Did you know that God doesn’t call us to be thin? He doesn’t even call us to be fit!
He *does* call us to be HIS!
I think I am finally coming to a place of accepting what God ordains (well, maybe). What a novel approach! LOL! Instead of striving, I am beginning to lay down my tendency to chafe against his plan.
You see, before, even when releasing 100 pounds using the Thin Within approach, I wanted BODY BEAUTIFUL. I mean, if you stripped away what I was really thinking–even at my thinnest–that was what I was after. Sure, I wrote about loving the Lord with my heart, soul, mind and strength and not elevating self above Him. And I was sincere.
But I think I had this sense that “Yes, yes, I want a godly heart, AS LONG AS I GET THE PERFECT BODY, TOO!”
Well, hello? Since when has gravity NOT had an impact on any 48 year old woman who has had two babies? I mean, even if you are fit and trim, you have to fight with the force pushing downward on…er…certain things, if you get me! 🙂
Not only that, but when your less-than-youthfully-elastic skin has stre-e-e-etched around 100 more pounds…well…again…hello? LOL! Once the 100 pounds are gone, there will be wrinkles that weren’t there when the skin was stretched taught around it. Does that make sense? Things change!
And here is a new one no one ever told me about. Did you know that when a woman’s body goes through “the change”…well…it does some OTHER different things? I have never had so many dimples on my thighs! Even when I was a size 24, my legs didn’t look like golf balls, pockmarked with dimples like they do now. And here comes summer. Well, SO WHAT! 🙂 I refuse to fry by hiding behind long pants. THINGS change! Mine are strong legs and they do a lot! I will wear every dimply bit of skin proudly! I am past the age of child-bearing now (I guess) and my dimply legs are a badge of honor declaring that fact! LOL! (Sorry if this is too much information….)
It is so easy to say this now. I am fickle. Resolved one day and panicked the next.
But all the time, it seems so odd the way I have a tendency to pursue something that is *elusive*…and even in the name of “obedience”…in the name of bible verses like 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. (My body is the temple of God. I am not my own, I was bought at a price…) I could manage to twist even this bible verse and make it justification for obsession with an image that the WORLD purveys! A non-dimply-skinned-thighed, perkey you-know-whatted, thin super woman! HA! It ain’t gonna happen cuz THINGS CHANGE! 🙂
Here is a news flash for me: My body IS the temple of God, but the temple was the *container* for the glory of GOD. It is physical, spiritual AND emotional. God doesn’t want me to pander after PHYSICAL FITNESS and sacrifice emotional and spiritual fitness!
And, even better: YOUR (the reader of this blog post!) body IS the temple of God…the *container* for the glory of God–no matter what you think the container *looks* like! Your container is physical, emotional *and* spiritual. Please don’t sacrifice emotional and spiritual for the sake of the world’s (and even much of the Christian Church’s) view of FITNESS!
I have to say it again!
God doesn’t call us to be THIN. He calls us to be HIS!
When I am HIS, the rest falls into place! (No pun intended!)
I am so thankful that God is leading me on this path…it is the first time EVER that I have begun to feel ok in my skin. Even when I was thin, I didn’t have that precious gift.
Things change…bodies give in to gravity. 😉 But my heart has begun to soar, defying the push toward the world…finally, I think. At least today!
Good stuff. 🙂 Resounding well with me… ((hugs))
Good stuff. 🙂 Resounding well with me… ((hugs))
I vote all Barbie dolls have cellulite…not only for carrying her credit cards but to embrace who we really are! I am embarrassed and ashamed when I think of my grumbling about my imperfections and then remember the many patients who would give anything just to have functional limbs…Jesus keep me grateful!
I vote all Barbie dolls have cellulite…not only for carrying her credit cards but to embrace who we really are! I am embarrassed and ashamed when I think of my grumbling about my imperfections and then remember the many patients who would give anything just to have functional limbs…Jesus keep me grateful!