didn't entrust himself equally to everyone, and that may be spraining our modern-day brains a little bit because so many of us think, well, if I really am gonna love well, I'm gonna do X, Y, or Z to the best of my ability for everybody. And that's not the example he set for us. He loved without surrendering his obedience to the expectations of others. Whoa, that's a big deal.
Defining Godly Boundaries Versus Control
SPEAKER_00It is. So, what do you think about this, Heidi? How might we define a godly boundary?
SPEAKER_01That's a really good question. I think that a godly boundary is going to be loving and it's gonna be wise, but it yet it'll be a limit around what God has entrusted to our care, not what everybody else wants us to deal with. And may protect our physical well-being, our emotional capacity. It might protect our time, our attention, maybe our integrity relationships for sure. I mean, like we have boundaries in our marriages, most of us do, I hope. You know, I mean, I promise to love one man for the rest of my life, and that's a boundary. That means I'm not even gonna do anything that could lead in another direction. Um, uh I'm gonna have uh boundaries that protect my responsibilities or even my connection with God. Right. So a boundary is gonna help clarify what is mine to deal with and what is not mine to deal with, what belongs to me, what does not belong to me, what will I participate in? What will I step away from? What am I responsible for before God?
SPEAKER_00A boundary is primarily about my response, then. Yeah, it's not a tool for controlling another person. No, no, for example, a boundary is not you're not allowed to raise your voice. I can't control whether another person raises her voice or not. The boundary may be if the conversation becomes verbally aggressive, I'll end it and we can try again later. That's that's um a life-giving boundary.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. I mean, if if the conversation is going sideways, I can't stop the other person from whatever they're choosing to do with the way they communicate, but I can choose my response to it. And that's where I might set a boundary. And then once we set boundaries, it's really important that we, as long as they were God-given boundaries, um, I need to call on the Lord to strengthen me to live according to them because it's easy to make boundaries and not follow them. What's the point of making them and inviting God into that if I don't follow them?
SPEAKER_00Right, yes.
SPEAKER_01A boundary isn't you've got to stop commenting on people's bodies. I wouldn't want to live with a person who does that. Um, I may certainly ask someone not to comment on my body, but I also can't change their hearts or their behaviors. I can't force that. My boundary might be though that I'm not gonna participate in conversations that criticize bodies. Sounds weird to talk about bodies. Um, but that's what we're talking about. Yeah. If the conversation continues in that direction, I can just excuse myself. And I've done that before. And it's been awkward, but it's been life-giving to me.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, and that's that difference is really important. A boundary identifies what I will do, right? What my part is, you know. Control, on the other hand, attempts to dictate what everyone else is gonna do, and that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. First
Two Questions That Reveal Mastery
SPEAKER_01Corinthians 6 12 gives us a really important question. In this passage, Paul has acknowledged that something may be permissible, but not beneficial. And he refuses to be mastered by anything. And that gives us two helpful boundary questions. Is this, whatever this might be, beneficial for me? Or what Christine and I like to call life-giving. Yes. Is this, whatever this is, beginning to master me? Ooh, and I don't want anything to master me but Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00Well, and those are the questions that can apply to all different areas in our lives: food, alcohol, work, streaming, social media, shopping, exercise, even gaming, news, or the need for other people's approval. Or you fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, you've got some.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, something does not have to be inherently sinful to become unhelpful or controlling in my life. I know that well. I've seen that many times in my own life.
SPEAKER_01Everybody's boundaries might be different for various sundry reasons. So just because somebody else doesn't have a boundary in a certain area doesn't mean that I shouldn't have a boundary. I might need to have a boundary that, I mean, God may lead me to have a boundary that whoever I'm with or who I'm seeing does not have. Romans 14 reminds us of this situation and that we don't want to judge one another over personal convictions, practices, and that would include boundaries. My boundary, what is a boundary for me, is not automatically a commandment for you. Yes, you're such a good point. Yeah, it really is. Your freedom is not automatically wisdom for me.
SPEAKER_00Well, and that allows us to say this content may not trouble everyone, but it's not producing good fruit in me. Right. Right? It's like it's about how it's affecting me, or this activity isn't wrong, but I'm becoming dependent on it. And I don't like the way that feels. It doesn't feel right for me. Exactly. I have freedom to do this, but I don't believe that it's beneficial in this season of my life, right? Again, it's it's for me. How is it affecting me?
