Be Inspiring

What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be the first woman president (I thought Hilary Clinton would beat me… looks like I still have a chance), an astronaut to Jupiter, a missionary, a ballerina… I wanted to learn to speak dozens of languages. We all have our own childhood dreams. Somewhere along those lines our dreams at being inspiring, at doing something important, the things we hope for are reduced to our physical appearance.

Part of the lie of an eating disorder is that you can’t be anyone or do anything until you accomplish being skinny, thin, and fit. But that obsession leads you to losing everything else that ever mattered to you. 

Don’t lose your dreams to be thin.

Become inspiration and not thinspiration.

in

Kelsey’s Story: Journey to Beautiful

Welcome!

If you’ve been following my campaign for a while, you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted anything in quite a long time. I am sorry. If you’re new, please take a look around at my about page and other posts. And I encourage you, if you’re struggling with an eating disorder, journeying to recovery, or have found freedom from the lies, these are all great reasons to leave me a comment or email me about YOUR story. This campaign is about the truth, and if you have any truth to share we want to hear it! I am only one part of the story of this campaign, the rest of the story is found in anyone else who has battled with self-hatred because of their appearance.

Today I’m going to let my darling friend of 4 years take the mic. Kelsey and I were nothing alike, (or so we thought), until we realized we both fought the same battles. For a long time I seemed confident, for years she seemed tough, and on the inside we fought battles of loathe and weakness as the lies we’d been fed became our only food.

A few months ago Kelsey offered to share her story here and I’m finally getting around to publishing it. I hope you find it as inspiring as I do.

 

KELSEY’S STORY:

Everyone in my family is athletic.

Not like, play every sport in little league and make all stars athletic. Like, pre-olympic training multiple state record holder athletic.

Except me.

As long as I can remember, my parents, my dad especially, warned me not to eat junk food or get lazy because then I would get fat. They told me stories about girls who hit puberty and got so fat so quickly, so I better drink water/eat veggies/go to swim team practice/etc.
I never had an unhealthy lifestyle. I eat organic healthy food as much as I can possibly get it. I exercise fairly regularly and enjoy it and I drink water and tea by the gallon. But when I hit my teens, I filled out and got curvy pretty quickly.

Then came the small comments, the sidelong looks, the hints. I felt like I was in a spotlight with everyone, from my family to friends, watching and judging me because of my weight. I dreamt of being beautiful, of being skinny and it quickly became an obsession.

I’d read and heard about eating disorders. I knew the side effects and the dangers. I didn’t care because being beautiful was worth anything to me. So I decided to try it. I used details shared by survivors as well as dark instructions found in other places to learn how to starve myself, or purge what food I had eaten. [I will not share details so that no one else can do what I did and make this story a how-to lesson on getting an eating disorder]. So the cycle of binging and purging, starving and then giving in and hating myself for eating a sandwich began.

For years, it did nothing. I still don’t know what is up with my metabolism because even with eating disorders I didn’t lose much weight until I was about 17. Then I finally lost 10-20 pounds and people immediately began to comment and see me differently. I was thrilled and it drove me even deeper into my obsession. I wasn’t beautiful yet, but I was getting there.

Yet the deeper into the lies I dove, the more depression crippled me. I battled suicidal desires and fantasies daily, turning to cutting and running alone at night as a release from pain. On the outside, I maintained my good-girl front. On the inside, I died a little more each day. Eating disorders rely on and are founded in lies and lies will destroy every part of you. They will eat away at your soul and leave you hollow, alone, and broken. The lies will tell you that it is worth losing some friends, worth losing some health to be pretty. But what is beautiful other than our desire to be loved and treasured? Is it truly worth it to be what [you think is] the most beautiful if there is no one at all in your life to notice or care? I learned this lesson the hard way when I had lost the weight I had initially wanted and still saw a monster in my mirror. When I looked around and saw that I was completely alone…that no one truly knew me, much less loved me. I was starved for love.

