Photo Courtesy of iStockPhoto

Half of the image above was photoshopped by someone at iStockPhoto. Which is beauty? Which is untouched? Who is to say what the standard of beauty is.

This week we look at that a bit. I am excited!

BUT…

…I worked my patootie off editing a video for you for this week’s session and then inadvertently deleted it…so I have to give it up. So sorry. I just can’t seem to figure out how to recover it. So here are my notes from my video…

This is a GREAT lesson this week! We will get to DIVE in and invite God to help us to KNOW FULL WELL that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Let’s seek His will, His heart, His mind, His truth about our bodies, shall we? We want to pray: Lord, help me to know full well that I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

The authors redefine “Body Beautiful,” reminding us that our bodies are wonderful inventions that hug needy friends and family members, carry us, kiss a special someone, serve those in need, nurse babies, etc. If we could really believe that these things are what define “body beautiful,” I think we would break free of some destructive lies that hinder our freedom!

These are lies that are perpetuated by the media. Have a look at the Dove video called, Evolution:

The truth is, the perfect body doesn’t exist! It is PhotoShopped! We want to be able to love our bodies–the wonderful creations that God has given us, but in order to do that, we may have to go about it in a round-about way. We may have to get to know our God better. As we get to know him, we will love him more and more and begin to see that he has created our bodies in a truly marvelous way. One of the best ways to get to know God is with a God List (I have shared this here at the blog numerous times, but I really believe strongly that this is SO helpful, so I will keep mentioning it!). As you begin to love God more and more, you see that what he creates is wonderful and trustworthy and amazing…and that means YOUR body!

We are in week 4 of our HEAL study this week. So you may be wondering “How do I know what my ‘natural, God-given size’ is supposed to be?” The authors mentioned it briefly early on, but I want to highlight it again. Here is the definition of YOUR personally unique natural God-given size! Ready?

Your natural, God-given size is the size you become

when you

eat according to

God’s parameters for you–hunger and satisfaction.

When you do that, you will “land on”

and

maintain

the size you are intended

by your Creator to be.

What is so awesome about this, is that there is no need for a bathroom scale ever again! Use the hunger scale and you won’t need a bathroom scale! You just keep at this 0 to 5 eating and you will become the size you are supposed to be and you will live there. No fuss! No muss! No obsession! This really IS freedom. Never having to worry about the content of your food ever again. Never having to live in fear about the “weigh in” ever again. Sure, your size may vary a bit, but you will know that eating 0 to 5 a bit more faithfully will restore that healthy size once again.

It is SO worth pursuing this! Honest! 🙂 This is ONE thing I really DO know! 🙂

Spend some time asking the Lord to show you what your “Body Vision Statement” should be. Then, dare to write it down! 🙂 On Friday, you can share it with us. 🙂 (If you want…)

Do you still need an accountability partner? Visit the Accountability page and pick someone that you feel God is leading you to possibly reach out to. Email me and I will forward your request to her. You may want to consider a second and a third option in case the person that you select first has a partner already. But after you email me, I will shoot your request to the person you have asked about. If you don’t hear anything, it is possible that they haven’t checked their email…you can shoot me the name of another person and we can keep trying until we get you linked up. Something this important is WORTH persevering about, ok? 🙂

If you have an accountability partner, it may be worthwhile to check in and evaluate how your accountability is going. Do you need more frequent check-ins? Less frequent? Is it taking too much of your time and you are concerned? Are you LOVING it? 🙂 You may want to open a dialog to tweak your partnership so it can be even more effective. I honestly believe that if you want an accountability partner, there is no reason that you should be without. A bunch of you are celebrating the value of being partners! Let’s do this for everyone!

This week, consider prayerfully what a godly approach to activity (exercise) might be for you. You might want to try Dance Praise (I just did a search and “Digital Praise” seems to be out of business, but you can still get Dance Praise from various vendors, I think). It is a “game” for the computer that includes a mat and Christian dance music in a video-game like approach similar to “Dance Dance Revolution.”  What are some activities that you enjoy to move your body?

Gratitude has been life-changing for me. This, too, is covered a bit this week. I would love to see everyone here create an online gratitude blog! We could share them with one another and be not only a dynamic supportive community like we currently are, but one of the most grateful communities online, too! My gratitude blog is found here (I need to update it more frequently!). I have found that when I practice gratitude daily, my ME oriented mentality can’t thrive! MY food, MY body, MY way, MY will just has no where to rest when I am thanking God for HIS gifts, HIS will, HIS way. Truly, it is really hard to reach for more food than my body needs when I take the posture of humility that gratitude requires. Try it and see what you think!

I am eager to see what you add to the Body Beautiful Checklist!

Also, develop your affirmations in the “Challenge” on page 74.

Memorize 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. God will use this verse and crucial moments to encourage you to offer yourself to God in humble devotion and worship as HIS property!

Let’s do this! 🙂