Body Truth Collective

Helping Young Women Become Compassionate, Capable, and Strong

Diversity is a Beautiful Thing

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Meet Sophi Mbwala, freshman at John Brown University! Her honesty & transparency are gifts I hope you’ll treasure as walk through your Friday.

Whenever I was younger, I was extremely self-conscious of the way I looked, mainly because my body looked very different from my other siblings. I was considered to be the chubby sibling, and it started to get to me; especially if that was the first thing people noticed.

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As I went through puberty, this only got worse. Throughout middle school and high school, I hated the way I looked, and hated the fact that I was one of the few black girls in a predominantly white school. I started to be ashamed of my body and the fact that I was black, primarily because I wanted to fit in with the other girls at my school.

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I wanted my peers to consider me beautiful despite my skin color being difference than theirs. I was trying to find validation in other people, instead of God.

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It was not until my freshmen year of college, that I started to see my body as a gift of God.

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I have always heard of Psalm 139:13-16, but I never truly reflected on the importance of this verse. This verse reminded me of how much God loves me. It blew my mind when I started to think about God creating me in my mother’s womb, he specifically made me the way I am, and not being satisfied in my body is to not be satisfied in the way God created me.

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Instead of trying to change myself, or coveting other people’s bodies, I should be satisfied in myself and my body because my body is a reflection of God and his love.

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Psalm 139 talks about God creating people wonderfully, meaning we are his masterpiece. Realizing this made me start being proud of the fact that I am black, and that I look different from most of the girls at my school. Since God made me wonderfully, and God never makes any mistakes with his creations, it made me consider my skin color as beautiful.

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I started to be proud of the way I looked, and started to realize that God created diversity, and that diversity is a beautiful thing.

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The other thing that God calls us to do is treat our bodies like a temple, which reminded me that I should take care of my body. This means, being careful of what I put in my body, and making sure that my body embodies the temple of the Holy Spirit!

How Loving Our God Is

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Olivia Gerwing, senior at A&M University, shares how God reveals His love and goodness to her.

While working on this post over the past week, I have been able to really reflect on 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Growing up in the church, I am very familiar with this passage, but this week God really spoke to me through this verse.

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These words have reminded me that my body is a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The Lord has blessed me with my body to be used for his good and his kingdom. What a sweet gift!

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The Lord has put on my heart to remember that my body is not my own, but a gift from Him to be used to glorify Him through the way that I talk, the way that I dress, and the way that I take care of myself.

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God also commands us in this verse to glorify him with our bodies. What better way to do that than by viewing and treating our bodies as a gift from our heavenly father?

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This week I have also been reminded of the power of viewing my body as created in the image of God. This is a truth that I have also heard plenty of times but after dwelling on it this week, I have realized the power of it.

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God loves us so much that he created us to be so like him. That is so humbling.

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All of these truths have reminded me of how loving our God is. He has blessed me with the priceless gift of a body made in his image that can be used to glorify him and serve his kingdom!

Your Body is a Unique Gift

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Meet the bright and lovely Camille Dries, our first guest of 2020! She has a wonderful message to share.

Earlier this semester it dawned on me that I should take every opportunity to use my body in any way possible to glorify God. My earthly body is a gift from God, so shouldn’t I be always be using it for Him?!

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My favorite verse that highlights this is Romans 12:1 (NLT), “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is the way to worship Him.”

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I often get so caught up in my own life and my own feelings that it takes continual effort to remind myself of what my purpose here on earth is.

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When I focus on this eternal perspective, it is easy to see how us giving our bodies to God is a representation of the ultimate sacrifice- Jesus coming down to earth and dying on the cross for our sins.

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If you believe this truth, proclaim it!

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Use your words and your actions to love others constantly, show kindness in the little moments, speak wisdom, and share the gospel even when it might seem scary!

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We are each made in the image of God, but entirely unique, so these ways of worshipping our Lord will look different. I feel God’s presence the most when I spend intentional time with people out in nature, and seeing the beauty around me.

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Use your body to glorify God because He has given each one of us them as unique gifts!

Wonderfully Made, From the Very Beginning

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Hi, I’m Lydia, and I am Nursing major at Brookhaven College. This wasn’t the path that I had laid out for my life. Which was exactly my problem…to think I was the one to create a life plan away from God.

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My daughter Shiloh was born on August 14th of this year, and that is an example of God’s grace!

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All throughout high school, I used my body as a tool to get attention from others. I wanted to please people, be loved, and be known, but I was going about it all the wrong ways. Instead of leaning into God’s truth during my seasons of struggles, I pushed away and listened to worldly lies.

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Throughout my high school years, I constantly told myself, “You’ll be fine, you’re already saved” and “I have struggles, but THAT isn’t MY struggle.”

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By feeding myself these lies, and being consumed by how I would look or feel, I was in a dark place without Jesus. The shame, the guilt, and the deceit was miserable. I viewed myself with a critical eye, especially as I criticized my body, thinking it that wasn’t up to “standards”.

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Through Shiloh, God has shown me how much he loves me and how he made me just the way I am — a part of HIS design!

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I have a CD that I turn on when it’s nap time for Shiloh. It plays bible verse songs. One of them is Psalm 139: 13-14. It says, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

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How uplifting is it to know that from the beginning, you are WONDERFULLY MADE! God made you just the way you are from the very beginning!

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God used Shiloh to show me his abounding grace and love when I didn’t think I deserved it. Now he is teaching me how to show Shiloh how much she is loved, appreciated, and beautiful in God’s image.

A Professional Style Consultant Shares: How Color Shows Off Your Natural Beauty

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Hello, Lovely! Meet Ginny Hudnut, professional color and style consultant for House of Colour.

As a color and style consultant@houseofcolourdallas, Ginny Hudnut knows a thing or two about how clothes impact the way we see ourselves.What she shares about color analysis might surprise you, in all the best ways!

“In short, color analysis is an appointment where you learn which palette of colors flatter you most. There are many benefits to this, but one of my favorites is that it give your freedom!

Color analysis empowers you to be confidant in wearing the colors that look amazing on you and be free to pass up colors that aren’t doing you any favors. I like to think of wearing your colors as meeting your potential. When you nail your best hues, you look and feel healthy, alert, and beautiful!

Wearing the wrong colors can make you look tired, sick and dull. And, well, those colors were meant for someone else.

I love knowing that I don’t need an army green jacket because it’s not going to flatter me while it looks amazing on so many others. Knowing your colors helps you to be comfortable in the skin that God gave you and embrace your unique, natural beauty.”

If you have questions for Ginny, she’d LOVE to answer them!!! PM her about her services and see what she offers @houseofcolourdallas. Maybe you’re even thinking an appointment with her could be the Christmas that keeps on giving!

 I’ve had fun style adventuring with you this week, & I hope you feel more equipped to shop well as you approach this season of giving.

A Shift to Focus on God’s View of Me

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Our featured guest, Caroline Sears, sits right of her friend, who is also her sister. You’re sure to enjoy her story below, honest and hope-filled.

Throughout my life I have struggled with perfectionism, people-pleasing, and control. I have always wanted people to view me as perfect and an expert in everything I do whether that is work, school, or just my personal life.

I struggle with the desire to be someone that everyone likes, admired, and looked up to. And I have always struggled with trying to control the things that are not in my control, but are up to God. 

Over the past several years, God has been revealing to me more and more every day about how he views me and about the Grace and Mercy he gives me on a daily basis.

Through time in the word, prayer, and community, God has been teaching me that I am not perfect and the desire to have the world view me as perfect is not healthy.

My desire has shifted to focus on how God views me instead of how the world views me. God has been teaching me to love and view others the way he loves and views them.

This has helped release some of my people pleasing tendencies because I have started to view myself in the way God views me. Finally, God has been teaching that He is in control and not me. This is very humbling because my pride often gets in the way of trusting God’s plan over mine. 

I love Hebrews 4:16 because it reminds me of who God is, how He comforts me in times of joy and in times of sorrow, and because it reminds me that God created me to be bold and confident in who I am and who He created me to be.