Episode 15 Transcript
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Welcome to your daily bread with co hosts, Abbie Stasior and Hannah Calhoun. We're here to be your weekly source of spiritual nourishment, guiding you to find food freedom in a deeper connection with Christ. As we explore the intersection of faith and nutrition, these bite sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and your body through practical advice, biblical wisdom, and heartfelt encouragement.
And as a disclaimer, we are not pastors, but passionate registered dietitians and sisters in Christ, offering our insights to support you on this faith filled journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Join us by taking a seat at our table as we break bread and allow God in to break the chains of diet culture.
Hello there. I'm going to read Genesis 1, 27, which says, So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Guys, we are image bearers of God. All people, men and women, We are image bearers of God.
How do we respond to this? You know, like he, he, it doesn't say with, you know, with perfect physique or only this one skin color or, you know, only this size, like all women, all men, we are image bearers of God. We don't have to, like, become something else to be an image bearer of God.
We are image bearers of God. And You know, I try to remind myself of this on difficult body image days, you know I might have different goals for myself when it comes to, you know My strength and physical fitness and and things like that But but there is peace knowing that I bear the image of God just as I am Just as I am.
That is beautiful. And also in scripture too it mentions that we are a masterpiece. Yes. We're knit together by God in the womb. Isaiah 43 talks about how we are precious and honored in his sight. God just delight, delights in us. So yeah, on bad body image days, we need to remember that we are image bearers of Christ and that he, that he just delights in us.
So even though we might be feeling bad, we might not be feeling enough. We are enough because we are his.
Yes, and I think, too, it's something to consider when, when we're looking at ourselves and tearing ourselves apart. You know, oh, you know, whatever it may be. I don't like my nose, or I don't like my lips, or my eyes are too far apart, or my eyebrows are too bushy, or I don't like my stomach, or I don't like my legs.
It's like You know, all of us hold the image of God and essentially when we're tearing apart ourselves like that, we're, we're tearing apart the image of God. And, you know, maybe you don't struggle with that, but maybe you struggle with doing that to others that you see on the street. Um, why are they so tall?
Why are they so short? Why are they so fat? Why are they so this? Why are they so that? You know, that is an image bearer too.
Yeah. Can you start to see other people how Jesus sees them? Yeah. Wow. That can totally change your perspective of others. Wow.
Yeah. So we need to approach ourselves and others as though they are bearing the image of God and we are bearing the image of God.
And as you remember in our, um, another episode of ours where we talked about how our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, you know, when we are, are believers. and we accept Christ, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit within us, so our body, we, we are bearing the image of God and we are living as the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.
Like, this is just, that is beautiful. Yeah. That is beautiful, and so why would we want to rip apart our appearance and treat ourselves harshly? Like, is there a way that we can make goals for ourselves, um, you know, that are, that are reasonable and, you know, to where we can improve our health without trying to hate ourselves into health.
Yeah. And if we should be exalting God, glorifying him, lifting him up, and we are image bearers, we have the Holy Spirit within us, we should be lifting. And I'm not saying that in a prideful way, but it's like, how can you set goals in a way that are going to honor God and exalt him versus out, out of shame, be tearing yourself down.
Because that's tearing down his, his temple and not doing things with a motivation or mindset that would be glorifying and honoring to him. Yeah. And also, I think it's in second Corinthians. Could potentially be first Corinthians, but I think it's second Corinthians. It talks about how we have the mind of Christ.
So we have the ability to redirect our thoughts. Like we have that, we have that authority because we have the, the mind of Christ and also the Holy Spirit in us. We have the ability to redirect it. So if you have a negative thought, like I think negative body image, And these thoughts are going to come up just in our broken society and how, how things are.
It doesn't mean we have to indulge in them. It means we can quickly redirect our thoughts. So maybe that could be y'all's prayer. So Lord, help me redirect my thoughts. Help me see myself through your eyes and see myself how you see me.
Help me see this
other person how you see them.
Yes. And you can also ask God to.
Like, God, help me, when I look at myself, see you.