I met a girl; a girl who’s personality was seemingly exactly the opposite of mine. She was a girly girl; I was a hardcore tomboy. She knew everything about fashion and makeup while I knew nothing. She was beautiful…small and light and lithe, a dancer. I was secretly, deeply jealous of her. Then shared tragedy, the death of a mutual friend, threw us into a deep level of friendship I’d never experienced before and I learned that she, my ideal version of beautiful, struggled with the same things I did.
Honestly, it was horrific. I had come to care deeply about my friend, and I couldn’t ignore the torture she was inflicting on herself. I couldn’t ignore that any word I said was pure hypocrisy; that I was right there with her. It was a black, terrifying time as I was forced to really see what I was doing to myself as I watched one I loved in the same place. Sometimes we fed each other the lies we didn’t believe about ourselves; but other times, even worse, we supported each other in terrible acts and habits. I desperately, deeply wanted to see her free of our lifestyle but even more wanted to dive even deeper myself.

It came to a climax one day while I was at school. My sweet friend was in such a dark place I was scared for her life. Not worried, or concerned but faced with the awful reality of how far gone she was. I faked sick (it wasn’t hard I was legitimately nauseous) to go to the nurse and text her uninterrupted. I didn’t know what to do…call her mother, call the police? If I did, would she go too far in despair that they knew? In absolute desperation I prayed; I told God I would do anything, absolutely anything if only He would save her. In that moment, crying about her, something finally clicked within me. The words and seeds from other friends trying to tell me what I had become, trying to pull me out, came to my mind. For the first time, I clearly understood that I had become a monster not because of my weight but because of my choices. Yet those lies, that lifestyle was still so incredibly appealing. I knew it was poisonous but I wanted it still. So I prayed again…simply that God, if He wanted me free, would please get me there because I knew I wasn’t strong enough. And that please, that He would drag my friend to freedom along with me.

And so started my long, arduous, painful journey out of the prison of lies and eating disorders. It was over a year before I finally began to feel free from the temptation to skip meals or purge. It has been almost three years now, and frankly, I still wrestle with the lies sometimes. With time, it has gotten easier and easier to choose the truth but that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle. I struggle with the looks and comments from my super skinny super athletic family. I struggle with my weight and figure. I struggle with lies telling me I’m not good enough.

But I have hope. I have hope because I am loved by a Savior who loved me enough to save me from that darkness. I have hope because I am loved by many, many others despite my looks and my tendency to believe lies. I have hope because of how far my God has brought me. I don’t cut, purge, or starve myself anymore. I have no need to despair, and I am not alone.

I’m curvy, even fat, but there are a heck of a lot of people who are think I am beautiful. However, honestly, I don’t care much anymore what people think. To my great joy, I am being used for great things. Whereas once I needed to be healed, now I am used to serve, help and heal others. That I am healthy enough to speak into others’ lives is the greatest encouragement of all to me. I’m still on this journey, but every day I am learning a bit more about love, beauty and freedom.

And right alongside me is my friend who did not die but also has grown into freedom. Whenever I look at her I am overwhelmed with how far she has come. She knows she is beautiful and free; every day I see her growing in Truth. In fact, she started a blog and a movement that is changing lives with her story, passion, and great love. Just as she changed my life. My beautiful sister Merry; whose blog you are looking at right now.
Merry and me, we’re not superheroes. Our stories aren’t way out there, once in a lifetime, nice but totally unrealistic. I’m real, I’m very imperfect, I’m me…a run of the mill, everyday girl not so different from you. I’m also free, beautiful, and loved. Remember that, remember that whoever you are, wherever you are on this long hard road, you are not alone and you are not a lost cause. There is hope and freedom even for you…even for me. Keep fighting, keep going, and keep getting back up no matter how many times you mess up. Skinny is a lie. You and me; we are so, so much more.

Shame.

I stood before them in shame
My final hour

My dead eyes watched the exchange

the Pharisees glares held so much power

Then I looked at the sand
Waiting for the first stone
They held them in their hands
Ready to hurt my body, crush my bone

Silence was like a time spell
Lingering between death and life
And then one by one the stones fell
My executioners gave up the fight.

Only one stayed behind
He was still writing in the sand

“No one has condemned you,
They all threw down their stones,
Neither do I condemn you
Your stone is the only one left to be thrown.”

