My 'Body Image' Journey: On Live Radio

THANK YOU, dear friends, for praying me through my radio broadcast today!

As many of you know, I had the opportunity to share LIVE (can anyone say, huge butterflies!), yes LIVE, my journey with body image, food, addiction, and FREEDOM! My hope is that God will use my story (His story) for His Kingdom purposes and glory!!

A HUGE thank you to my friends who listened and e-mailed me right after with words of encouragement. What a blessing! (You are right, dear April, we will not allow the enemy to creep in with doubt!)

And also a huge THANK YOU to Lucy Ann Moll, host extraordinaire, for creating a welcoming and safe environment to share God's transforming Word with her listeners and answer her insightful questions.

If you would like to listen to an archived copy of the hour long interview, the link is here. Enjoy :)

And if you listened today and are visting *She Sparkles* for the first time ~ WELCOME!!

My hope is that this blog would be a source of hope, truth, encouragement, and joy! My greatest passion is sharing the liberating TRUTHS of God's Word with others! I am also a dedicated wife to John, and fun mom to 4 amazing kids. I LOVE living life to the absolute FULL! :)

Also, if this is your first time at *She Sparkles*, here is a brief recap of my body image journey....

My weight has been a life long issue for me. For as long as I can remember, I've felt not thin enough. Or pretty enough. I believed the lie no one would ever find me beautiful. (Recap here

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My weight struggle came to an all-time high when I was pregnant with my eldest son Jake. I was alone. Soon-to-be a single mom. And I ate my stress, pain, fear, and shame (and anything else someone would feed me!).

Here is a picture of me on July 15, 1994 ~ the day Jake was born. (When Jake was little, when he would see this picture he would say, "Oooh, Mama Biiiiggg!" Yep, Mama was big!)

By Jake's 2nd birthday, I lost all the weight, and more. See pic below...

Even at the weight I was above (wearing a size 4 dress), I still felt not thin enough. Or pretty enough. Or that I could ever be beautiful.

I didn't eat a piece of Jake's birthday cake that day because I felt so unbelievably fat. It was empty, defeated living.

Thankfully, soon after Jake's 2nd birthday, I met Jesus (woo hoo!) ~ and my life has not been the same since!!

In His great mercy, Jesus has not only given me a new life, but a NEW MIND!! I now have the mind of Christ! And over the past 15 years, I've been very intentional about filling my mind with the TRUTH of who GOD says that I am!

And even though I no longer wear a size 4 (picture below is from a few weekends ago), I now walk in Truth and freedom and joy!

My greatest desire is to be a voice of TRUTH in my own life, and the lives of every single person I come in contact with (my friends, family, neighborhood, community, on-line, and more!).

I will not allow my words to others feed into the lies we receive from the media and the world, about where TRUE BEAUTY and WORTH comes from ~ so help me God!!

That's why I'm declaring my life to be a Fat Talk Free Zone! I recently came across the Reflections Body Image Program. I love what they are doing to teach women to pursue health, well-being, and true beauty!

In case you are wondering "what is fat talk, anyway?" Here's how the Reflections Program describes it...

Fat Talk describes all of the statements made in everyday conversation that reinforce the thin ideal and contribute to women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies.

Examples of fat talk may include: “I’m so fat,” “Do I look fat in this?” “I need to lose 10 pounds” and “She’s too fat to be wearing that swimsuit.”

Statements that are considered fat talk don’t necessarily have to be negative; they can seem positive yet also reinforce the need to be thin – “You look great! Have you lost weight?”

Sorry, Satan, you may try your sly and subtle tricks with us ~ BUT NO MORE! We will live and stand and walk in TRUTH, right girlfriends??!!

And the TRUTH is that our God does not talk "Fat Talk" to His dearly loved children!

The official "Fat Talk Free" week isn't until the fall of this year, but let's declaring our live to be Fat Talk Free....Lord willing, from this day forward!! Anyone with me??