Have you heard that Strong is the new Sexy!? So now days you can’t even look like you just need to go eat a cheese burger anymore, you have to be buff and stacked, because strong is the new skinny! TALK ABOUT PRESSURE TO THE EGO!

Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media.  Information taken from http://www.dosomething.org Check out their 11 facts about body image HERE!

Over 60 percent of U.S. adult women are overweight, according to 2007 estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Just over one-third of overweight adult women are obese. Information taken from http://www.womenshealth.gov

As a Christian woman I believe in Spiritual Warfare and how the enemy’s number one goal is to make sure we never know the truth about how God sees us. For one we are created in His image, and two He doesn’t judge our outward appearance, but our hearts! We were not created for some one else’s eye candy enjoyment. We should not have to live our lives revolved around harsh words spoken about our selves from our own selves, or others, or to be at war with everything we put in our mouths!

image found on pinterest

These bodies we have now will age and wither away like the flowers, but our souls will live for eternity.

It is hard to keep this perspective in mind when we are force feed nothing but images of I am assuming the 5% of our populations women, or some very good air brushing skills! ( Might I add, ever notice how all these beauty magazines are RIGHT by the Impulse JUNK FOOD! GASP!!- A true nightmare for any emotional eaters!)

And what is it with the NEW SEXY!!? Since when did the beautiful healthy design God created  our bodies to be for his glory be used and cheapened in todays society as market tools to make a buck with labels such as HOTT and SEXY?  I do believe God created our bodies to be Beautiful, Strong and Healthy! Sexy? Well I believe that is where the opinion of your spouse comes in!

Let’s take the focus off of being SEXY and focus on being HEALTHY, FREE from self condemnation, and WHOLE, made right by Christ!

Let’s not just be Healthy as in physical health, but also our spiritual and emotional health as well.

It is not SEXY or HEALTHY to have  what society calls the perfect body if you are trapped inside your own hell you have created in your mind of striving for perfection, self love, and self acceptance, and never obtaining it. Never looking or feeling good enough for your own standards. Not to mention over exhausting your physical abilities, or creating unhealthy eating disorders!

Eating disorders, depression, substance abuse, and early sexual activity in adolescents  spawn from poor self body image that is linked to self esteem.

I am not saying it is not okay to find some motivational pictures to help encourage you to lose weight or gain size, however as long as you are totally aware that the picture of them and their body is  a direct result of a long hard road of hard work, and dedication they spent on themselves.  Don’t expect to achieve that with out doing what they did to get that, unless of course they are the 5% of the population. 😉 Your results may not look the same. There is thing called genetics, and so you may just not have the genes to shape your body exactly like theirs, and that is okay!

Why?

Because you are special and unique, fearfully, and wonderfully made! Who wants to have the same exact everything as someone else on this planet? I know I for one do not! It wastes the beauty that was made on me when I was created in His image.  It wastes the beauty that was made on you when you were created as well!

Your body was created in God’s very own image.

Back to the spiritual warfare: So how can we beat Satan at his own game? See I just recently learned that when Satan whispers things to us they are only half true. It is masked with sort of truth, but then there is the ugly lie.

The World wants us to see other women who are strong, athletic,  and lean, as nothing more then hot SEX symbols, and that our self worth, value, and happiness is all rolled into looking and feeling SEXY, but God want’s us to be healthy and strong so that we can have longevity to live out his works he has planned for our lives. He wants us to get our self worth, value, self love, happiness from Him and his love for us!

How can we continue to live out our calling and stay healthy, if we are constantly staying  still and stagnant while consuming fake food, processed junk food, and load of sugary drinks? This makes us feel like junk ourselves! You have to get moving and you have to start making better, cleaner eating choices!

Stop pursuing vanity and start pursuing health and wellness and growing in your faith. What is the bonus? A more alert, energized, revitalized,  strong, healthy, loving, and fit you!

1 Timothy 4:8 For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

You can be the most beautiful woman in the world, but if your inside is full of junk, lies, jealousy, envy, hate, bitterness you are not beautiful at all!

God sees our hearts! He is constantly looking at the hearts of people searching back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them (2 Chronicles 16:9 TLB). Notice I didn’t say he is searching the earth looking for the most attractive, slim, skinny, buff, hunky, beefy, stacked humans to carry out his work.

image found on pinterest

Change your perspective and your motives that are the driving force of your desire to change your weight or you body image, and you will see something beautiful happen! Self love, and Self acceptance.

image found at word-picture.org

You ARE BEAUTIFUL AND…

image found on pinterest

Drown out the lies of the world and Satan with some LOUD music…..while you are out running or getting your work out on!

They may say Strong is the NEW SEXY….

but……

JESUS IS THE NEW HAPPY!

xoxo

Leigh Leigh

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You may also like She doesn’t love herself, and my Fitness Transformation.

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