How do you see yourself - Joyce Meyer

Every now and again I will come across something that inspires and motivates me to remember why exactly my heart desires to walk into my future adventure doing workshops with awesome Girls!

I just read one of those 'Inspirations' by Joyce Meyer. Joyce Meyer has been a distant mentor in my walk with God.Years later she still continues to help me Step up and Step deeper into Gods love and purpose for my life. Making a totally ordinary existence - a great adventure and extra-ordinary! I thank God for her and the wisdom He has bestowed on her, with a voice that we can hear and be taught by - no matter which continent we live on.

What she had to share...

How Do You See Yourself? by Joyce Meyer Do you like yourself? After years of trying to help people emotionally, mentally, spiritually and socially, it was a major breakthrough when I discovered that most people really don’t like themselves. Some of them know it, while others don’t even have a clue that this is probably the root of so many other problems in their lives. God wants us to have great relationships, but self-rejection and even self-hatred are the roots of many relationship problems. In fact, I’ve found the Bible to be a book about relationships, providing valuable advice about my relationship with God, other people and even myself. How are the relationships with other people in your life? What about your relationship with God…and even with yourself? Did it ever occur to you that you have a relationship with yourself? While I’ve never given it much thought, I spend more time with myself than with anyone, and it’s vital to get along well with me. Remember, you are the one person you never get away from. We all know how agonizing it is to work day after day with someone we don’t get along with, but at least that person doesn’t come home with us at night. We can’t get away from ourselves, not even for one second, so it’s of the utmost importance that we have peace with ourselves. Many of us fall prey to self-rejection because we feel that nobody really loves us or accepts us. We figure that if nobody else loves us, then why should we love ourselves? Because we think others don’t love us, we feel that we must not be worth loving. But that’s a LIE we’ve believed for way too long! We should love ourselves—not in a selfish, self-centered way that produces a lifestyle of self-indulgence, but in a balanced, godly way that affirms God’s creation as essentially good and right. We may be flawed by unfortunate experiences we’ve gone through, but that doesn’t mean we’re worthless and good-for-nothing. We must have the kind of love for ourselves that says, “I know God loves me, so I can love what God chooses to love. I don’t love everything I do, but I accept myself because God accepts me.” We must develop the kind of mature love that says, “I know I need to change, and I want to change. In fact, I believe God is changing me daily, but during this process, I will not reject what God accepts. I’ll accept myself as I am right now, knowing that I will not always remain this way.” Many times people who reject themselves do so because they can’t see themselves as good, proper, or right. They fail to see themselves the way God sees them—as precious children He dearly loves. As you begin to see yourself through God’s eyes—someone who’s loved and cherished—your view of yourself will begin to change. You’ll begin to see yourself not as rejected, but as loved and accepted…unique and beautiful in His sight.

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Butter - Gross!

Sometimes something so random totally consumes your mind! In the past 24 hours it has been BUTTER! and followed by a passionate YUGH! =(. So I need to vent-blog my daily 3500 women words and share a bit more about my bad butter experience and why it is consuming my thoughts.

I was waiting for a quote to be sent to me so that I could print it at Postnet yesterday. I guessed it would take an hour or so, I decided I was going to go have a coffee and a bite to eat at the local coffee shop next door to the Postnet. Eish! I ordered a Chicken Kebab Baguette with honey and mustard dressing and a side salad. I waited over an hour and then my baguette arrived with more like honey and mustard butter. I scrapped off 4+ Tablespoons of butter off my roll and left it in a heap on the side of my plate. I may have imagined it but it felt like I could still taste the remaining butter on the roll at 10pm last night. Why this is totally gross - the facts about butter and fat in general is quite a shocker!! It will make you think twice about ever eating butter again and why the excess butter yesterday has got me totally grossed out.

