Body Truth Collective

Helping Young Women Become Compassionate, Capable, and Strong

Kennedy Moore Shares:We Are His Masterpiece

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Recent Baylor graduate, Dallas based grad student, and full time student ministry assistant at Northwest Bible Church, Kennedy Moore is filled with passion to pursue Jesus. I’m thankful for her message here.

God continues to reveal Himself as I press into His truths about who I am in Him. Genesis echoes the promise that I am made in the image of Christ. How cool is it that I am a mirror of Christ’s boldness, gentleness, love, and grace?

Although these are words that describe my inmost being, my body is made by the greatest artist I can think of — God. I was formed knowing this image of Christ would resound in the way I exercise, what foods I choose to eat, and how I view my body as a temple.

Now, I have not always had this view. 

I have struggled with needing affirmation since I was in middle school. I would seek my identity in what the world said was culturally beautiful. I would ignore 1 Peter 3:3-4 and dismiss the idea that I was made to glorify a Holy God.

But I’m thinking differently these days. And I’m curious if you’ll think through these questions with me. Would you walk past a beautiful painting and tell the artist that He made a mistake?

How are you treating your body as a masterpiece?

How are you treating your temple?

I encourage you to begin, if you are not already, thinking of your body as this — a holy and righteous place.

From Hate to Love: My Body Image Story

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This was a moment, speaking at my first body image conference in September. How good God is to redeem our hardest seasons!

Growing up, I believed that skinny was pretty. And that everything else was unattractive. Unworthy. Meant to be criticized.

My parents poured encouraging words into me, but their words were not enough. In the battles I fought, I needed more than praise.

I fought the idea that girls and women should diet if they looked a certain way. My Southern grandmother fed that idea to her daughters, and we heard our mothers speak. I can’t remember a time when my family’s women weren’t talking about trying to lose weight.

I fought the idea that girls and women should compare themselves to soap opera actresses and magazine models. I grew up in the 80s and early 90s; that was the messaging.

I fought the idea that girls and women should one-up each other, size up each other, and take shots at each other so as to make themselves feel like the smartest, prettiest, and most attention-getting in the room.

And so, my teen years were full of fighting. And controlling.

In the midst of the fighting and struggling with how to love my alcoholic father and trying to hide my sadness in the midst of my parents’ divorce [Read more…] about From Hate to Love: My Body Image Story

Wholehearted Surrender

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Katelyn Robinson, senior Education major at Mary Hardin Baylor, headlines our #fridayintroductions this week; I’m loving her guest post below!

“When I laid my life in God’s hands, He began working on me in ways I couldn’t always see. It seems like every day He reveals a new aspect of my identity in Him.
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Slowly, but surely, His unconditional love for me is teaching me to love myself.
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My identity is no longer found in the mirror, the numbers on the scale, or my past riddled with struggles and an eating disorder. When I look at my life now, Romans 12:2 comes to mind. I am no longer a slave to the opinion and standards of society, and IT. IS. GOOD.
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My fears and past have been drowned by His perfect, unyielding love, and dear friends, this freedom is exhilarating! With God at the center of our goals, we learn to rely on a strength that is not our own and to follow a plan greater than we could imagine.
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So I want to encourage you, dear reader: If you’re in a season of doubt, struggle, or really any season of life, strive to live in wholehearted surrender.
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As our precious Jesus said in Luke 22:42, “.. not My will, but Yours, be done.”

The Beautiful Work of Our Hands with Erin Eby

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Welcome college student, Erin Eby! A life marked by joy is what you’ll recognize as you read her post below.

“Howdy Ladies! My name is Erin, and I am a sophomore Sports Management major from Houston, Texas. I am a part of Aggie Sisters for Christ at Texas A&M University.

I love to cook, bake, do zumba, and watch any and every Houston professional sports team!

Psalm 139:14 is a verse that I have always stuck to when I think of my body. It says: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

God fearfully and wonderfully made us!

During my middle school youth group days, I heard a speaker once say, “God made you himself. You would never call something that one of your friends made on their own, “ugly!” So why would you call yourself, something that God hand crafted himself, “ugly?”

This is something that has really stuck with me throughout my middle and high school years, especially since body image is such an important thing for young girls.

As I focus on body image and our bodies, I keep thinking about how God created our hands. God has taught me a lot recently about serving with my hands.

During my senior year of high school, I got the opportunity to go to Riobamba, Ecuador, during Spring Break. My group was sent to the most remote villages there.

These villages had never seen people who were not Ecuadorian, much less people who were coming to them to wash their feet. Most of these people had never had a pair of shoes before.

Being on my knees and washing the dirty feet of people I didn’t even know was truly a humbling experience. And it changed how I saw my hands as a gift from God. It helped me see how our hands further the Kingdom in incredible ways!

My hope for any young girl reading this is that you strive to love yourself and your body, just as God made it. And to appreciate how using your body well can further His kingdom work!

You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I hope you never forget it!”

Erin leads us directly into our message for next week – How do our hands affect body image? I’m already looking forward to Monday’s post!

On Guys, Dating, and Being Made in His Image with Hannah Patterson

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Today’s post was written by Hannah Patterson.  Here she is, rocking her smile and those gorgeous cowboy boots!

Howdy! That’s what we say here in College Station, Texas. My name is Hannah Patterson and I am an Allied Health major from Dallas, Texas, but more importantly I am THE loudest and THE proudest member of the fighting Texas Aggie class of 2023! 

As a college student, and just being a girl in general, I am constantly surrounded by people and things saying I’m not enough and I’m not perfect. I am pressured to change the way I look at almost every moment, and so are most girls in today’s society.

Everywhere on any kind of media we see public figures and images of women who have been photo-shopped and edited and are told we should strive for this image. These are lies that are pushed at me every day and are ways the devil tries to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). But Jesus has come so that we may have life and freedom from these lies. He says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). [Read more…] about On Guys, Dating, and Being Made in His Image with Hannah Patterson

Know Your Enemy

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James Pond @unsplash nailed this photo. Crushing the Lego Enemy!

Have you ever looked at a magazine cover, and suddenly you felt not thin enough? Not curvy enough? Like your hair wasn’t thick enough or the right color?

Does that magazine model look “just so perfect” that it makes you second guess your beauty?

Well, that’s exactly what the magazine cover is supposed to do. The words and images work together to convince you: Buy this magazine, you will FINALLY know the secrets to becoming beautiful.

Satan attempts to scheme in these moments. He whispers to you, You need this magazine. Or this hair product. And these shoes.
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Methodeias is the Greek word Paul uses for “schemes” in Ephesians 6:10- Methodeias refers to a large scale, systematic plan. A project. A game-plan.

His schemes are organized, and they feed on our insecurities.

But if you know that Satan is scheming when that insecurity starts to rise up in you, you can identify what is happening. You have a good chance at STANDING against the schemes of the devil if [Read more…] about Know Your Enemy