Episode 26 Transcript
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Abbie: 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.
Hannah: 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.
Abbie: 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. Hello y'all. Welcome back to your daily bread podcast. And, and I are so, so excited to, um, walk through this episode. This is one that we have had on our hearts. Like the Lord placed us on as a while back. So I'm really excited to, to dive into this. We are going to be going to the old Testament.
We're going to be in numbers 20. Verses two through twelve. This is the story of the water in the rock. Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, If only we had died when our brothers fell dead. Before the Lord, why did you bring the Lord's community into the wilderness that we and our livestock should die here?
Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink. Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell face down, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, Moses, take the staff and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together, speak to that rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water, you will bring water out of the rock for the community, so they in their livestock can drink.
So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence. Just as he commanded him, he and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock? Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and the livestock drank.
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, You will not bring this community into the land I gave them.
Um, okay. So what stuck out to me here, because I'm sure y'all are thinking, how does this relate to our relationship with our body, our relationship with our food? And I know it has to do with water coming out of the rock, but, um, we're going to save our living water for another episode. And we will do an episode down the line with the woman at the well, for sure.
But what the Lord said to me here was that we are not meant to treat our bodies harshly. The Lord has never said to strike our bodies, to hit our bodies into submission, to do what we want. Things with our healthy lifestyle should not be out of force or obligation. It shouldn't be this harsh and we know from I think it was episode two where we talked about how breaking away from diet culture is biblical and we walked through Colossians chapter two, verses 20 through 23, it said harsh treatment of the body might have the appearance of wisdom, but It doesn't, it doesn't stop you from having that sensual indulgence doesn't stop you from overeating, leading to gluttony and all of these different things.
Um, so we know we're not called to treat the body harshly. And actually in this scenario, when Moses was hitting the rock and striked it with his staff, like, yes, he did get the result that he wanted, but he actually ended up being farther from God. He was actually being disobedient.
Hannah: It's funny because what, what I'm thinking hearing this, I'm thinking about like Moses and the Israelites and how they were freed from slavery, and then they were complaining, and It makes me think of kind of like the grass is greener mindset, and I'm picturing myself, you know, I'm thinking of like, we're so dissatisfied with our body in the present moment.
And I'm thinking of myself feeling super dissatisfied with my body, my appearance. I see a picture of myself. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I hate it. I look horrible. Fast forward a year later. And I'm like, oh, I looked so good back then, you know, does that ever happen to you where it's like, you're like, oh, I looked so good then and then you remind yourself, wait a minute, I was dissatisfied with myself back then.
And so I'm like thinking about the Israelites who were so, they were slaves and then they were finally set free, but then they're in the desert and then they're like, ah, I can't believe we're doing this. I can't believe we're here. There's no water. There's no food. And so. I see it as like a very, like much smaller scale of the, the, the body dissatisfaction, the, the idea of like the good old days, you know, that, that type of like mentality and how that applies to like our body image.
Abbie: Oh, 100%. And honestly, poor Moses and Aaron, they had to deal with these people complaining every step of the way. Like, it must have been so frustrating. So, I don't blame Moses, because he reached a breaking point and was just like, Y'all need to stop. Literally, I'm doing everything for you. I'm doing everything that I can.
I'm, you know, going between you and the Lord, going back and forth. Like, I'm doing the best I can. Like, I'm not surprised that he struck the rock because he was so frustrated and just reached his wits end with these people. And I feel like this is the equivalent to when we say, like, we just feel so frustrated in our bodies.
Maybe we get back from a trip or something like that. Or like after the holidays, we're like, Oh my gosh, I feel so gross. I feel so bloated. I can't believe I ate and drank all of that. Didn't treat my body well. Haven't worked out in so long. Screw it. I'm just going to go start another diet. And then we just do something so harsh, so aggressive.
We start. Really, you know, aggressive exercise plan. That's way too intense. We started to, or just like, screw it. I'm just going to cut out all sugar. And we think that that's going to solve things, but actually it's treating the body way too harshly. You're not trusting God. You're not honoring your body.
Um, and yeah, I think a lot of people in that scenario too will say, Oh, this is what worked for me back then with the good old days. This worked for me back then, so I'm going to do it again now. But we have to ask ourselves, did it actually work back then? If you did lose weight in the past, you probably gained it back.
And more some. And, like you were saying, when you were doing that, you were probably miserable. Yeah. Yeah.
Hannah: Yeah. I mean, Moses Had a little bit of a temper, you know, and relatable. Okay.
Abbie: Relatable,
Hannah: hangry,
Abbie: hangry.
