S3. E10. Body Image
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[00:00:00] And that's the issue with body image issues is we sit in the shame and we don't set our mind on things above, but when you sit with the shame with Jesus, he acknowledges it. He's compassionate with it. And then he's like, okay, but we're not gonna stay here. I'm gonna take you higher.
Welcome to Your Daily Bread podcast. I'm your host, Abbie Stasior, a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor. My prayer is that these bite-sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food, improve body image, and ultimately help you grow closer to God. Now, I can't personally heal you, but I'm gonna be directing you to the one that can, and that is Jesus. Also disclaimer, I'm not a pastor, but a sister in Christ that's offering you some food for thought that you can take into your quiet time with the Lord as your daily bread. Let's dig in.
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Your Daily Bread podcast. This week we're gonna be talking about how I am overcoming body insecurity in my wedding engaged [00:01:00] season.
I've gotten a lot of questions about this and a lot of dms, and a lot of you have enjoyed the how. I'm not sweating for the wedding episode, so I wanted to just give an update on where I'm at. I'm less than two months from. Entering covenant and getting married. And, I did the, not sweating for the wedding episode pretty early on.
And the Lord has really been working on me in terms of body image because I would be lying if I said that this season was easy. Anyone that has gotten married and special, specifically as in a Christian marriage. You know how much spiritual warfare there is in this season, and the devil just loves to attack women's bodies.
I really hope that this will be helpful for everyone out there, whether you're a bride, a bride's maid, or just anyone that's a little bit nervous about wearing shorts this summer and short sleeve shirts. My whole life.
I have hated wearing anything strapless, like I always have sleeves. I love a good puff sleeve. That is just my [00:02:00] personality. Even though I do have some insecurity about my arms, I've just, I've always liked a good puff sleeve, and so I always wanted a wedding dress with sleeves, and y'all, let me tell you what dress the Lord actually led me to.
Of course, he leads me to a strapless dress, and so I have been. Going back and forth at the Lord, like, are you sure? Is this it? Like, I know you have given me so many signs and so many confirmations that this is the dress that you want me to wear, but God, are you sure? Because this doesn't feel like me and I have delayed getting the dress altered so much, where now we have to pay hundreds of dollars more to have it rush altered now because I'm getting married in less than two months at this point, , you know what they say? Like delayed obedience is disobedience. Literally. That is the situation that I'm in with my wedding dress right now, where I'm like, my bad now. I'm mismanaging the finances because I've just been, battling this body image stuff. And the Lord in his goodness led me to this scripture in Revelation actually.
So, father God, thank you so [00:03:00] much. Thank you so much for your word, Lord, your goodness, your patience with us Lord.
So often we just berate our bodies, your creation Lord, and you're so patient with us I just praise you and thank you for renewing our mind around us. Lord, I just pray that you give us eyes to see ourselves in our bodies the way that you see us, Lord and I pray that this episode just lands on every single listener's heart.
As we go into summer and wedding season, Lord, I just pray that. I just pray that you give people ears to hear and and eyes to see, Lord, A, an appreciation for your masterpiece so we can actually receive into our heart that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And it's not just a verse that we hear.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, but no, it's a verse that we embody because that is how you see us, Lord. Lord, and I just pray for a hedge of protection [00:04:00] over all of us as we're getting dressed, as we are in going out in public Lord. And if anyone has any body insecurity, any body shame, Lord, we know that shame is not from you, and we just bind that up and we cast that out in the name of Jesus.
And I just pray for hedge of protection over every single listener in terms of body image and body insecurity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright y'all. So I'm really excited to share the scripture 'cause I really feel that this will be encouraging for y'all. So this is Revelation three, verse five, and it says, the one who is victorious will like them be dressed in white.
I will never blot out the name of that person from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge that name before my father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches, y'all, that is the word of the Lord,
In the context of Revelation, we really have to be [00:05:00] careful when we talk about the book of Revelation.
For sure. The one who is dressed in white is Jesus full stop. . And the Lord also gave me a revelation in terms of my body insecurity and gave me a vision of me wearing the wedding dress that I already have. 'cause there was a part of me that was like, well, should I just get a new dress?
The Lord was like, no, you are not doing that. Gave me a vision when I was reading this. Of me standing there, at the top of the altar on my wedding day in the wedding dress that the Lord has already pre-selected for me and I'm just standing there with my soon to be husband victorious.
Through Jesus, we will be victorious and there are so much spiritual warfare. So I just, I just felt such a peace that all the little things that we're dealing with leading up to the wedding, like Jesus is going to rain on that day. He is going to allow us to be victorious, and I'm also going to be victorious in terms of this body insecurity.
[00:06:00] Jesus says that we will have trouble in this world, but take heart, have no fear because he has overcome the world. I'm going to overcome this body insecurity. You are going to overcome this body insecurity as well in the name of Jesus, and we stand there victorious with him.
This scripture gave me so much encouragement and it helped me to set my mind on things above, where it says, I will never blot out the name of that person for my book of life.
And I'm like. Oh, that is the point. The point is not about what we wear on any given day. It's not about our shorts or our body composition. It is about having our names written in God's book of life to be with him in heaven forever. That is the point to be with God in his kingdom, and it just reset my mind to set my mind on things above.
Here I am in this wedding season thinking that I need to fix my body where the Lord's like, no, I wanna work on your heart. [00:07:00] There were so many months in this engaged season where I would feel a little bit of body insecurity and I would just suppress it down.
