I've struggled with body image for an undefinable amount of time. My weight has fluctuated my entire life, and once I became old enough to realize it, it became an unfortunate obsession.
As I matured and opened up about this to my peers in college, I found that I was not alone. Maintaining an unhealthy relationship with food is what my husband now refers to as the "acceptable" sin among Christian women. It's the most common struggle among my female friends. Or, it's the most common one they admit to, at least.
This destructive sin rears its ugly head in many ways, manifesting differently in different women. Some women develop actual eating disorders, others binge and purge, others develop a more generalized obsession with appearance and self loathing, and still others fall elsewhere in this nasty spectrum.
I've been thinking a lot about this sin specifically lately, which led me to think about how the enemy confuses us about the very definition of sin. Let me share 3 things the Holy Spirit revealed to me:
1. Just because a sin is "popular" doesn't mean it's any less sinful. Somehow, it made me feel better to realize that many of my friends struggle with the same thing that plagues me. It made me feel like maybe I wasn't so "bad" and that this struggle wasn't such a horrible thing after all. How could it be if so many people I respect also struggle with it? That's simply not true. The enemy knows our weaknesses and preys on them, regardless of who does or doesn't share the same weaknesses.
2. Just because a sin is private - hidden well and not affecting others in obvious ways - doesn't mean it's any less sinful. Scripture is clear that all sins are equal. It's also clear that we need to confess our sins to each other to seek accountability and to allow God to deal with them. Hiding them allows them to fester and grow to become even uglier. Ugh.
3. Just because a sin masks itself as manageable doesn't mean it's any less sinful. No sin is manageable without God's intervention! It's not okay to continually struggle with the same thing over and over. The very fact that the sin is a repetitive cycle shows that it is NOT manageable. We need His help. (And He's willing to give it!)
I hope that you will think about these three things and ask yourself if, like me, you've allowed the enemy to deceive you in these sneaky but destructive ways.
Pressing on with you!
As I matured and opened up about this to my peers in college, I found that I was not alone. Maintaining an unhealthy relationship with food is what my husband now refers to as the "acceptable" sin among Christian women. It's the most common struggle among my female friends. Or, it's the most common one they admit to, at least.
This destructive sin rears its ugly head in many ways, manifesting differently in different women. Some women develop actual eating disorders, others binge and purge, others develop a more generalized obsession with appearance and self loathing, and still others fall elsewhere in this nasty spectrum.
I've been thinking a lot about this sin specifically lately, which led me to think about how the enemy confuses us about the very definition of sin. Let me share 3 things the Holy Spirit revealed to me:
1. Just because a sin is "popular" doesn't mean it's any less sinful. Somehow, it made me feel better to realize that many of my friends struggle with the same thing that plagues me. It made me feel like maybe I wasn't so "bad" and that this struggle wasn't such a horrible thing after all. How could it be if so many people I respect also struggle with it? That's simply not true. The enemy knows our weaknesses and preys on them, regardless of who does or doesn't share the same weaknesses.
2. Just because a sin is private - hidden well and not affecting others in obvious ways - doesn't mean it's any less sinful. Scripture is clear that all sins are equal. It's also clear that we need to confess our sins to each other to seek accountability and to allow God to deal with them. Hiding them allows them to fester and grow to become even uglier. Ugh.
3. Just because a sin masks itself as manageable doesn't mean it's any less sinful. No sin is manageable without God's intervention! It's not okay to continually struggle with the same thing over and over. The very fact that the sin is a repetitive cycle shows that it is NOT manageable. We need His help. (And He's willing to give it!)
I hope that you will think about these three things and ask yourself if, like me, you've allowed the enemy to deceive you in these sneaky but destructive ways.
Pressing on with you!
Thank you for this post, Leigh! It helped me a lot today. Glad to see you are doing so well!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear that, Taylor! Thank you for sharing.
DeleteGood post Leigh! My only question is: is scripture clear that all sin is equal? 1 John 5:16, Matt. 12:31-32, John 19:11, are verses (among others) which make me question whether all sin is really equal.
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ReplyDeleteJohn, thanks for making me think! I did read some conflicting things about that before posting it and wondered if I should have used other terms. Probably should have worded it differently and said something about how we need redemption from all sin, no matter what the "severity."
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