Walk for NEDA...

This coming Sunday a walk for NEDA is being held in New York. If you are interested in donating to the cause check out the following link...

www.firstgiving.com/heatherdigrius

Fall Classes Are Starting...

That's right...

Classes for the fall semester are starting this week! Classes will run every Tuesday evening from 7:30pm-9:30pm, from September 22nd through October 27th.

Check back as we discover more about God's truth concerning our bodies through the classes!

Chapter 10: How to Help Others Develop a Healthy Body Image

Christian women who have a healthy body image can be a beacon to others by their influence in the way they talk about, treat, and honor their bodies

This chapter focused on the influence that mothers have on their children. Mothers have incredible influence over their children. Because of this mothers need to be intentional about the way they speak to their children. All children must hear these messages about their bodies...

1. They are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)
All children need to know that their parents approve of their appearance. Talk about your own body in positive ways. Children hear everything you say and they will pick up on negative and positive messages. Teach children that they don't have to look a certain way to believe that their body is fearfully and wonderfully made.

2. Teach them that God knows their body flaws
Children should learn to trust God with their hurts, including pain about physical appearance. Parents need to accept their own flaws in order to teach children to accept theirs. It is damaging if we try to fix our children's body flaws by helping them attain beauty by the worlds standards, rather than looking to God's standards.

3. Teach children that their bodies are a temple of God
God lives in our bodies which makes them very special. Children must learn to honor God and their bodies by not criticizing and rejecting their own flesh and how they were crafted by God.

Your example speaks louder than your words
What example are you setting for others around you?

Being a Voice of Reason to others:
God wants to bring you spiritual freedom from body hate. When we experience body hate, we exist without a sense of God's favor. When you allow body hate to rule in your life, you are not living the life that God has intended for you. God can heal the damage your body hate has done to your life. God can bring strength for you to battle comments and pressures from others. God can comfort your broken heart. Your true beauty is found in being in the image of God. He desires for you to be glad and experience life to the fullest. He desires for you to put off body hate so that you can love yourself, love others and life a full life. And when you experience God's grace for yourself, then you are able to encourage, pray for, and love other women as you are loved by God.

Chapter 9: Healthier Ever After

You can live free from self-loathing by learning how to believe the truth about who you are. God longs for us to be focused on living in and enjoying our bodies, not being enslaved to them...

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment... instead it should be that of inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4

"The number one reason not to berate and mistreat your body is because God is the one who created you. He loves you, and when you love someone you don't want to see her berating herself."

How do you let God be the reason you love your body?

Staying on track to maintain changes in thought patterns and feelings takes some work...

1. Accept that you are not perfect
Be realistic and know that at times you will have a negative thought or feeling

2. Take inventory of your mind
Take every thought captive in order to attain emotional, psychological, and spiritual peace

3. Get enough rest for your body

4. Recognize negative feelings and deal with them daily
Take immediate notice if you experience negative emotions about your body, don't let them slide or they will continue to build. Examine your feelings and talk to God about them.

5. Enlist an accountability partner
There is power in prayer when two or more are gathered in the Father's name

6. Reread the book and complete the exercises

7. Don't judge how others look
When you are less critical of others, you will be less critical of yourself

8. Don't receive criticism about how you look from others
Resist negative words from others with God's help

9. Write yourself a letter about the new truth you are learning and read it when you feel negatively about yourself

10. Recognize the symptoms of relapse

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you'll never walk alone."
Audrey Hepburn

Chapter 8: Anchored in God's Word...

Basic principles from Scripture about how God views our bodies...

1. God knows humans are tempted to overemphasize how a persons looks in evaluating his or her character
"We need to be more concerned about how beautiful our hearts are than our looks"

2. God does not place the emphasis on outward appearance that humans do

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. " Isaiah 53:2

God purposefully created Jesus without "beautiful" characteristics

3. God knows that women are particularly interested in making themselves look nice

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment... instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4

God doesn't condemn outward beauty, but He wants so much for us than that.

4. What we think we look like on the outside depends on how we feel about ourselves in general
You can change your thoughts to think of yourself as beautiful, even if your outward appearance hasn't changed

5. It's fine to wear nice clothes and be well groomed as long as you keep this in balance with other qualities
"The important thing isn't the label, it's the balance you find in your life"

6. You can be outwardly beautiful and still be unattractive to others

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

Beauty is not purely defined by physical characteristics, but by your actions

7. God decided that our bodies are the best temple for Him to dwell in
"God created me and he wants to dwell in me"

8. God made our bodies and that alone makes them wonderful

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

9. God wants to make all things new in your life

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

There will be an adjustment period when your body image begins to change


The Testing Period...
Every day will bring challenges to see yourself with a healthy body image. God brings this testing so that we can grow in confidence and trust in Him. Standing firm in prayer will prepare you to stand against the temptations that will surely come. Prayer is the key to your victory over body hate.

Having a healthy body image is more about changing the way you think than changing your body.

Chapter 7: Feeling Beautiful... Transforming Your Feelings About Your Body

By nature, women are emotional creatures. God made women that way on purpose. A woman's sensitivity is beneficial in expressing her emotions and being sensitive towards the emotions of others. But those same emotions can lead to either positive or negative feelings about her body. Negative feelings about your body can not only crush your spirit, but hinder you from receiving the life God desires for you. Scripture states...

"A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit." Proverbs 15:13

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22

"A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?" Proverbs 18:14

THINK ABOUT IT...

How much damage are your negative feelings
causing in your life?
Are you willing to let God heal your negative emotions?

Women often deal with
negative feelings in 2 ways...

Stuff their feelings with food
OR
Try to change their feelings by changing their bodies

Neither of these bring peace to our emotions!

God is the only one who can bring peace to our souls and heal our negative emotions. When we give God consent to heal our pains, he will heal us... he PROMISES to heal us. With our willingness, God can turn our self hate into praise for a Creator who made us.

We may not have direct control over our feelings, but we do have control over how we think and what we do. Follow these 6 steps to start taking control of your feelings...

1st Step: Identify Your Feelings

Once you can identify your feelings you will discover that can change your feelings. Having negative feelings deceives you into believing lies about yourself. Sharing those negative feelings is needed to resolve them. God calls us to forgiveness for healing from our negative feelings.

2nd Step: Identify How Your Negative Feelings Are Harming You

What are your negative emotions costing you? Are you skipping social functions? Are your relationships being affected? Are you happy?

3rd Step: Believe The Truth

After assessing your negative feelings about your body you might come to conclude that you are wasting valuable time and so much of your life obsessing over these feelings. Instead of wasting precious time, focus that time on God's truth through Scripture. Surround yourself with Scripture about God's view of your body.

4th Step: Enjoy How Your Body Feels

Take the time to appreciate all that your body is capable of doing, feeling and being.

5th Step: Eliminate Body Shame From Past Experiences

If something happened in your past that is holding you back from forgiving yourself or forgiving others, God says that he is "faithful to forgive your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. " 1 John 1:9

6th Step: Feel Confident In Your Own Body

Your negative feelings will change when you get the right thoughts in your mind. The choice is yours. Your feelings are based on what you think. You can change your focus from how you want to look to how you want to feel about how you look. You can be free from self hate and live in confidence when you trust in God's word.

Perfect People...

Check out this new song by Natalie Grant.
What a wonderful reminder that we don't need to be perfect... but that we serve a God who is!