SPEAKER_01Yeah,
Social Media Limits And Inner Fruit
SPEAKER_01so one of the boundaries I've been thinking about personally involves social media again. You know, how much will I allow myself to watch reels of certain things? And it and it might be for me most of the time, I'll be honest with you, it's animals. I love seeing reels of dogs and puppies and horses and foals, and and that's my favorite kind. But what about those reels uh with people succeeding on diets or celebrating dramatic body transformations? I mean, is that I mean, is that life-giving for me? I'll be honest with you, it is not life-giving for me. The reels may appear harmless, they may even seem motivating, but what happens inside me while I watch? And by the way, even you know, uh you can go too far with puppy reels and horse reels and and even ocean wave reels, which I tend to save, and then that I can listen to them when I'm trying to sleep, but anyway, no, it's it's something that we want might want to invite God into again. Let's invite God in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's wedding bloopers for me still. I don't know why. Um, but then there's this whole other thing that has happened with me.
Fear After Cancer And Turning Away
SPEAKER_00I have spent the last year um in cancer treatment, breast cancer treatment, as some of you know, and it's been a really, really hard year. God has really been amazing, he's been faithful and has met me and my family 100%. And I am cancer free now. I'm so grateful. Um, but what am I being drawn to on social media right now? It's not the puppies, it's not the wedding bloopers, um, it's not a lot of things that I have been in the past. It's these um women who are struggling with the same thing, and they're posting their stories as reels on Facebook and Instagram, and I am being drawn into their stories to the point where I've had dreams about them and I have you know thought about them often during the day. Now, on the one hand, you might say, Well, God's calling you to pray for them, Christina. Maybe, yes, and I have prayed for them. One of them actually just passed away a couple weeks ago. I know. So when I took this to the Lord, I said, Lord, why am I being drawn into this? Um, it's like it kind of there's there's a magnetic pull toward it. Um, and he showed me so lovingly and so with so much compassion that it's fear. Um I fear that the cancer is gonna come back and that I'm gonna have to go through this all again, or some some form of it all again. And what I realized is that most of the ladies that I was watching, that's exactly what's happened. It has come back and they're dealing with it and what's happening with them. And so it's fear. I am being drawn by fear into this, and that might be the case for someone else with some other experience, some other situation that has nothing to do with health. Maybe it does, it could be something else, you know. You could get um stuck watching somebody with you know whose marriage is falling apart, or could be anything. Anyway, I felt very convicted, lovingly convicted by the Lord that I needed to stop that um and just let go of those stories. They're not my stories. I have my own journey, I have my own journey that God is walking with me in, and I don't need to be somehow you know getting comfort from watching how someone else is dealing in their journey. Right so when it when it comes up now, I pray for them and turn it off.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, and we don't even know if they know Jesus or not, so they may not even be going to God for comfort or answers or wisdom.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, the ones that I have been watching don't. They don't know the Lord, and and I don't know, yeah. So it's not like I'm watching to be encouraged or inspired, I'm watching out of fear, and that's that's not good for me, that's not beneficial at all. No, it's not life-giving.
SPEAKER_01And so that question becomes really important. What happens inside me while I watch? That's huge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, exactly. And when I turn it off, how do I feel? Am I encouraged or am I discouraged? Am I energized or drained? Do I feel what do I feel like? Okay, I'm drained and I'm sad and I'm focused on not on the Lord. Um, so the important question here is what is the fruit? What is the fruit of what I'm doing, what I'm looking at, what I'm spending time on? After watching, do I feel peaceful, grounded, able to listen to God, or maybe I feel urgency instead? Or what about comparison? I'm comparing myself to this other woman. How about body shame? And I already talked about fear. The belief that everyone else is succeeding in their journey, whatever that journey is, while I'm somehow falling behind.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that ain't no way to live.
SPEAKER_00It's not, it's awful. And I am I have stopped it.
SPEAKER_01That's good. Before before cancer, it it was Lyme disease too. I know that that was a struggle as well. A lot of fear. And thank you, Lord, for healing Christina of Lyme disease because cancer treatment kills them all.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's that's what we're hoping. We'll we'll see what God's plans are. Oh, I just I want to say thank you to God because He has given me a beautiful break from Lyme disease symptoms. And I hope it's forever. I don't know if it is, but even if it isn't, God is faithful and it has been so faithful.
