Some images from the morning …

And just to mention, earlier in the week I did an interview with a lovely friend, Talitha Ishi-Smith on Cross and Light. The programme is being repeated today at 12pm on Revelation TV. Talitha has an incredible testimony of overcoming some extremely difficult things in her life through the grace of God, and shares some beautiful and inspiring insights she has learnt about God, and about faith, and His incredible love for us.

If you would like to watch the programme, you can see it here at midday today (UK time) or on Revelation TV (SKY 581).

Have a lovely weekend, B xo

A number of years ago, I lost just under 30 lbs (around 13 kg) over a ten week period through extreme dieting and exercise. Given that I wasn’t particularly overweight to start with, this was a lot.

In the interview I share about the extreme measures I went to. The rigid ‘rules’ I held myself to regarding food and exercise, and the physical and psychological consequences of this. In particular this feeling that being thin was really important, and of effectively being captive to a prison of rules I had imposed on myself, and the guilt and failure and frustration that set in if I ever deviated from these.

I became a Christian over this time, so I also share about the journey I went on with God in this area. That He is actually interested in every area of our lives, including our body image, where it is that we find our identity, and our health and well-being. I learnt that He desires us to be free in our lives, joyful, at rest in Him, and in the knowledge that we are infinitely precious in His sight, just as we are.

So if you’d like to listen – then just click on this link:

http://www.premierradio.org.uk/listen/ondemand.aspx?mediaid=%7BDAB4FFEE-658E-4596-BD0C-C52A210EC68B%7D

The interview is about 24 minutes long, and it was part of the Saturday morning ‘Big Breakfast Show’ with Rev. Tony Miles on Premier.  At the start we chat about mobile phones for a bit because that was the theme on the programme that morning :)

If you do get to listen, then do come back and let me know your thoughts. I’d also love to know whether you relate, whether this has ever been a struggle for you, what God has revealed in this area, or generally whether health and fitness is an important focus in your life :)

Join me here in the morning!

I’ve been invited onto Premier Christian Radio here in the UK to share my testimony about a struggle with Body Image in my late teens and the extreme measures I took to lose weight at that time.

I’ll be sharing about how easy it is to take health and fitness to extremes, with it even becoming addictive, and some of the physical and psychological consequences of this, giving examples from my own life.

It was through encountering God, and growing in my relationship with Him, that things changed for me. He allowed me to see the trap that this focus had become. I’d be lying if I said that I still didn’t feel the pull of this influence to look a particular way at times, but I have been set free of the hold it once had, with a very different view of it all now. God has taught me so much, through His Word and by His Spirit.

I am passionate about communicating how precious each of us is in His sight. Immeasurably loved Eph.3:19. Cherished. Delighted in Zeph.3:17. Rejoiced over Zeph.3:17. The apple of His eye Psalm 17:8.

Do join us if you can. It’s an early start – 8am UK time for about an hour I think. It’s called ‘The Big Breakfast Show,’ and you can listen live on the website by clicking here and then on the ‘Listen Live’ sign in the top right corner.

Lots of blessings to you, have a wonderful weekend!

It seems that almost all of us as women are affected. Almost all of us are compelled by the idea of looking good or looking better, as if attaining physical beauty (as culturally defined) will somehow make us feel better about ourselves.

We know all the diets, and have been on most of them. We’ve bought the fitness DVDs and the gym memberships. We’ve been waxed and plucked, high-lighted, manicured and tanned from the bottle. The way we look is important to us, many of us anyway.

A beautician friend told me that when she gives women makeovers, it often gives them a real boost to their confidence and makes them feel good. Proverbs 27:9 also says that “ointment and perfume delight the heart.” We can see then that taking care of our appearance, make-up, and the occasional pamper, can be fun and a positive thing. But what happens when this becomes more of a focus in our lives? What happens if it becomes something that preoccupies us? When we feel that certain standards have to be met day to day perhaps – only a certain number of calories, a certain number on the scales?

Tomorrow I’m taking part in a programme on Christian TV here in the UK on the topic of beauty. A group of us are going to talk about how easy it is for us as women to tie up the way we feel about ourselves with the way we look. We’re going to seek out what the Bible has to say – what God says to us about beauty. His loving heart towards us when we struggle with dissatisfaction about the way we look.

Part of preparing for this programme has meant going over a series I did here on this blog a couple of years ago. I’ve decided to revamp and update this series, and look at the issues again. Over the next week or so there’ll be posts about feeling dissatisfied with the way we look, the nagging feeling that we have to do more to measure up, and the lengths we go to. We’ll be looking at the topic biblically, and the way identity and freedom can be found in God. We’re going to be hearing from some men too on the topic – their perspectives about women and physical appearance. And at the end, I’ll also share a bit of my own story about body image. The things I’ve learnt with God, and the things He continues to teach me in this area.

So we’re covering a lot. Please do leave your comments as we go, it would be really great to hear your thoughts and about your experiences.

So to get us started – what is it all about? Why is the way we look important to us?