He laid his hand on me
A forbidden touch.
The Rabbi did not see me as unclean
Merely a slave child needing washed.

“Go and leave your sinful life,”
He said unto me,
“Drop all your stones and lay them down,
“Then you will be free.”

_______________________

Do you ever feel so ashamed, so ashamed it’s like everyone can see? Like a scarlet letter is written on you? It’s an awful emotion. It makes you tell lies, it causes you to hide, maybe it makes you purge. My shame did. I never had the “discipline” I wanted for anorexia… or rather, I never had the “discipline” anorexia wanted from me. So my “friend” bulimia stepped in. She had all these ideas on how to get rid of my shame.

If you’re thinking “oh, that’s what I need to do”–stop thinking and keep reading.

Bulimia gave me a way, I thought, to get rid of my guilt and my shame associated with body-hate and negative self image. It was like a way to right all my wrongs. It was my secret. But it was messy and left me feeling empty and unclean. In the end, Bulimia gave me more shame than when I started.

Even though eating disorders can come from other people’s opinions of us (secret: another testimony of a girl who struggled with this will be posted soon) the opinions of others are internalized and become our opinions of ourselves whether or not they are true.

The poem above is a paraphrase and somewhat fictional telling from a passage of scripture John 8:1-11. The woman had been found committing adultery in Jewish culture at this time, this offense was not just scorned but worthy of being stoned. The Pharisees are like church people. They’re the snooty, better-than-sin, perfect-for-god people. Now these people were constantly trying to get at Jesus. Jesus was a heretic in Israel. The religious people didn’t like what Jesus had to say. Jesus had this thing for sinners and this thing against the religious people. So the Pharisees call him out on it, and they’re asking “Well Jesus, we’re going to kill her, but what do YOU think about it?”

Jesus tells them the perfect person can throw the first stone. One by one all the people leave. They all know they’ve sinned. Every last one of them drops their stone and walks away. Finally this leaves only Jesus and the Woman. Jesus, who is the only perfect person. And the Woman who is on trial. Jesus basically points out he could be the one to stone her. He could, he’s God, and he’s perfect, having never sinned, giving him the right to judge. But the craziest thing happens, he doesn’t.

Jesus, the only person who can judge her rightfully, let’s her go. If you’re thinking “God could never care about me, not with what I’ve done.” But that’s a lie. He still cares. He will still listen to your prayers. You can walk into church. If your church has judged you, or your friends or family, have judged you and condemned you by what you have done, then they’re wrong. Jesus doesn’t condemn you.

One night I was talking with a friend who was feeling the same of what they had done, and I was saying just to ignore any judgement from those around him, because they were lies. He responded, “I don’t feel judged by others, I feel judged by myself.” That struck me. How often is this true about eating disorders? It’s almost worse when someone tries to help us get better, because we know we’re hurting them. We continue to blame ourselves.

Picture yourself holding the last stone. I almost wonder if the times I thought other people holding stones it was just an illusion. A mirage of my own shame, that I felt so condemned in my own heart, soul, and mind that I believed everyone else must have felt the same way.

Drop your stones. Forgive yourself. You don’t have to make sacrifices in your shame, you can be you inside and out: without any guilt or shame. Because when you live without shame:

The lies come off.

The secrets crumble.

The purging ends.

The walls come down.

And you come out! Not you with all the condemnation. Not you with all your fear. Not you with your scarlet letter bleeding from your heart.

You come out. Whole you. Free you. Beautiful you.

“Not Guilty” Aaron Keyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE8gxOxMuhg

“No More Chains”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD-UOVnmni0

“I Want to Be Beautiful”– Kelly’s Story

I recently got an amazing email from an amazing girl named Kelly G. Kelly is 16 and has overcome an eating disorder just this year. She says she “gives all the credit to God.” This is Kelly’s story:

“I never thought that I’d be the girl who hated herself, who thought she was so fat that she would starve herself just to be skinny. But somehow, somewhere along the line…I became exactly that. My name is Kelly, and I’ve had an eating disorder for probably about a year and a half now. And this is my story.