Hannah: And I, I also think about how like, um, God tells us that in our, we can be angry, and that's okay, we can be frustrated, but like, in our anger, do not sin.
And so, you know, I relate that back to like, the treatment of our bodies. Like, we're allowed to be frustrated. We're allowed to be like, uh, I'm not, you know, I'm not satisfied with, with my body right now. You know, I'm not satisfied with my self care routine right now, like I don't feel the best. I don't feel my best I don't feel like i'm doing my best to take care of myself.
I feel like i'm leaning back in in into Maybe laziness. I don't really like that word, but i'm feeling a little sloth. I'm feeling a little gluttonous I feel you know, like And maybe it's because you just got out of a really, really busy season. And all of that can be true. You can feel all of those things, but it's, it's sort of like that in your anger, do not sin.
So you're angry with your body, you're angry with yourself, but don't turn that into mistreatment or harsh treatment. Of your body, of yourself. So don't take that and be like, well, I'm so dissatisfied with myself that I'm just not gonna eat. I'm not gonna eat for the whole day. And, um, you know, it's my birthday, but I'm not gonna have a piece of cake because I don't deserve it.
Um, or, you know, I'm gonna. Not eat before exercise and then I'm not going to have lunch afterward, um, because I don't deserve it or because I need to like punish myself for, um, being a blob or whatever, whatever crazy thing you're thinking in your head about yourself, which all those feelings are valid.
And I think we've all been there, um, but it's like taking those feelings and, and being careful and conscious and calculated about, okay, I'm not happy with myself, I'm not happy with my self care routine, and instead of being, uh, you know, brash and crazy and doing some crazy crash diet or mistreating myself or treating myself harshly, I'm gonna say, okay, You know, what have I been doing?
Okay, my sleep has been a little off. Let me start with that. And then maybe I'll feel more energized to start exercising and taking one step at a time. When we think about God and how he, how he created the, the world, the universe, you know, we look back at Genesis. It was one step at a time. God created this, God created that.
He could have just done it all right in a, in a single moment. Um, and so how can we reflect that? How can we do this, a similar thing in, in, in our everyday life? And how, what does that look like when we're taking care of ourselves and we're making decisions for, for our self care and for our body and our food?
Abbie: Yeah. Oh, that's so good. What's one small step that I could take today? What's the next best step that would be honoring to the body versus trying to, I find that when people are treating the body harshly, they do something that's almost like too aggressive. They're trying to do too many healthy habits at one time.
I'm going to start an exercise plan. I'm going to start a new diet. I'm going to like start meditating. I'm going to have a morning routine. I'm going to get up earlier. And like all of these drink more water. I'm It's like, like basically it's giving 75 hard, like trying to do all of these things all at one time.
It's not sustainable. And that treats the body way too harshly. So I love that. And the, um, correlation with the, with our creation story, what's the next best step that you can take? I feel like God was really modeling with that, that it is a journey stepwise process. We can't handle when we do too many things.
at once. Um, and you're right. Feelings are not a sin, but if we let our feelings Translate and like turn into actions that are dishonoring to God and also dishonoring to our body that that could be a problem. So I think it's important to, I think sometimes we feel a certain way and we're like, Oh, I shouldn't feel that way.
But I think it's important to recognize like, maybe if you say to yourself, like, I shouldn't feel this way, but I do and acknowledging that feeling. And there's kind of like a little bit of a surrender there. But I do it versus shaming ourselves for feeling. I think you could at that point you can actually process that and be like, well, what do I do in that process?
Um, so you're being attuned to what you're feeling and what you're going through and acknowledging it. And with more with you growing in your intuitive eating journey and you honoring the body and growing in your love with God. Um, 'cause the more that you love God, the more that you're gonna wanna honor him and his temple and be o be obedient to him.
Um, you're gonna choose the right steps to attend to your body. So if you're like, I feel like there's kind of two things, you need to be attuned to how you're feeling so that you can acknowledge it. And if you know exactly what you're feeling, you can take the next best step to tend to yourself. Mm.
Hannah: Yeah.
And I love that, that you said, you know, 'cause we're human. We have the thought. I shouldn't feel like this. But I do and maybe we can add I shouldn't feel like this, but I do and God is good Or I'm feeling weak in my weakness. He is strong
Hannah: Lord, give me give me the strength work through me to do what I need to do to honor my body and take the right steps to better myself and this body that houses the Holy Spirit.
Yeah,
Abbie: that's good. That's good. And because how we feel is going to fluctuate day to day, but the truth of what God says about us and his word, that does not change.
Hannah: Yeah. Yeah.
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