A scraping of butter that one may have on your toast represents 5-10g grams of  fat. Fats and oils contain nine calories per gram. That's up to 90 calories for a scrape of butter on your toast and face it who has just one slice. Have you checked the calories you burn on the machine or on your polar watch when you exercise? ... do you know how long it takes to burn 90 calories at even that intensity of exerting yourself? On top of that, who says that we even burning off that scrape of butter. Your body will burn all the glucose in your bloodstream first - say from the bread - before using the fat's energy. I will get into the digestion briefly next. But through reading its clear that your body basically will burn up glucose for energy that you get from carbs or proteins, but the fat you eat will likely - as the saying goes - go straight to your hips!

It is important to remember that we all have unlimited storage place for fats, I read that for example, patients who have spent a long time in hospital and have lost a lot of weight often need to have their dentures re-adjusted, because they have actually lost fat on their gums (x diet, pg 63). Not even our gums are safe from butter let alone our bums. =)

So for those who need to get technical in the simplest way possible for me to explain on the digestion of fats and why should we should avoid them almost entirely, here goes....

"Dietary fats, like those in butter, meat or cooking oils, are basically organic compounds composed of carbon, hydrogen,and oxygen. They consist of complex molecules and are the most highly concentrated source of energy in our daily diet. They belong to a class of substances called lipids. Unfortunately, dietary fats do not dissolve in water, as a result they are not easily broken down by fat-digesting enzymes (lipase) in the watery content of the gastrointestinal tract.Therefor fats tend to take longer to digest than carbohydrates or proteins". So because fats take longer to digest they tend to get burned up last as an energy source.

Your body will take the extra fatty acids and store them as adipose tissue, better known as body fat. That adipose tissue can be broken down and turned into glucose when you need more calories than you consume. But many people already consume to many or enough calories and therefore never need to burn the excess 'butter in our storage'.
"A healthy digestive system will absorb about 95 percent of the dietary fat that you eat" Doesn't this fact make you want to scream, so its not excreted like many other nutrients or vitamins in excess ... if you have a healthy digestive system you likely to not escape any of the extra butter thats heading straight for your special fat storage places. Another reason it is not excreted  - as stated above - is because fats are not water soluable.

Aparently 'healthy' olive oil is not a totally safe option either. Although we need the fatty acids because they are essential for a healthy heart and low cholesterol levels. Unfortunately the healthy fats are still absorbed and stored in the same way as butter on the gums, hips and thighs! It is better to get your healthy fatty acids in the right doses in a capsule form.

All that butter - oh my hat - what if its gone straight to my gums?

Our Beloved Africa

A poem by Angus Buchan, I share his heart  and love for Africa! I thought this was very special, may it warm your heart and hope for Africa too. If the poem doesn't blow you away the picture of this african sunset and the beauty of the picture certainly should! =) enjoy!

OUR BELOVED AFRICA

A land of such contrasts.
Much death,
much love.
So harsh
yet so gentle,
so sensitive.
A land which has the most incredible sunrises,
and most beautiful sunsets.
A land of the most diverse cultures and ethnic peoples,
Each one bringing to the tapestry
such beautiful colours of love, passion, patience,
determination, striving, failure and success.
Africa, my beloved Continent.
It is a deeply spiritual place
where the acknowledgement of God
has always been known by its people;
where men and women came from over the seas
to tell us His Name, "Jesus the Christ".
How we have embraced that truth
with everything that is within us.
We have died for Him,
been martyred for Him,
and now we are taking Our Nkosi
to the peoples of the earth who have forgotten Him!
Our beloved Africa sheltered the "Christ Child"
when His mother and father fled the tyranny of evil in Israel.
And now, as Jesus is preparing to return to earth
to claim His own, we are once again blowing the trumpet,
warning the peoples of the earth to turn back
to Almighty God.
There is an urgency in the land which is unprecedented
anywhere else in the world.
Africa knows the King is returning soon,
and our eyes are lifted up towards the clouds.
We see the signs so very evident in our continent:
Signs of war and violence, of hunger and drought,
of floods and disease, of poverty and greed.
The travesties of injustice, anger and greed
cause us to look up and inward,
to prepare ourselves for the soon-coming King.
While the world continues to seek for peace
and well-being in their own wisdom and strength,
their own efforts,
they are truly being horribly deceived by the ruler of this world.
My beloved Africa,
There is nowhere else I would rather be in this earthly life
than to be resident in you.
Irrespective of all the suffering I see around me,
the unfairness, the abuse, the inequality,
yet to live here is to live in reality.
All else is living a lie.
And so, by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ,
I will endeavour with everything that is within me,
to make my beloved Africa a better place
for all peoples to live in;
to introduce its people to their Creator,
to combat hatred.
With God's love,
where there is hopelessness, to bring vision.
Where there is brokenness and pain,
to bring healing and joy.
Because, as the people of Africa put their complete focus
back on God then, indeed, she will arise and shine,
and the glory of the Lord will come upon her,
and the continent which has for so long
been called the dark continent,
shall have its name changed for ever
to the Continent of Light,
for the Lord Jesus will arise over us.
Amen!
Hallelujah.

