I love Beth Moore's books, the way she writes, her word usage, the prayers she prays... Somehow I just understand what she is saying without a dictionary by my side!! She is real and genuine, and plus she has good style!!...not exactly on the priority list for Godly woman/speakers, but she is good and God has used her in many ways to speak to me.
This devotional was about a week ago but it was so good I needed to share it! Especially right now since spring is approaching and girls will want beach bodies... Or you're not prego anymore and want to lose weight.
"How thankful I am for the freedom God has increasingly given me in Christ. I'm in the throes of Middle Ages-(as one of my friends says, "Time is a great healer but a lousy beautician."- yet I am happier and more satisfied than I've ever been. The secret? I'm learning to see myself as beautiful to Christ.
Without Christ, every woman has intense insecurities. Unless we find our identity in Him, we Christian woman can be just as prone to insecurities as unbelievers. To Christ, the most beautiful person on earth is the one making preparations to meet the Groom."
See, it's not just for the young girl, it's for any age, every girl has insecurities whether she means to or not. Freedom. That's what the whole book is about, breaking free from the world's chains.
Now I will be the first to admit I do now have a gentle and quiet spirit, so this is something I will be working especially with a son now.
A few days ago Andrew made a good point to me as I was looking in the mirror at all my, "flaws." He asked me, "so no matter how thin or in shape you are, it won't be enough?" Well that one got me, but I had to answer yes, because even now I find things that I need to work on, things that no one else notices, even my husband, not in a "you didn't notice!!!" Kind of way, just the fact that he loves me the way I am.
I got quite large in those last few house of pregnancy, I was on an I.V the entire time before Easton was born, so I had plenty of fluids in me. A few weeks later we were looking at the pictures right before and after Easton was born and my face was huge and puffy, but he said he didn't even notice, there were things that were more important than my puffy face at the time.
So as far as my motive for losing weight...before I read this my motives werent right, but since I've been able to chew it over for a while; there is a better reason for wanting to be in shape again. Not because of guilt so much but because of a good reminder on the next page of the devotional. Why is it so important? "Because I want to look beautiful. " "Who said your not beautiful??"
Satan. He tells us that because the photoshopped girl in the magazine is stupidly skinny, you should be too. Even the girls who aren't photoshopped, there is a difference between skinny and fit!! There was a photo of the Victoria's Secret girls...oh they looked sick!! Like they had the flu for months!!! The enemy tells us that our husband, boyfriend, friend or even our school mates will not like us if we are not thin, if we have cottage cheese thighs...hate to break it to you, but there are very few healthy woman in this world who don't have cellulite!!! Of course men don't, they have a body fat percentage of like 2, woman are blessed to have anywhere from 18-30 on a healthy perspective!
I know it's distracting, and deceiving to woman, it's hard to be a girl in any generation, but if our identity is in the Lord and we focus daily on getting dressed to please Him and work out to just be healthy, then it won't be so hard to not be like woman who get paid thousands of dollars to work out all day long because their bodies aren't good enough to be seen...we're seeing way too much of them then.
Good luck ladies!
Love your thoughts Marissa!
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