Because if I'm, you know, if I'm looking in the mirror and I'm looking at me, I could find, you know, several things to pick apart. If I'm looking in the mirror and I know I'm, I'm like looking at, at, at God, Not saying of course that I am God, but knowing that we are all image bearers, like, if I know that I'm not gonna start picking apart every, every inch, and every jiggle, and this and that, and my hair, and my eyes, and my whatever, and my jawline,
like,
you know, and, and, You know, if I'm just thinking, oh, it's just me, whatever, I might, I, I, if I'm treating my body like it's mine, kind of like how you mentioned in the, um, Our Body is a Temple episode, like, if you're wearing your sweater, like, you don't care if it snags, if it gets a stain.
If you're wearing your mom's nice sweater, like, you'll treat it differently. And so that's, like, what I'm getting at here, like, You know, if we recognize that our image is not necessarily our own, but it's, it's a representation of, of God, how, how will that change how we talk about ourself, how we think about ourself, how we, what we say when we look at ourself in the mirror, and when we understand that, coupled with the fact that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, how will that change how we treat it, With our food, with our exercise, with our rest, with our hydration, all of that.
Like, how does all of that come together? Yeah. And God is
perfect. God is good. So his design is good. His design is perfect. So when we're not trusting our own bodies and we're, we're dissing God's design, we're dissing God. We're not trusting God and his goodness. And if you don't understand why you look a certain way or why you might be different or look different than other people, like we're told to not lean on our own understanding.
Yeah, we're not going to always be able to understand. And I think it's the desire to know all of these things. And there's so much mystery with God, which is just such a beautiful thing. We're not meant to know, know everything. And if we are desiring to know, Like that's, there's a lack of trust there.
We're not going to know and understand why everyone looks different, but we can, you know, know that we are still image bearers of Christ and we can trust that because God is good. Right. Yeah. If we're always trying to know and understand ourselves, we're not going to be able to. And um, it shows like a lack of trust with God and lack of faith almost.
Yeah. Because faith is believing what's unseen and what's unknown.
Mm. So we can, we can begin to pray. And ask God for the ability to see ourselves number one, the way that he sees us to see him in ourselves and to treat our bodies accordingly, knowing that we are housing the Holy Spirit. And if we, you know, a lot of people might.
hear, you know, our content and our message and, and get the idea of like, Oh, well, you know, they told me that I'm supposed to love myself just the way I am because I'm an image bearer of God, and I'm not allowed to have health goals. And I'm not allowed to want to like, you know, feel toned and feel strong and do like, you know, we, we want to promote, of course, health.
People striving for health to the best of their abilities in a sustainable way. We don't believe that health has a start date and an end date. We believe that it's a journey. It's a process, you know, throughout your whole life and your routine is going to change depending on the different season of your life that you are in.
But what we are against is, is trying to hate yourself into health. Trying to hate yourself into hell. Oh, I hate my stomach. I hate my stomach. Like I'm, I'm gonna run an extra mile just to, to burn it all off because I hate it. I, you know, like that, that, that, that's not, I, I, you know, if, if Christ were sitting next to you hearing you say that, what would he say?
What would he say? I don't think that he would be pleased to hear us tearing apart our body. You know, and, and I think that there is a way to To, I know that there's a way to reach, you know, your goals with your health to the best of our earthly abilities, right? Because we're in a sinful world and there's disease and death because of sin and we cannot evade it, unfortunately.
We can honor our temple that we've been given. We can honor God, um, and it doesn't have to be harsh. Yes. It doesn't have to be aggressive. It doesn't have to be hateful. You know, we can do it in a way that, that. Is showing love and care to our body that God created that God knit together just for us to walk around and and bear his image.
And we can also take this and and and remember this when we're looking at others and when we're talking to others about their bodies.
Yeah. And we are called to in Colossians three, we've talked about it before, so I always want to bring it back to this. We are called to clothe ourselves with compassion and kindness and patience.
So we need to give that to ourselves, show ourselves compassion, warmth, and understanding, show ourselves patience while we're on the journey journey of a lifetime, not a certain date. Be kind towards ourselves. and be kind towards others. Yeah, that's good.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of your daily bread. We hope you found inspiration and practical guidance to nourish your body and soul. Remember the journey to a healthier relationship with food and a deeper connection with Christ is ongoing and we're here to support you every step of the way.
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As we conclude today's episode, we encourage you to take what resonated with you into your quiet time with God, allow God to reveal to you any changes that you can make for his glory, trusting that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in his image. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue to explore how God's word helps us heal our relationship with food in our bodies Until then may you find both physical and spiritual nourishment and may you be filled with his peace and joy.
God bless
