imago dei
Listening to Call Her Holy podcasts can regularly bring me to tears reflecting on the goodness of God.
There is power in the messages we choose to consume. Putting truth back into your mind changes the way we live out our days.
The episode I was listening to today was talking about body image. I felt a wave of God’s love washing over me as I reflected on the lies that I used to believe in this area. Please hear this: I still struggle to fight lies. I am by no means 100% free or healed from the battles that I personally struggle with. I can say that the Lord has blessed me with beautiful, intentional friendships that are passionately chasing Him, which gives me a wonderful support system in my life today that I have not always had.
On Call Her Holy they were discussing what our relationship with our bodies should be. We ARE called to honor the Lord with our bodies. The gym and healthy foods are not an enemy. There is nothing wrong with taking care of our bodies…when done from a place of bringing honor to the Lord. But your body does not need to look a certain way to bring glory to God.
I lived for so long in my life convinced that if I was skinnier I was worth more love. I was living believing lies rather than turning to the Lord to fill the holes in my heart. I stumbled across a picture of my body in that time and it broke my heart for me to think back on the lies I believed in that time.
The solution to my struggle wasn’t to just dismiss what I was thinking, or become “body positive”. It was to run to Jesus.
Plot twist: you can’t win the battles you’re fighting by fighting harder or using a different strategy. Those battles are only won by running desperately to the one who steps in and wins them for us. A broken relationship with your body is no exception.
My body today has changed so much from the versions I have had at different stages. It has been skinnier in seasons of great depression and running from the Lord. It has been bigger in seasons of struggles with my health and fears over my circumstances. There is not a size of my body that has been more loved by God. He has met me in every size of my body and He has loved me unconditionally.
My hope for my body now is that it can bring glory to God. I want it to be used to preach to the testimony of His goodness in my life. I have been created in the image of God and I want to live in a way that declares the power of that truth.
