Tone Up Week 3: Dog Vomit

Welcome to Week 3 of Tone Up. I’ve got lots of a great vlogs and links and verses and fun stuff to share today, so don’t get overwhelmed! (Mom, I’m talking to you. :))

Firstly, here’s the link to the closed FB group if anyone still wants to join. Quite a few are joining in online and 10 girls are attending the live group.  If you are in the FB group, make sure that you are receiving notifications OR checking in daily to see what is going on and participate with the discussion.

Secondly, here is the Week 2 summary vlog, which has this weird girl who still doesn’t know how to look properly into a webcam. I don’t know what to do about her. 😉 (If you are in email, click over to the blog to watch this vlog.)

Thirdly, I created a Spotify playlist called “Tone Up Songs” of songs of almost ALL of the verses that we will learn during this study.  You can listen online or through the app in shuffle mode by creating a free Spotify account.  Music is my absolute favorite way to hide God’s word in my heart because it gets in there by osmosis. 🙂 PLEASE take advantage of this playlist as a great memory tool. I bet if you listen over the course of the study, you won’t have any trouble memorizing the

Fourthly, one of our Tone Up Live members shared a great resource called Scripture Typer to assist with Scripture memory by letting you type or text the verses into your phone through a series of exercises.  She created a group for us, called “You Go Girl“, so you can “compete” with other members of our group.  It is VERY cool and easy to use.  I highly recommend it.  She said that she uses the app while she is sitting in carpool line, which seems like a great time to reinforce positive TONE. 🙂 Join us using Scripture Typer!

Okay, now down to the Week 3 GOOD STUFF. (You’re wondering about the “Dog Vomit,” aren’t you? Admit it.)

In week two, we have been focusing on taming the tone we use with ourselves.  Our scripture memory has focused on becoming aware of who we are in Christ and believing what HE says about us.

As my sister and I talked and walked this morning, we reflected on the fact that for us, changing our tone to ourselves goes beyond just saying nice things to ourselves, or believing that God loves us.

It also means not dwelling on disparaging thoughts about how I’m doing.  For example, I might be doing okay not hating my appearance while meanwhile feeling that my house is a dump and my kids are wild animals.  Even though those final two things aren’t directly about me, the criticism that I hear in my brain is saying, “You’re a failure. You aren’t doing a good job. You aren’t making a difference.”

In order to tame my tone toward myself, I have to rewrite what I tell myself.  This is hard to do because sometimes my house IS a dump and my kids DO act like wild animals.  So how can I change my tone while still being honest?

We aren’t just going to start deluding ourselves, as fun as that might be.

We are going to start focusing on the good stuff that is true.  While we might have to deal with some of the bad stuff and we aren’t going to ignore it, we aren’t going to wallow in it.

Here’s an example. A gross one, but I think you will get my point.

12573109_10153846042088374_5939335304693779389_nMy new puppy eats stuff like birds and tennis balls and plastic in addition to her regular food.  Mostly it is this same inedible stuff that she pukes up in the middle of the night.  We have yet to see her hork up some actual dogfood.  That’s because her body digests the stuff that she SHOULD eat.

AND, even grosser, right after vomiting out something that was unpalatable to start with, she EATS IT.

Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.

That’s not one of memory verses, but maybe it ought to be.

Y’all, if there is a bunch of gross mess in your life, coming out of your mouth, this tells me that we have to deal with this problem–and maybe not by just putting more of the same inside OR by repeating/redigesting that same stuff to yourself over and over.

This is what we are going to talk about in Week 3.

We want to change our tone, which means, we want to change what comes out of our mouths.  We learned in week 1 that “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34

So we want to change what is in our HEARTS to get our words to change.

But it’s not so easy to change what is in our hearts. It doesn’t change overnight.  In fact, I am realizing that before my heart changes, my mind has to change.  When I think something over and over and over and over, then MAYBE it gets into my heart.  And once it is in my heart, then maybe my words reflect it.

It’s a process. And we are kind of working backwards through it.  We see the vomit and we can clean it up, but really what we gotta do is prevent the problem in the first place. Get the point?

So for Week 2, we said that we need to “set our minds on things that are above” and we “KNOW” that we, his works, are wonderful.  Has that HEAD knowledge soaked into our lives to the point that we believe it in our hearts?  Do we know it so completely that our hearts overflow that truth into our speech?

If not, we are going to talk this week about MEDITATING on these truths, soaking our brains in them so that they move from our heads into our hearts.  Our Scripture memory this week will be:

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Find this verse here and select Song 10.)

Notice that this means we need our hearts to be meditating on what we want our mouths to say, which leads me to our second verse.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. (Find this verse here and select Song 2.)

This means, in spite of the areas of struggle, focus and meditate upon what is going correctly in your home and family and spirit and job. Dwell upon friendships and books and words and shows and music and art and activities that fit the above criteria.

Otherwise, sorry to say, we’re basically eating regurgitated tennis balls like a dog.

Y’all, I’m pretty lazy and have a pretty crazy Netflix addiction so this is going to be no joke for me.  Who’s in? Who wants to join me in changing our minds, hearts, and words this week?

See you Thursday! And don’t forget to comment here or in the FB group how things are going with the Tone in Your Home.