Unpacking The Need To Be Skinny

The holidays are over, the parties have caught up with us and well, our clothes are a bit, okay, REALLY snug and the image in the mirror isn’t quite where you would like to be. New year, new you, right??? Commence the desire to find a quick fix, something that will get me where I want to be. The dream goal weight, the dream body image you’ve always wanted. 

As women we are constantly striving to look and feel our very best. A constant desire and void that was never meant to be filled by the desires of our flesh. A longing that will never be satisfied, leaving us relying on our own personal works to help fulfill an emptiness that only God can fill with His unrelenting, unconditional, immeasurable love and approval of us. 

What is at the root of that desire?
Why is enough never enough?
What keeps us striving for more?

Can we go back to the garden where the peace of our body image was robbed? (Did I just blow your mind, no coincidence that God had me here in Genesis on January 1, 2020) 

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The moment Satan tempted Eve (by food of all things) marks the very beginning of our fleshly fall. 

Genesis 3:4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The evil lie planted from the serpent that relying on God wasn’t enough, the lie that we could somehow become our own gods. 
In that moment, we were robbed from our God given, childlike faith forever. A faith that solely relied on Him for our every single need or desire. 

Satan spewed lies and temptations. 

Eve fell into that temptation, immediately bringing about feelings of guilt and shame the moment she tasted the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

When we take a moment to consider why we search for thin, skinny, and acceptance of others; the root of all of it is fear and lies planted by the enemy himself. We have a choice to believe the lies, water them, and let them take root or treat them like the weeds they are. Uprooting them, never allowing them to hinder Gods beautiful work within us.

Fear of not being accepted for who you are in the present. 
Fear of not being enough. 
Fear of marital betrayal. 
Fear of not looking like or being as thin as someone else. 
Fear of not fitting in.
Fear of never being loved. 
Unpack your baggage, sister!
What are you afraid of?
What lies have taken hold?
Can you control the lies?
Can you control what (insert name) thinks of you?
Can you control that you’ll never be enough in (insert name)’s eyes?
The answer is no!
Take a step back and challenge yourself to control the controllable! 
Let go of constantly trying to measure up. 
Take hold of who you are in Him. 
A masterpiece, fearfully and wonderfully made, formed in your mother’s womb, created for a purpose. 
Once an orphan, a daughter of the King, now adopted for His holy priesthood. 

Isn’t that enough?

What happens when we lay it all down…the lies, the striving, the fear, the insecurity?

What happens when we trust that His ways are better, worthy, purposeful, enough. 

Peace, that’s what you’ll find, sweet sister friend! A childlike, unfailing peace that God intended for us to have before Satan entered the garden. 

Can I invite you to take a hard look at the baggage you carry?

Unpack it bit by bit. 

Challenge it, comb through it, sort it out into piles if you have to.

What’s the driving force behind the striving?

Will you allow God to be the only god in your life? Will you allow Him to mend those broken pieces and put them back together His way once and for all?

Sister friend, we weren’t made to loathe the image in the mirror, strive for anything other than who He sees us to be.

Bless and release, lean in.
You are LOVED!