I, like many girls, wanted — and still want — to be beautiful. And “beautiful”, to me, meant stick-thin; that was my image of “perfect”. And I didn’t feel that I was that…and I wanted it. I craved it. My back injury made exercising painful…and so, I resorted to something else: I began to skip meals. I grew to hate myself for eating. I would make myself feel completely sick to my stomach to punish myself for eating. There were soooo many times I wished that I knew how to make myself throw up, just so I could get rid of the awful feeling, and the 100 calories I just put into my stomach. I was proud of myself when my stomach would growl; it was satisfying to lie about what I ate that day. I would lay in bed at night and just be so happy because I made it through the day without food…and no one even suspected anything.

I had several people tell me that Satan was in my mind and seriously taking over my thinking. But I brushed it off because I felt like I was in control of it; I felt like I knew what I was doing. I knew I was damaging myself physically, but somehow, I didn’t really care. I became brainwashed. I knew the not-eating was standing in the way of me and God. I knew that I needed it gone, but I just couldn’t let go of it; I couldn’t give up control. Not until I was happy with what I looked like. And I hated what I looked like. I would argue with people who told me I was skinny and beautiful. I couldn’t understand how they could look at me and think that I was beautiful and perfectly made, when I looked at myself with such disgust. I HATED myself. Everything about myself, I completely hated.

I knew other girls who were struggling with loving themselves, and I would try to have it all together for them; I would try to be strong for them and give them advice on how to love themselves. On how to accept themselves as they were. I would tell them that they were made exactly how God wanted them to be made, so why would they try to change themselves? God knows best after all. …But I was such a hypocrite. I couldn’t even listen to my own words; I didn’t believe them for myself. How much could they really take to heart what I said, if I couldn’t even apply it to my own life? I knew I was loved by God; I knew I had a family that loved me; I knew my boyfriend loved me; I knew all my friends loved me. And they loved me not because of what I looked like, not because of how skinny I was — but for ME, for who I was. …So why was it so hard for ME to love me? Why was it so hard for ME to accept myself?

I had a very brainwashed view of myself and what I “should” be. Of what I “should” look like. For a while, I denied even having an eating disorder. People said I was anorexic, and I thought they were absolutely insane because I thought that being anorexic meant you were like skin and bones. But I’ve learned that anorexia is a mindset — a mindset that I had. Sometimes I would ask myself if being skinny was really worth messing up my organs, or even risking my life. And I KNEW the answer was “absolutely not”, but I still couldn’t change my way of thinking. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t give up that control. Somewhere along the line, it had taken over the control; I no longer controlled IT — IT controlled ME. I was constantly planning how I was going to get out of eating that day, how I was going to skip as many meals as I could. It was taking over me, consuming me. And I didn’t want to be that girl; I didn’t want to be weak. I wanted to be the girl everyone looked up to.

But no one is perfect, and everyone struggles with something. And I struggled with this. I wasn’t letting God into my heart to help me with it. I still wanted to be in control of it — because I knew, deep down, that if I let Him have control, if I surrendered it to Him…He’d take it away. And I wasn’t ready for that yet. I tried not being so critical of myself for one week; just a week. …And I didn’t even last an hour. There is something so wrong with that. And eventually, it beat me down and wore me out. I couldn’t change myself; it was beyond my ability to fix. And I was TIRED of being consumed by it. I was TIRED of looking in the mirror and only seeing flaws. I was TIRED of being so physically weak and dizzy all the time. I was TIRED of acting like I had it all together. I was TIRED of pretending to be okay, when I wasn’t okay at all. I was exhausted and broken. It became less about control and more about what I needed — and I needed this to be gone. I needed it to not be standing in the way of me and God anymore. I needed Him. And I knew my relationship with Him was too important to sacrifice because of this struggle.

I’m not going to sit here and say that I woke up one day and it was over, that I’m now completely and totally free of this. Because I didn’t, and I’m not. Maybe one day I will be able to say that it is totally over…but not yet. But I DID wake up with a different attitude. I woke up and the first thing I thought WASN’T “how can I skip meals today?”. I looked in the mirror and my head wasn’t filled with thoughts of hatred. I can’t even remember the last time that happened.