Angus Buchan

"Change is the very nature of life, - welcome it. No glass ever became sand again; No bread ever became wheat; No ripened fruit ever became a flower. Welcome change, and choose what kind of glass you create, what kind of bread you bake, what kind of fruit you harvest" - Unknown

I really Like this quote! one up on "embrace change"

I can be the Kayak girl!

I had a dream a little while ago which has made me realise something quite significant about myself. In this dream I saw myself in a kayak doing a canoe race with someone. I knew it was me in the dream although I did not recognise myself. I had long brown hair, I was tanned ( not likely after a year in Ireland and returning to South Africa for a second winter). But what has had a major impact on me is that I had this super toned body - muscles everywhere. I even had my much desired Michelle Obama Arms!!
Why the impact? I realised that I had never seen myself or even imagined myself like that before. Yes, I desired it, and have tried endlessly  to tone up... but never actually 'seen' myself looking so super hot and healthy ... Fit, Firm and Fabulous! The image inspired me and motivates me now ... because I guess the cliche 'if u can see it - you can achieve it' (I hope). But this is not my point.

My point is that my self-image has always been distorted. I have always! always! always! seen myself as the 'very chubby, friendly girl'. I know that ones self-image is like the cruise-control setting in Ian's much loved TDi Polo. If you set the cruise control at 100km per hour, you can slow down or accelerate to a higher speed for what ever you need to, but the cruise control will always bring you back to 100km per hour.  To make point: If my self-image is me weighing 10 tons - I may lose or gain 5tons. But if my self-image is or I see myself as 10 tons its likely that I will always slowly creep back 10 tons. The same goes if you see your self as a loser or as unsuccessful or a bad friend. You will never rise above the expectation you have of yourself.

I will give you some example of my mindset. I joined the gym here in Worcester for the couple of months that we'd be here. As you know you have to go through the whole assessment - make me a program exercise first. Anyway, so I go and tell them my usual goals blah blah blah... get on the scale ( The usual result ) and then the BMI and fat percentage. I read the results and expect the worst. I was surprised to see I am in the normal-healthy range for fat percentage.... and my thought is first 'the dude is clearly not a professional,he must of made a mistake'. Then my mom gets one of these fancy scales that can measure your fat percentage...I am surprised it is almost exactly the same percentage as the 'unprofessional gym dude'. So I think it must be his table that's incorrect,I search the web and check the scales handbook ...I am in the healthy zone. I did a few more tests at Run/Walk for Life and yip same result. My problem is that self-image is that I am not 'Normal'!! but maybe, just maybe I am. Not my ideal!!, but 'normal' is a very big jump from what I thought I was.

I need to change the expectation of myself in order to firstly accept that maybe I am okay - even now - which  is the hardest part! and that 'I'...yes 'me'  can actually be the girl in the Kayak! I have seen an image of myself - and that I can actually be 'her', IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE ...because I have seen an image that it is! even if only in my dream  =).