SPEAKER_01You know, reels that show people transforming, you know, from being obese to look at me now can really awaken all kinds of familiar thoughts in me. Maybe I should try that plan. I have to be honest with you, that doesn't really happen to me that often anymore at all, thankfully. But this thought might. I need to do something drastic. Or I would be happier if my body looked like hers. Or why can she do it and I can't? I'm wasting my time. My body is unacceptable as it is. You know, I am so grateful for Mind Renewal and how it has taken thoughts like these, and because they're lies, they're lies from the pit, and God has shown me that I can replace them with thoughts that are congruent with what he has to say, with his character, and that I can think with the mind of Christ now. And so those don't hit me as much as other kinds of thoughts might. But you know, it's it wouldn't yeah, it wouldn't take a lot probably for me to land there again. Uh, because I remember in 2014 when I had my health crisis, I was years out of dieting, but yet it still came back to haunt me. And I won't go into that those details now, but um definitely there was it was easy to go back to that way of thinking um because of what was going on with my body, right? Right. So yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So the issue is not whether the person in the reel has done something wrong. That's not what we're talking about here. Whatever reels that you're watching or you're feeling drawn to, the issue is all about what's happening in us as a result of watching over and over and over. Proverbs 423 tells us to guard our hearts because what flows from the heart shapes the direction of our lives. I mean, isn't that so true in so many ways? Guarding the heart is not the same as hardening it, it means paying attention to what we repeatedly allow to influence us. And I'm talking to myself here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Christina and I did a podcast, oh, probably at least a year ago now on our social media feeds, and we spoke how it's called a feed and how we do. We feed upon it, and it does something to us similar to what food does to us, gives us strength, if you will, in certain areas. Maybe we don't want to feed that part of us. So a social media boundary might be for the next you name the number of days, I will not intentionally watch diet or weight loss transformation videos. Maybe that's something that would be helpful to you and life-giving to you. Um, when one appears, here's another way of wording a boundary about this. When one appears, I will scroll past rather than lingering on it. Here's another one. I will mute or unfollow accounts that repeatedly awaken shame, fixation, or urgency.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so good. That's a really good one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Or how about I will not read the comments on posts that invite body comparison? Right. These are the kind of boundaries we make. I know, and it's true. We really need to guard our minds, and because God knows that it it is the wellspring of our lives, and what we allow our minds to camp on, that's gonna direct our steps. It really is.
SPEAKER_00Well, and we can pair the boundary with truth, yeah. So when the content appears, we might say, My body is not a before picture, amen. Yeah, or my worth is not waiting at the end of a transformation, or I do not need to manufacture urgency in my life, right? I've got enough of the real stuff. I don't need to make more, I can care for my body without condemning it. Amen. And then I love this one. God is not rushing me.
SPEAKER_01A loving no to that content really may become a yes to peace. Is that the case for you? What do you think?
SPEAKER_00Yes, and oh, I am I don't think I know.
SPEAKER_01I know it might be not just a yes to peace, but also to presence, a yes to hearing him more clearly. That just sounds lovely to me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it sounds lovely to me too. I'm just gonna admit to you all that there have been times that I have felt very much called to um spending a few minutes with the Lord, like in margin during the day, and I have gone straight to social media instead. And it feels awful afterwards. Are you telling me you're human? Yes, I'm so human. Okay.
Boundaries Around Diet Talk And Bodies
SPEAKER_00Um, so we may also need boundaries around conversations about bodies, weight, diets, and food. That's another big one.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, maybe family members regularly comment on what we're eating, which is really, really hard. Maybe co-workers repeatedly discuss calories, weight gain, or the diet that they're beginning on Monday or in January. Um, perhaps someone greets us by asking whether we have lost weight. That's that's a big one, too.
SPEAKER_01Hmm. We may have absorbed a belief that we must quietly endure those conversations. For me, it would happen when I attended women's Bible study in person at my church. It's like, oh dear, they're doing it again. I don't, I don't want that to go. I don't want to contribute. I don't want to say, I've got an alternative for you. Be free of diets forever. I mean, I would love to be able to say that, but they would look at me cross-eyed, I'm sure. You know, really a gracious boundary, life-giving boundary might sound something like I'm choosing not to discuss my weight, but I would love to tell you how I'm doing. There you go. Or I'm working on relating to food with greater peace. So I'm stepping away from diet conversations. They have never served me before.