I know this battle isn’t over yet; I know it’s not going to end overnight. I know I’m probably going to struggle with this for a while, if not the rest of my life. But my point is that right now, in this moment, I have something that I haven’t had in a long, long time: …I have hope. I can see God working. I can see Him changing my heart. And I am BEYOND excited about it. I’m starting to love myself for who I am. I’m starting to truly, honestly believe that I was made for a purpose, and that I was made the exact way God needed me to be made. I’m giving Him control of this — and He is taking it away. But it’s not bad like I thought it would be; I’m ready for it now. My heart is so incredibly happy for the first time in a long time. I feel free. I feel hopeful. And I can’t even begin to tell you how great it is.

My name is Kelly, and I haven’t skipped a meal in [over two hundred] days. I WILL overcome.”

Skinny Tricks

Ever eaten a lie?

I took a bite

It consumed me

The lie rejects

Anything else

I can’t eat

Because I took

One skinny bite

of a lie.

Can I Get A Diagnosis?

Am I anorexic?

If you’re asking yourself this question, and you’re hoping the answer is yes, then you are. Let me explain why:

Anorexia is typically diagnosed under extreme, hospitalization-worthy, circumstances. Before then, it seems like everyone is basically saying “no, you’re not skinny enough… to be anorexic.” I think many people mean this with the best intentions. They don’t want you to have a problem. But being in that place, what we’re hearing is “we’re not thin enough.”

You do not have to be severely underweight or a size zero to have an eating disorder. If your obsession with being thin is changing your eating habits to the point where you are either purging (or have thought about it) or constricting calories to an extreme degree, you are, at the very least, at the beginning stages of Anorexia or Bulimia.

Let me be the first to say, you are THIN ENOUGH to have an eating disorder. There is something in the affirmation that what you’re feeling and dealing with is real.

If you are struggling with body image and the lies that the world is throwing to you about skinny, you are on the very front edge of an eating disorder. And it is okay, to tell someone, and it is GOOD to confess to this struggle.

Regardless of your place in this journey, if you are afraid you have an eating disorder, if someone has told you that you aren’t skinny enough to be struggling with an eating disorder, or if this has been part of your life for many, many years, today can be the day when you recognize that you’re struggling and that it’s okay to struggle, and today can be the day when you get help. You can be affirmed in knowing that the pain you feel is real and so is your struggle. Your pain is recognized as being legitimate. What you feel and what you struggle with is legitimate.

When we acknowledge each other’s feelings, pains, and struggles, we are telling someone that they matter and what they are feeling is real. Things that are real also have real healing and real escape and real freedom.

Your legitimate struggles have legitimate freedom.

Not being skinny enough to have a struggle with an eating disorder is a lie.

Skinny is a lie.

Hope and healing are real.

What Will Be Your Legacy?

I read quote by J.K. Rowling that said: “Is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me.”

I think she’s right. First of all, fat isn’t a personality characteristic. And it’s not the worst thing a person can be. And being skinny is not the best thing a person can be. I read all these quotes about how you should be willing to give up all of these things to be skinny. But why? Why would you give up time to love your family & time to do things that are important just to be skinny?

I’m not talking about becoming healthy, being healthy is important. But wasting your life to be skinny is just as unhealthy as being obese. It’s just not worth it.

The way you look on the outside doesn’t define who you are on the inside.

Beauty does not come from comparing yourself to others. That steals your beauty. That’s what the lie wants you to do. To stop believing you are beautiful.

Whenever I feel like I could lose a few pounds I remember what I would be giving up. It’s not the food. It’s the mindset. I give up the mindset of being beautiful. I give up the mindset of being happy with myself and I give up the FOCUS on things that matter.

 

How can I be my best for God when I’m giving my best to be skinny? When I decide skinny is more important I’m making it a god in my life. Even if you aren’t religious, hear me out. Skinny isn’t a god worthy to be served. At best it will give you vanity. But it probably won’t even give you that. It will only give you the feeling of inadequecy. If you believe it through and through you will have wasted your life and died to be skinny.

