I work at a gym. Some call it a fitness centre. Some call it an athletic club. I call it my work. All day long I watch people come and go. Everyone comes with different purposes. Some to hang out, some to build muscle, some to lose weight, some to get in shape... all day long i'm surrounded by people who are trying to change their body shape, because most are unhappy with its present state. when i go on msn.com, i see ten million adds about how to lose weight, eat healthy and so on. when i go to the grocery store, i'm surrounded by magazines talking about the latest hot figures and how you can look like that in ten easy steps.We live in a society that is totally obsessed with body image and well, if you're not like they say you should be, then you're worthless. I'm sick of it!! All day at work, I'm surrounded by people who just can't get thin enough or muscular enough and so they devote their lives to working out, drinking meal supplements, starving themselves... they live under strict regulations of what they can and cannot do. For what? To meet the world's standards of how they should look.
It's simple for me to get sucked into it and then I feel like crap and get down in the dumps and think maybe i should follow with all these people... but then i realize that my standard is in Christ and not in the world! wow! how freeing is that! In Romans 6 it talks about how the law leads to death, but under Christ, we're under grace, which is total freedom! It comes back to not allowing the world to control how I live, and not creating laws for myself of what I should or should not eat, how long I should work out and so on.. but it's submitting to the amazing grace of Christ where there is total freedom to live as I am! And as I let Him have control and follow His lead in this area of my life, I know it will be the best way, because He knows much more and me and my body than the world does. And know what? He loves me just as I am! And that's what matters! And that's what is exciting! This freedom is unlike anything else. I have to simply continually be reminding myself of it, because so often i forget and slip into a downward spiral as I measure myself according to the world's standards! But God loves me! That's what matters!!
2 comments:
you know what nessa? you just made me feel about a million times better about my hair. because i like it, and it was honestly a tough call to give up any remote chance of being sexy - something not important to God but somehow in my mindset crucial. and so much i desire to feel earthly love and it is wrong and unnecessary, and thank you for the perspective shift, because god grants the true love or acceptance we each need.
and anyway there is no way altering yourself can ever please society anyway, because when you are the thinner one, people tell you that what men really like is curves....so basically if we try to please society we are screwed no matter what our body image might be.
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