Happy New Year!!! Before you beat yourself about all things you must change, why not start by celebrating the way God made you.
Glamour magazine (October 2011) asked 300 young women of all shapes and sizes to record every anxious thought they had about their bodies throughout one day. The study found that 97% of the women had an average of 13 negative or anxious thoughts, some as many as 100.
The women noted some very disturbing thoughts. “I’m ugly. Too skinny. Look sick.” “You’re obese. All the pretty girls are size 2.” “Oh my God, look at her waist and legs. We’re the same height. She looks like a model and I look like a lumpy sock.”
The article enlisted the help of psychologists to breakdown why this happens and what can be done about it. I started to wonder what does the Bible have to say about the issue, and I turned to Psalm 139.
Of course, God knows everything about us. He created us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. His workmanship is marvelous! How well we know it….or do we?
When it comes to how we see our bodies, do we think God made a mistake?
In our celebrity obsessed culture, we are bombarded by images of people who are “picture perfect.” While the average woman in this country wears a size 14, the “never too thin” world of fashion considers a size 8 plus size. It’s easy to understand why when we look at TV and magazines we may feel less than perfect.
Examine your own self talk. How likely are you to walk up to a mirror, checkout your reflection and say, “You look marvelous?” The answer may give you a revelation of how you really feel about one of God’s creations…YOU.
Without thinking, we say things to ourselves that we would be really offended to hear from someone else? Imagine how you would feel if someone walked up to you and said “You look disgusting with those cottage cheese legs and stretch marked hips. Nasty. No one will want to touch you.”
Unfortunately, these are the horrible things we think about ourselves that drive us to obsess about body and diet or even develop eating disorders.
What is this obsession with our imperfections? “Neuroscience has shown that whatever your mind focuses on shapes your brain. Those pathways become stronger and become habits.” says Dr. Kearney-Cooke, a Cincinnati specialist in eating disorders. It seems you are what you think you are.
“God knows our hearts and our anxious thoughts.” And here’s what the Bible recommends in Philippians 4:8 “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable, right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
My advice? Wake up each day and affirm Psalm 139:14, “God I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works. And I know it body and soul.” Repeat it when you look in the mirror; or wish you had somebody else’s thighs; or think about starving yourself to be thin.
It’s true. God makes no mistakes.
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