If we are going to fight back against poor body image, protect our holy ground against a world engulfed in diet culture, and stop abusing God’s creation to instead honor His design in us, we are going to have to learn how to be warriors. We are going to need to build an army. And we are going to have to suit up in the armor of God and support each other when the load feels heavy, when we think we cannot go on.

We need friends to remind us where our hope should be- in the hands of our Creator, not in our bodies’ appearances or in the approval of people. We need an inner circle we can trust to share our true fears and feelings with, people we can grieve and heal with. I have created a free cohort for you and I hope you’ll consider joining us.

We need each other more than ever

 

The only bulk of time I have spent away from my home for the past two months is to shop for groceries. My parents are in their seventies, which makes them more susceptible to COVID-19, so I shop for theirs too. The first few times I went, I came home completely out of sorts. It took me much longer to shop even before masks and occupancy caps because I am a passive-agressive-defensive shopper. Yes, it’s a thing. It’s what happened before people got serious and sheltered-in-place and were still trying to run me over in the grocery store.

Y’all. I’m 5 foot 10 inches tall and I weigh close to 200 pounds (I said what I said). And people still tried to run me over in the grocery store. So I passive-agressively-defensively stood in the aisle with a smile and waited and stared at people who cut my path. Some of us had the, “Yes I am helping you help me by not letting you in my dance space, ok?” moment and some never noticed me at all. It was the beginning of scary times, I get it. People were out of toilet paper, I get it. But we didn’t have to wear masks yet and even a passive-agressive-defensive smile could have been contagious, right?

All that stopping and waiting added many minutes to my shopping trips. Now, I stop at several stores to find all the right items and spend hours patiently weaving around stalled carts, waiting for the perusers to choose produce. But we’re all covered in masks. Are their eyes squinting from a smile or a smirk? Did she just pull off her mask to lick her finger? Did he just lift it to sneeze on the counter instead of keeping it contained?

And there’s plexiglass so you have to shout, “Ma’am please hold up your card again. Your card! … Can you slice it at a two? A number TWO?!” and no one stops to talk (I’ve tried but shoppers don’t like that) and everyone dodges and ducks instead of what we used to do- laugh and hug, to remember we are loved. The physical distance is leaving actual voids empty. We need loving people to show us what should fill us. I hope our Modeled by the Maker cohort can help.

We need to draw near to God more than ever

 

So far, I have seen three counselors, a physical therapist, and read 26 books as I walk out my healing journey from trauma, abuse, self-hatred, anorexia, body dsymporphia, etc (wow- that etc seems a bit excessive, but I have to leave room for the Spirit to teach me even more) and as I research for the book I am writing. I wouldn’t ask you for your time to read an entire book written by me if the book had already been written. So I’m reading comparable works and seeing how my message is both similar and unique. And I don’t want to offer up solutions in language only Christians can understand. And I’m reading what’s out there for the taking that doesn’t include God in the making. But I’m making a case that our bodies need unconditional love just as much as the rest of us. It’s changing me.

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

-A. W. Tozer

We need faithful people to point us back to our Maker, to show us that it doesn’t have to make perfect sense to believe in a perfect Creator, especially if we question His creation. We need unconditional love that won’t leave us when we fail, because we have and we do and we will fail. But we will never stop needing love.

Every time you prayed for God to be near, know He already was- you were the one who moved. We need faithful friends to help us name and remove everything that’s holding us back from hearing him. The mask that muffles our prayers and tries to hide our pain, the plexiglass that muffles His voice and keeps us from valued gain, the mountains that make us think He’s far off. I hope our Modeled by the Maker cohort can help.

We need to know what we want more than ever

 

If you don’t know what you want, someone else is deciding what you’ll get. If what you want is to grow closer to God, or to figure out who this God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit really is, you’ll need truthful people to help you find Him. Iron sharpens iron and we were made for a relationship with God. You get to decide what that relationship will be and you get to decide who you want to be refined with. And if you want to know what He says about self-love, self-care, true beauty, your purpose in life, and how Jesus giving up His life changes yours, you will find loving, faithful friends in our group to point you to Him and His Word. I hope our Modeled by the Maker cohort can help.

• Maybe you don’t have a mom or dad that builds you up by pointing out the best in you, instead they project the worst they see in themselves onto you.
• Maybe you don’t have friends in your life that have anything nice to say when they’re with you or without you, and you need people who will speak to the good in you.
• Maybe you’re on the last thread of a long string of boyfriends who always want you to be more, to be like her, and they coax you to the finish line only to move it right before you reach it.
• Maybe you’ve been knocked down so many times you don’t remember how to get up, or you don’t want to because you just can’t take another hit.
• Maybe the reflection in the mirror or the clothes in your closet or the food on your plate haunts you, and you finally want to be confident and free.

We want you to be confident and free too

 

In addition to finding year-round support, strength, and the truth about our Savior, you’ll have a place to be free, to be real and to belong, and you’ll also help many others–the topics you find interesting will shape what goes in the book–and you’ll be the first to get freebies and launch invites when the book is published!

Click HERE and join our private group right now to grab a freebie from another author that’s only available this weekend! The group will only be open to new members until May 25 because we are truly going to journey together. So don’t wait to join!

Edit: The new membership time frame has ended. Join my email list to be updated when it is open again!

P.S. You are so deeply loved.