In my next blog will be about how I got this self-image - the lies I hear/heard and believed which set my cruise control at very chubby - friendly girl.  Likely the most important reason for this post being written. Because many of us have been  told lies about ourselves that we have believed and it may be stealing our potential.

Quote of the day. " I have learnt... that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it."

Accepting Second Best?

In my post ‘The 2 year Old in You’ I wrote about how adults have lots their ability to make their world colourful. We have lost our creativity, imagination and belief that we can change our life-world. I have also come to know that we have lost the dreams we hoped for in our lives. The dreams we desire most are the very things we have lost faith in believing we can achieve them. Dreams including a love story with a romance so beautiful its tangible to everyone around you; marriage that lasts a lifetime and doesn’t fear divorce; a career so exciting you actually jump out of bed in the morning – not necessarily a career that will change the world but one that changes yours; or a family that’s still together and not broken. We have come to accepting that this world is a dysfunctional mess - Why pretend things can ever be any different? We accept mediocrity at the cost of the dreams for our lives. We settle for second best and wonder why we are ‘just living’.

A quote by Eric and Lesley Ludy puts it like this “As we grow up, the world tells us that aiming our lives at the impossible only leads to disappointment. Somewhere along the way, we are persuaded to loosen our grip on our dreams and we pitch our tents in a land where everyday humans dwell”. Why would we want to settle where everyday humans dwell??? Where is the adventure? Where is that person in you that would rather go take a step into the wild to discover something new and exciting rather than stay inside where it’s boring and safe?
Something else the Ludy’s said that I thought was so significant: and hear this…"After all, if you never aim high, you will never be disappointed with mediocrity”

Either we play it so safe that we say “Its not worth taking the Risk” so we often settle for second best or harden our hearts so much in order to avoid disappointment – suppressing and suffocating the very dream we desire most.

I mean the above most in regards to Love. I have had 3 conversations with friends recently that have made my heart rather sad. The first one is a 16 year old, beautiful, talented young woman who tells me that she will never get married. Don’t get me wrong I think she would love to, but she says ‘It’s not worth the risk’ she lived through her parents divorce and now continues to give me stats on the divorce rate in SA. Then the situation with my last two friends is that they have come to that point in their relationships where they have been dating the ‘great guy’ for a while and they are dreaming of marriage, but he just isn’t asking or planning anything of the sort. And if the girls try hint their hearts desire of a man so in love with them that he wouldn’t hesitate to fulfil their childhood dream of a romantic story of when he buys the prettiest ring and promises to honour her by making her his wife forever! Instead he has excuses of ‘I just haven’t thought about it, or I like the way it is’, or ‘I don’t believe in marriage’. The girls’ heart begins to harden, her love and childhood dream of marriage and a family begins to suffocate. What I fear most is that they ‘pitch a tent where everyday humans dwell’. That they settle for second best.
If your boyfriend cannot see himself marrying and honouring you and it’s your hearts desire and dream to get married’…and he isn’t planning on changing his mind and your love and heart is beginning to harden… know this, it is his loss! He will wake up and one day and realise that he believed the world lies. He settled. Pitched a tent of mediocrity without taking any risks and lost out.
Believe this - you were born for a romance! It is out there when two people believe that love is possible and realise that is worth taking the risk and if you are both willing to give 110%. Don’t hold back because you scared of a statistic. Believe that your life can be different and you do not have to settle for ‘everyday'. Don’t hold back because life is an adventure and there is a lot to be discovered. Don’t lose your passion and belief that the impossible is possible. After all, with God all things are possible to those who love and trust him. The God who is the God of the impossible, who can do above and beyond what we expect loves us and desires to give us the desire of our hearts. If you cannot trust yourself with your dreams… trust God.

And if any boys who aren’t honouring their girlfriends with their hearts desires happen to stumble on this blog. If you love her, honour her! Be her knight in shinning armour. The world lies and leave you empty. A Women blossoms when she is in love and loved – you will benefit in her glow I promise you.