When people look back at your life do you want your legacy to be that you were skinny? That you exercised all the time? When you give an account for all you did in your life and everything you accomplished, do you want “achieved a perfect weight” to be on the list? What lasting value does it have?

Be healthy, not for the sake of being healthy, but be healthy so you can be strong enough to carry out responsibilities and make differences that really matter. Be healthy so that you can spend time with your kids. Be healthy so you can serve for a long time. Be healthy so that you don’t wear out during the day because you’ve not been eating right. Be healthy so you can be strong enough to love, and free enough to serve, and happy enough to smile.

 

Skinny Chains & Slavery

There’s a lie that will fight you. It acts like it loves you. It might seem like a good thing. You might feel like you have control. It might feel like you’re finally getting everything right. But watch out, because skinny will lie to you. She doesn’t love you. She’s not trying to make you beautiful. You may not see it now, but if you follow skinny all the way through, she will make you sick, and she will make you skinny, but you’ll never know it. She will tell you aren’t every time. More people have the mentality of an eating disorder, who couldn’t be diagnosed because of their weight. You don’t have to be dying of starvation to have been abused by the lies of skinny. If you’ve ever felt that you’re too big to be loved, you eat too much to be pure, that you aren’t beautiful because you aren’t “skinny,” you have been lied to by skinny. Skinny can’t complete you, neither can food. Diets won’t save you. They’re lying. These things can be good, but if you worship them, they will take you in alive. Don’t let your diet make you a slave. Don’t let skinny make you a slave. In Jesus there is freedom, there is love. He will help you be healthy in every possible way. He makes you beautiful. his control can be trusted.

The only one who I am willing to serve, who is worthy to be served, is Jesus Christ. He will never abuse you. He will set you free. John 8:35-36 “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” When you are a slave to skinny, or another one of the lies, you will never be good enough for them. You will never be in the family. Satan doesn’t want to accept you, and these are his lies. Satan wants to turn you away from the truth. The truth about freedom, love, redemption, grace, and acceptance. The truth about Jesus. The truth that you are BEAUTIFUL, that you are WORTH IT, that you are LOVED. When you submit your self to Christ, the son, He will set you free from darkness, from the cages of bone you live in, from the leash of food you are chained to, from the feeling that you have to get on another diet to make yourself presentable, to make yourself good enough. This MINDSET will be gone when you surrender to Christ. I used to think that Jesus freedom meant I had to constantly fight these things in my life. When I surrendered to Him completely, the mindset was gone. I was FREE! I didn’t feel like I had to be skinny anymore, I didn’t believe that skinny felt good. I felt ALIVE, I had ENERGY, I had JOY. Things that SKINNY NEVER LET ME HAVE.

Being a slave to Jesus is the only way to be free; he is true enough to be served in every aspect. Nothing else will do. Nothing else is enough. Skinny will never be enough. Food will never be enough. Health can’t save you. Jesus makes you beautiful. Jesus fills you up. Jesus saves you. He’s the only one who can forgive your sins. He’s the only one who can really comfort you. He’s the only one who completes you and makes you perfect. He’s the One. And SKINNY IS A LIE.

Thinspiration is NOT Inspiring

When you go as far to get as thin as those girls in those thinspiration pictures you’ve given up everything to be skinny.

I know girls are willing. I see the posters, I hear the talk. You’ve been cheated. Skinny will give you nothing in return. Skinny will lure you, lie to you, and cheat you.

Skinny will cheat you out of:

• Being strong enough to do your favorite things- You will be too weak to accomplish things.
• Having close relationships- Skinny dominates and leaves no room for healthy friendships or relationships
• Being honest- You’ve been lied too, and somewhere deep down, you know something isn’t right. You will lie to everyone you know. You will be paranoid.
• Peace of mind- You will be obsessed with how you look. The fat you believe you have will drive you mad. It will make you feel sick.
• Joy- You only see darkness.
• Skinny will cheat you out of being you. All of the sudden your personality takes on something new and different and dark. Skinny becomes your identity, but gives nothing in return.
• Life. – Skinny will consume you in every way possible. If you give everything to be skinny, you’re giving up your family, friends, hobbies, skinny becomes your religion, skinny owns your mind, your heart, your strength and your body. You will struggle to get any of it back, and it could kill you.