Nope. Like the Lord doesn't look at your outward appearance. He looks at your heart like God doesn't care what you look like. He just looks at your heart very much for Samuel 16, seven. But the truth is, with this scripture, I just really felt no, God does care what I look like on my wedding day, and he intentionally picked this wedding dress.
I mean, I can't even tell you how many signs I saw. When I tried on this wedding dress, it was, and I tried on about a hundred wedding dresses. I went to so many different shops. It was just an excruciating process. But with this dress, I just knew that this is exactly the one that the Lord was leading me into.
And even though I was like, well, it's not the one that I would've picked, that's kind of how I knew that God had picked it And. Jesus wanted to work on my heart. So all this time I've kind of been suppressing my body insecurity and not sitting with it where the Lord's like, no, I want you to sit with me with it.
I want you to bring your worries to me.. If it's enough for you to worry about, it's enough for you to pray about. That's something that we hear so often. And [00:08:00] here's the other thing. God has already worked out what you are worried about and he wants to sit with you in your worries and worry isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's an indicator that you need to go to him and he said, Abby, you're having so much body insecurity still, even with all the work that you've done over the years, even how you help so many other women, you are still having this body insecurity because at the root of it is fear of man. And he said to me, I need you to fear me more than you fear man.
And you're so worried about how you're gonna look on this one specific day, this snapshot in time because of a few people. What about me when you're with me we are reigning in victory.
He is clothed in white. I am clothed in white and he makes me victorious.
Jesus says in Matthew 6 25. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink about your body. What you'll wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes.
Like it's [00:09:00] so much more than that. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter, like what you wear in your own, like God is in all of those details. They're not so trivial to him. And, being stuck in all of those body image issues.
It keeps us in earthly thinking and it doesn't get us thinking about things eternal. And we need to be setting our mind. On things above, we actually got a comment on the podcast a couple episodes ago what we were talking about in the podcast, made her think about Philippians four, eight, where God gives us a whole list of things to think about and what to set our minds.
On think about things that are lovely and trustworthy and true and praiseworthy and all of these things. That is our checklist actually in Philippians four eight of what we need to be thinking about. So when we think about earthly things and body image issues, and we get so caught up in that. It really is keeping our thinking on earthly things and not on things that are eternal.
And that's exactly what that scripture and revelation [00:10:00] said. Jesus acknowledged how I was feeling in my body mache, and he said, you will be victorious, but then set your mind on things above so Jesus meets you where you're at. He empathizes, praise God that we have a high priest that empathizes and is compassionate with our situation.
But he doesn't have us stay there. And that's the issue with body image issues is we sit in the shame and we don't set our mind on things above, but when you sit with the shame with Jesus, he acknowledges it. He's compassionate with it. And then he's like, okay, but we're not gonna stay here. I'm gonna take you higher.
I wanted to give you a couple questions to ask God and I got these questions and have slightly modified them from Alan Kraft's book more. I talked about that in last week's episode. It is so good. I really, really love his book more. It's all about having more of the Holy Spirit. And he gave these questions to ask God, and I have given these to clients and they have found them extremely helpful in terms of healing body image and sitting with [00:11:00] Jesus with it.
Because people ask me, they're like, Abby, you tell me to sit with Jesus in my body. Shame and and he'll help. What does that actually look like? So I wanna give you all some practical questions so that you can ask God these questions in your quiet time and see what he says.
The first question is, God, when you look at me.
What do you see? Number two, Lord, what do you love about me? When I asked Jesus that, I mean, he just, he says so many things and it was just, it was so, it was so sweet.
And you just feel so seen. Number three, when did you last delight in me? So sweet. So sweet. Um, and Alan Craft, in his book, he also suggests that you ask, Lord, when was the last time that you laughed over me? And why? And I just think that is so sweet too, because God has a sense of humor. And number four, where am I not fully receiving your love?
And you can even [00:12:00] take these questions a step further. And if you have specific body parts that you're insecure about, and for me, it's my arms. I ask the Lord,. Lord, what do you think about my arms? And get that specific. And the Lord in his kindness is going to give you the most beautiful, sweet answer.
And I just pray that you sit long enough in his presence to really receive that truth and to receive that word from him into your heart, and know that God's word is the truth. His word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that's what we wanna see, how we feel about ourselves and our bodies. It fluctuates day to day, but what Jesus says about you, that is the truth and that is unchanging.
So I pray that these questions help you, and if you are struggling with body image and that is also hindering your relationship with food, I encourage you to go to the show notes and schedule a free call with me. I would love to chat with you and see if working together is a good fit, and especially if you are a bride and in your bride season.
So many clients that are bride's right now, I would love to [00:13:00] support you in this season as well, and help you keep your eyes on Jesus.
. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Your Daily Bread Podcast. Now, if anything about this episode resonated with you, I wanna encourage you to send it to three sisters in Christ who may also wanna steward their bodies better.
I read every comment, every review of the show, and I love hearing your testimonies and how the Holy Spirit is meeting you through these episodes. And if you haven't left a review yet, I wanna encourage you to do so 'cause it truly does help the show grow and it. Ultimately benefits the kingdom. And if you need any personalized support with your nutrition and your relationship with food or your body image, head to the show notes and you'll see all the different ways to work with me.
See you next week.
