By Kimberly Davidson
We are at war with our bodies. This is completely contrary to what God says: “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it” (Psalm 139:14).
Do you thank God for who you are? Or do you resent God for how He made you?
Research shows that 90% of women say that they’re dissatisfied with their bodies. 20 million women and 10 million men have had or will have a clinical eating disorder in their lifetime—and I am one of those statistics. This is an area I have struggled with my entire adult life, and it’s exactly the place that Satan attacks.
The LORD, speaking to Samuel, said, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NLT).
Are we destined to have unhealthy and negative self-talk for a lifetime? As Christians, we say that the Holy Spirit resides within our bodies, but do we honor it by taking care of our bodies?
Did you know that French women don’t spend money on cosmetic surgery, Botox, or expensive skincare treatments or products? I find this interesting considering Paris is one of the fashion capitals. What’s their secret? Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don’t Get Facelifts and the best-selling French Women Don’t Get Fat, said, “America, and some other countries, are youth cultures, so they are obsessed by eternal youth; the French laugh at that. We are an old culture and have a great sentence in France: La vie commence à cinquante, ‘Life starts at 50. For French women, the scalpel is the last resort …We look at ourselves in the mirror, no nonsense, and we say, ‘Okay, maybe I need a new haircut, maybe a new dress, and then we embrace aging. We still know that we can seduce and flirt, and all we want is to live the second part of our life as healthy and as well as possible.”[i]
Isn’t this refreshing! Throughout the Bible, I’m constantly thrilled to see God using people of all ages to accomplish His will. I received a card from a very wise woman who decades earlier made peace with her appearance. It read, “With every breath you take God celebrates your life. He rejoices in who He made you to be and watches over you with wisdom and love.” The accompanying Scripture said, “The LORD your God … will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). “Delight” means a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment.
Aging and body re-shaping is inevitable with the passage of time. Do you see a body that is the delight and masterpiece of our Creator God? Or do you find fault with your thighs, stomach, wrinkles, or gray hair? As women, we can choose to fight back by rejoicing in who He made us to be. We can choose to lay down the self-critical weapons, resting once and for all in holy imperfection.
I challenge you to embrace a new thought that is in line with La vie commence à cinquante!
[i] See: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/03/04/why-french-women-dont-get-facelifts.html.