This is what lies behind those thinspiration pictures.

Starvation kills. Don’t let thinspiration make you believe that starvation can give you life.

Everyone gives themselves to something. We all have an obsession. And many of us feel empty. Our obsessions cannot satisfy, or we feel that we cannot satisfy them. I believe God, who is the founder and creator of the Universe, can satisfy. He is big enough to fill the void and He is true enough to fulfill us.

I couldn’t take my life back for myself. Skinny had too strong of a grasp on me. So I prayed that Jesus would take my life for himself. In that moment everything changed.

The Word of God is INSPIRING:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”- Luke 10:27

When you give yourself to Jesus instead of skinny:

• You will have strength-  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”- Phillipians 4:13
• You will have love not paranoia or obsession or fear- you will be able to be close to family, friends, and God
• You will be able to stop telling lies- You become real. You will no longer be guarded by lies but by truth (which cannot crumble beneath you, it is a firm foundation).
• You will have peace of mind- “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 4:7. You will be guarded in your heart and mind from other lies that will try to tear you down and you will know the truth. That you are loved, that you are cherished, that you are worth it, that you can conquer, that God has called you and that you belong to Him and He will never harm you, but guard you.
• You will be you. “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”- Genesis 2:7, “Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?”- Deauteronomy 32:6b. God made you exactly to be you. You will be more you in Christ, than you could ever be without him. He will give you the identity of being a treasure, of being innocent, of being strong, of being joyful, and of being YOU.
• You will be given life:

” But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”- Isaiah 43:1. God made you. Israel was a tribe God picked, and they did not follow his ways and yet he loved them. You’ve never gone too far for God. You have been redeemed. And your name, in the culture of the Bible is your identity, SPECIFICALLY YOU can belong to God, be yourself, and claim life.

“Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”-Romans 8:2. This means that when you give your life to Jesus instead of skinny (which will lead you to death) he will give you more life. He will set you free from the prisons of your eating disorder.

#skinnyisalie #truthwillsetyoufree

Stop being cheated, start being inspired

-Merry

On Self-Hatred

Sometimes it seems like you look in the mirror and all you see is flaws. Your body seems to take on any mistake you make. Sometimes the person who is hardest to forgive, is yourself. You know you, you live with you everyday. You see all your flaws. See more than are there. But you never see your beauty. I see it. I see it when I look into your eyes, blurred by lack of food, swimming with sorrow, anxious with worry, pain of feeling unloved-inadequate-ugly. I see it everyday, in so many faces. You don’t believe you are beautiful. When I look past it all, into who you really are, I see someone strong, but someone vulnerable. Some one beautiful.

Hatred on yourself makes it hard for you to believe the truth when people love you. It makes it hard to love them back because you doubt their ability to commit to you. Why would they stick around when there are so many flaws in you. Maybe they see something you don’t. You are beautiful.

Mirrors can tell lies.

It’s your perception of your reflection. That leaves a lot of room for error. You don’t see you without all those misconceptions, without all those perceptions, reflections. You’re not even seeing the real you.

God does.

That could be scary for you. To think that an all-knowing God, would see the real you. A Natalie Grant song, written during her battle with Bulimia, says: “But you see the real me, hiding in my skin, broken from within, unveil me, completely, I’m loosening my grasp, there’s no need to mask my frailty, you see the real me.” And he still loves you enough to die for you. The hatred you have for yourself is the biggest lie of all. If God is truth, and he says you are beautiful, then beauty is really yours to keep.

Don’t define yourself by a number on a scale, by a number of wrongs, by a number of calories, or miles, or mistakes. You’re worth it. You have been given worth beyond imagine. Don’t sell yourself short by believing and acting on lies you hear, or see, or are told. If you have been told you are ugly, or unloved, or unworthy, or unclean. You’ve been lied to.

Take back the truth, there’s enough hate in the world. Don’t hate yourself.

Real Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpIFjdutQjY