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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.

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.

“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.”

“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!

“Tend and befriend.”

I heard these three words earlier in the week as I was preparing for our conversations about compassion. And I can’t get them out of my head.

“Tend and befriend” is a statement that researcher Shelley Taylor used to describe the nature of women. There’s something innate in us, young women and old-er women alike, that desires to 1) Tend or care for others and 2) Befriend or make meaningful friendships.

We were made for tending and befriending. Which is to say we were made for relationships that desperately need kindness and compassion.

Research scientist Emma Seppala, PhD studies compassion, and she has seen how compassion positively affects our bodies — our health and our self image. [Read more…] about She is Compassionate

His ink-soaked quill moves quickly across parchment. It is dark, except for flickering candlelight. This is what I see when I imagine Paul writing his first letter to the Corinthians. 

His heart is heavy for his friends who are disagreeing about who God is. 
He desperately wants his friends in Corinth to remember the foundation of their faith — “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). And so he writes them. In Chapter 3, Paul uses the image of “the temple” to help his Corinthian friends see themselves — as holy, beautiful, and as a dwelling place for God’s Spirit.

He challenges young believers to rally around God‘s truth, to recognize every single one of them belongs to God. He reminds them, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3z;16)

Every single one of them is a temple where holy work is happening. Every single person is God’s dwelling place — no matter age, sex, social position, or physical appearance.

As we take those final glances in the mirror this morning, before starting our days, we can choose to believe the truth about ourselves. Yes, we are God‘s temple! 

But we also get to take the next step. We get to look around the room and choose to see other young women around us as God‘s temples. 
We help foster unity in the #sisterhood when we choose to see each other as holy and precious and loved and lovely. No matter how different we are from each other.

Whether walking quietly through the hallways or talking with the new girl in class, I hope you’ll see yourself as God’s precious temple. 
No matter where you are….
You are where He dwells. 

Join us on Inta @body_truth. 

Empowering Young Women to Embrace Healthy Body Image by Becoming Compassionate, Capable, & Strong