Body Image: The Truth

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:13-16


As we continue to look into the issue of body image- we must begin by reading Psalm 139. For within this jewel of scripture we find truth about our body. Our Lord and Creator was there- in the beginning. We were an embryo, unformed and shapeless- and He in His sovereign power and intimate design, formed and shaped us as the Potter shapes the clay. We know that all God does is perfect- and His creation of our figure is certainly no exception. Thus, I know each time I criticize my body or despair of my appearance, I am calling into question God’s perfection, plan and sovereignty. This is nothing short of sin. I often read this Psalm in times like that- to realign my thought life with the Word of God.

Another set of verses that speaks directly to us regarding this issue of body image is 1 Peter 3:3-4, " Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

It is important to note that as Peter speaks of the braiding of hair, gold jewelry and clothing it is not speaking specifically of these things but as a warning against a preoccupation with outward appearance. Just as the culture Peter wrote to during the first century, so to our culture is obsessed with appearance and excess. Now, many women I have spoken with in the last few years will talk of their ever-controlling emotions. I, too, have unfortunately believed the lie that my feelings are too strong for me to overcome. Whether these emotions are about relationships, our walk or body image- the truth remains the same: God’s word is truer than anything I feel or experience. If we do not get to a place where we believe this and stand upon this, the reading of God’s Holy writ will not be as effective in conforming our thought life to His. I say ‘not as’ because God does promise that His word will never return void.

With all this as our base, I would say that in my experience, Body Image at its root is more of an issue of contentment than anything else.

"Two women looked through prison bars, one saw mud, the other saw stars."

While this is a simplistic illustration- it does show the power of perspective. All of our perspective and thought life must be filtered through the Word of God. This is the only thing that is true, unchanging and unfailing. Other's opinions, the culture and our own thoughts will shift, change and inevitably, fail. Contentment is a huge topic that we could discuss for weeks- so I am going to try to summarize it in a paragraph. Personally speaking, God has been working this issue through my heart for the last few months. While I will not pretend to have any prolific thoughts, I will say that God has unveiled my eyes to see that nearly every hardship or struggle is founded in the state of discontentment. With this, is it possible that those hardships can be transformed into joyous sanctification through finding contentment? Paul certainly stressed this!

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. - Philippians 4:11

The Greek word for content is eudokeo. This can be defined as: think it good, choose, determine, decide to do willingly. What would it look like if we accepted the lot and portion God has given us in all facets of life and thought it good? If we willingly chose joy over want? This is not the way of our world today- especially in America! And so, as Linda Dillow writes in her book, Calm My Anxious Heart, "We become what we think- our thought life, not our circumstances, determines whether we are content." One powerful tool in being "transformed by the renewing of our mind" is to memorize and meditate on Philippians 4:8. A wise friend of mine suggested this when I was facing some serious anxiety and it proved to be a great help! Another way to think of contentment is as accepting God's sovereign control over all of life's circumstances. What joy I experience - and true peace - when I accept God's ordained plan for my illness right now. When I stop fighting my Lord and start resting in HIS ways- the ONLY way that is good and right and perfect- the way that will bring Him the most glory. And so I hope you have seen, as I have, that CONTENTMENT is the issue we must pray over and meditate upon. A poor, as well as an enflated body image will be resolved when we learn that contentment alone is in Christ Jesus.

The writers of the blog "GirlTalk" have some excellent thoughts to share on this very subject:

You see, women believe that physical beauty will make them happy, successful, popular among the women, desirable to the men – so they pursue it with a fury! Physical beauty, however, does not deliver as advertised. Proverbs 31:30 reveals the falsehood and the futility of this quest for beauty: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. Even if every girl did "feel beautiful just the way she is," it wouldn’t bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems. Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God. God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not! What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! In fact, we’re better off not even thinking about ourselves. Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.

What wise words and a biblical perspective on physical beauty!

To close, I want us to reflect on all that we have learned though God's word and the wisdom of others who have hidden God's word in their hearts! I know for me, the process of writing this morning has been both very convicting and revealing! Our role now is to live this out- is to share this with the women in our lives and to begin to contribute to setting apart Christians from the culture. This starts with being changed individually and then lovingly sharing it with those God has placed in our lives. Because as Ligon Duncan bluntly states, "Someone is teaching women principles of womanhood. Is it the church, or the world?" (J. Ligon Duncan & Susan Hunt, Women’s Ministry in the Local Church).

Being refined by the Father, Kate

Jeremy's Sermon- God's Faithfulness!

You can find the audio of Jeremy's sermon on God's faithfulness at the link below. I am so incredibly honored to be the wife of this man and am thankful the heart God has blessed him with shows throughout this sermon.

Audio of Jeremy's Sermon 2/3/08

The Passing Time

Hello! Sorry I have not continued the series on Body Image/Beauty in Christ. We will continue that eventually... the internet was down for a few days, Jeremy has had full reign on the computer in preparation for his sermon tomorrow morning and life in general is often too busy to hop on here and write.
We are well overall and I am enjoying my new job. It is a challenge everyday physically- but a great blessing emotionally and spiritually to be able to assist others in their own health struggles. It has proved to be a great ministry as well! While talking to a friend the other evening, I mentioned that I am blessed in many ways through this illness, (although often that is hard to see!). One of these ways is that I have to rely on a God in a very real and physical way each and every moment of every day. I am constantly made aware of my fragile state and my need for God's grace and goodness. As a woman in my 20's, I know without a doubt that I would not be able to rely on Him this way if I was healthy. I may not know Him so intimately as the Comforter and Sustainer like I do today. I relate with elderly people far better and have a heart for those who have chronic illnesses of all ages. The enemy often greatly succeeds through isolation, discouragement and hopelessness in people with long- term sicknesses...and now i can use my own past and current experiences to help minister to those physically (and often emotionally).
We love you and will be posting Jeremy's sermon when the audio becomes available at our church website.

-Kate

Stay Tuned...more to come regarding Biblical Beauty

I plan on continuing this series tomorrow but wanted to let you know that I have updated the praises & prayer requests section to the right! Thank you for your faithful commitment to praying for us and please don't hesitate to contact us regarding your own praises and prayer requests.

“Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.” Psalm 35:4

True radiance and beauty comes from a heart that knows the Creator of beauty. Just a thought.

Love in Christ, Kate

Body Image: A Video

Many of you have perhaps seen the Dove short film that is linked below. I encourage you to watch it again and remember that most of these women we find ourselves struggling to measure up to- have been dramatically changed and altered.

Body Image: Part One

I have had interactions lately with other woman in my life regarding body image. While this is a common area of struggle for women, it seems that in the last week the Lord has brought it to my attention through various avenues. The four ways God has surfaced this issue are:
His Word
Personal thoughts
Friends asking for prayer in this area and
Popular culture
To begin a discussion regarding this, I want to first be a little vulnerable myself. I am someone who is not in any way immune to feelings of physical inadequacy. I have battled this for several years in various degrees. Sometimes I will go days without thinking about how I look or comparing myself to another. Other times, I find myself dwelling on it several times an hour. I haven’t kept careful track of why it is inconstant like this but my guess is that it relates to how diligent I have been in reading the word, being in prayer as well as how much I have given in to the inundated cultural portrayal of "beauty". If we as women stop to think- we will realize that this is an ever-increasing battle. As information becomes more available via technological advances, and our dependence on them more evident, we are all the more exposed to worldly and unrealistic ideas of beauty. In a given day, I may see this portrayal in commercials, billboards, magazine covers, Internet sites, TV shows, movies …the list is really endless. This inundation is putting such impractical expectations on women’s appearances that even Hollywood is competing against itself. While I have intentionally stopped reading magazines that only cause more struggle within my heart and mind, I admit, I sometimes fall into the trap of my e-mails interface page. Yahoo will have the big entertainment stories of the day- with pictures and enticing headlines that sometimes to succeed in drawing me in. What I find are articles and pictures about who looks fat, who is aging, and who is still measuring up to the standard of beauty through starvation, botox and plastic surgery. Suddenly, 50 year olds look like 30 years olds and the 30 years old must look like teenagers again. What an appalling topic for our culture to obsess over! What a futile, fruitless quest for fulfillment! And yet it seems to only be getting worse and unfortunately, easier to be snared into. Isn’t it ironic to see children today dressing as adults and wanting so much to be "grown up" while the adults are doing all they can to get back to that youth? And so, the need for Christian women to intentionally abstain from cultural influences that may cause us to struggle is HUGE! It is nearly impossible to all-together avoid this within our world, but it is possible for us to greatly decrease the impact it has on us through paying closer attention to what we allow in… less of this world and more of His Word. I think I will stop for today… but I will continue this topic over the coming days- Please feel free to share how you have been impacted by our culture and why you think our world- mainly America, is so obsessed by how we look. I will not pretend that any of my thoughts about this pertinent subject are profound- but they are prevalent. I will end with a verse I often remind myself during times of struggle:

Beauty is fading and charm is deceptive,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30

Fallen off the face of the earth!

Actually, no we haven't but by the lack of activity on this blog, one might assume so!
Inspired by Kyle Borg, I thought I would write briefly why we haven't written lately...
Kate started a new job and thus is off her three month break from working...
Jeremy is spending every free moment (when he is not working his 60 hours) applying for teaching jobs and beginning to prepare for his sermon at CCC on Feb 3rd.
Kate has been feeling a little bit better as of late, thus allowing them to hang out with friends more! PRAISE GOD!
And lastly, sometimes, I just don't have anything to say! Imagine that! :)

Hope all is well and thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Kate

ps: shout out to DP for reminding me I DO have a blog and SHE ( if not anyone else) reads it! :)