SPEAKER_00So good, Heidi. That's so good.
SPEAKER_01Or maybe I know you mean well, but comments about my body are not helpful to me. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. That's exactly. I have a neighbor who used to comment on my body every time I took a walk, um, she would say, Oh, Christina, you're looking like you're slimming down or looking good, doing great, you know, with uh weight loss or whatever. And I thought, why does that bother me so much? I don't, you know, that's not that's not good for me. Um, I don't know how I did it, but somehow, I don't know what I said back, it's been a few years now. She doesn't make those comments anymore. Good. I'm really thankful.
SPEAKER_01I remember in the middle of my health crisis in 2014, I had lost an enormous amount of weight, which wasn't a healthy way of losing weight at all. Um, somebody at church said, Well, at least at least you've lost all your extra weight. I'm like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00I'm fearing for my life.
SPEAKER_01Not because of weight, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00In fact, those at least statements can be really, really painful for a lot of a lot of different reasons. Um so we can't guarantee that the person will understand. Of course, of course not. We can't control them, we don't want it to be about that. A boundary is not successful only when the other person agrees to it, not at all. The success is that we communicated honestly and responded with what's in alignment with our values. And you know, maybe, I mean, maybe, maybe not, but maybe that person will think, huh, I've always made those comments. Maybe I need to think about changing that. Yeah, I didn't even realize that what I was saying was discouraging to somebody.
SPEAKER_01And listener, I've just got to say, I've been around a lot of women who love Jesus and love each other. And there have been some that just seem to have no idea that speaking about the body, about weight, about what you're eating can be so hurtful to some of us. So hurtful. Um, I could tell you stories, but I won't right now, of course. Um, but we we put put a cork in it. No, if you are somebody who tends to do that, you might want to think uh not just twice, but just don't say anything.
SPEAKER_00Just don't. Just don't focus on who the person is, focus on their positive qualities, not on the their body or the changes their body have made because of this, that, and the other. There could be a million reasons that their body looks different today than it did a month ago. Yes, just don't go there, don't go there.
SPEAKER_01Don't go there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly.
Internal Boundaries For Self Talk
SPEAKER_01Some boundaries are internal, and so we need to take these to heart. We may decide I'm no longer gonna use degrading or cruel language to speak about my body, even if I'm not speaking out loud, but speaking to myself and my mind. That doesn't mean a critical thought's never gonna enter my head, but I cannot always stop the first thought. Um, I can choose whether I agree with it, rehearse it, and repeat it. And that's kind of important. In one of the classes we were teaching this week, I was saying something, and somebody in the class admonished me about that. And I was trying to just tell an example of history historically how I might have spoken to myself, but it came across as though that's what I was saying about myself now. And she's right, I need to be cautious about that no matter what the context, because it can be damaging to my own you know, growth and movement forward and freedom and all of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. When the thought says, my body is disgusting, we can respond, that's not as familiar, but it does not reflect God's heart toward me. Or I will not use my own voice to condemn someone that God loves, or simply, Lord, teach me to see this body with truth and compassion.
SPEAKER_01The boundary's not gonna be I will never have another negative thought. That's just not realistic. The boundary is I will not intentionally build a fortress for that thought. I'm not going to support it, I'm not gonna let it stay standing. No, that's a boundary.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So a boundary is often a no to one thing because we're saying yes to something more precious.
SPEAKER_01No to comparison, but yes to peace. No to manufactured urgency, yes to God's patient leadership, no to body condemnation, yes to truth. Right. No to limitless availability, yes to the work and relationships God has actually entrusted to us.
SPEAKER_00A no can be holy, and a limit can be loving. A boundary can become a place where we learn to trust God.
SPEAKER_01And we will not hold every boundary perfectly. That's just not going to happen. When we notice we've crossed one or abandoned one or created one for the wrong reason, we don't have to hide about it. We take the pathway back to God, look and learn with him. We notice, we name it, we bring it to him, we choose, and we respond as he leads.
SPEAKER_00And once again, we just want to say there is no condemnation here, only invitation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, invitation, not inspection.
SPEAKER_00Right. So we're
Invitation Not Condemnation Closing
SPEAKER_00so glad that you've been here today. And we are gonna get back to this topic in our next podcast because we have so much to share, and I'm really excited about that. We hope that you'll join us for the next one here at Revelation Within.
SPEAKER_01See you next time. See you. Bye bye.