Maybe it’s that we believe there’s a connection between being physically attractive and certain outcomes we desire in life? We may believe that our basic need for acceptance as a person is tied up with looking a particular way. We may feel the (perceived or real) weight of others’ expectations – that being slim and attractive is important and necessary within our family or within our circle of friends.

We may feel that our work opportunities are dependent on the way we look.

We may feel that in order to be attractive to men it means we must look a particular way. We may have a husband or boyfriend who even tells us so.

We may fear that we will lose respect if we loosen the reins on the way we look.

Our self-confidence and basic sense of feeling OK may be strictly tied up with maintaining a certain standard of appearance.

What about the strength with which these messages are drummed into us? We are all well aware of the influence of the media and pervasiveness of the “physical ideal” that we are fed, but are we so aware of the connections that are made between this ideal and our ability to feel acceptable, secure, confident and happy? As we progress in this series, we are going to look more closely at this connection and the problems with it.

One last possible reason to offer in this part is that perhaps on some level we do not feel OK as we are. We do not feel acceptable, or maybe we even feel shame, and our striving after physical beauty is an attempt to compensate for this. We believe that if we can hold it together outwardly, if we can be thought of as attractive, then we will be OK. But does the reality bear up? Or is this little more than “labouring after the wind” as the Bible says (Ecclesiastes 5:16)?

Come back tomorrow when we will look at this some more, in the post Beauty and Identity

© Copyright 2009 Birgit Whelan

This might be a bit of a leap, but do you know what it’s got me thinking of? It’s got me thinking of God, and of the hundred ways we are dependent on Him each day without even necessarily realising it.

It’s this amazing thing. I’m holding my wrist and feeling my heart pump blood through my body, bringing oxygen and nourishment and cleansing to every part, sustaining me. And it does this every minute, every hour. And it does it with no effort on my part. Even when I’m asleep.

I remember from studying physiology that this is a function of the autonomic nervous system, and that our bodies are designed to sustain themselves in this kind of way, but for me, it’s also a reminder of my inherent physical vulnerability, my ultimate inability to sustain myself. King David said, “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me” Psalm 3:5, and that’s what I have been thinking of. That ultimately, in waking and in sleeping, it’s Him that is sustaining me. It reminds me of my complete dependence on Him, the One who not only “formed my inward parts” Psalm 139:13 but sustains me still, in ways I don’t generally realise.

“For in Him we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28.

At least, that’s how it feels after freezing my gym membership for way too long! So after much neglect on the exercise front, I’ve made my way back through the doors of the studio this month and I am slowly, slowly building back my fitness.

The trouble is I do one class, say a conditioning class, and although I keep the weights nice and light, I have trouble moving the next day, ha, ha, so I’m cutting myself some slack, and going every other day.

Yesterday, I did a class that was focused on stretching and flexibility. Some easy elongating of the muscles I thought, it almost sounded relaxing. How wrong could I be? I ended up stretching parts that I really don’t think were meant to be stretched 8O

So today, as I felt every crick and creak, it got me thinking about these ‘earthen vessels’ of ours, and in particular, God’s purpose for our bodies.

I’ve heard a lot about being a ‘good steward’ of our bodies and our physical health as best we can, as this is honouring to God of the gift He’s given us, and in the natural scheme of things, it gives us the best possible chance of longevity should that be God’s will for us. This makes sense to me, and I’m committed to working at my fitness as I am able to, even if it is a lot harder than it was ten years ago ;).

But I guess I like checking in with my heart from time to time to make sure this focus is along these lines, and also, that it doesn’t absorb too much of my time. There have been times when I’ve been really focused on my fitness, that I find myself wondering what the fruit would be if I spent as much time with God, as I did on the treadmill. The same can be said of anything we invest our time in I guess. It comes back to the whole thing of balance, I suppose.

But this one verse in 1 Corinthians gives me such helpful perspective when it comes to finding this balance regarding physical fitness. It’s verse 3:16 and it says, ‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?’

What an incredible thought. That the Spirit of God comes and lives within our physical bodies. That as we make Jesus Lord, and invite His Spirit into our hearts, He indwells us, living out His purposes through our spirits, and souls and through our physical bodies.

But for me, it gives such clarity about the purpose of my physical body in God’s eyes, and therefore the priority it should have in my life. It is God’s temple, a house of flesh and bone for His Spirit, Who is alive within me. It is right and good that I steward it I believe, but may it not be so much about the vessel, as it is His Kingdom alive within.

OK so after all the white chocolate pancakes and blue berry banana pancakes, not to mention the dark chocolate brownies, I just thought I should post a photo to show that we really do actually eat healthily, ha, ha … So this is a Greek salad I made. I love the feta and the fat slices of tomato and the balsamic vinegar … It was really nice :)

But yesterday as we rode on a train, out of the city and into the meadows, there, falling from the clouds and spilling into the yellow grass below, was a beautiful, brilliant rainbow. A stream of red and indigo and green and blue from the sky.

I nudged M, beside me. ‘Look!’ I said pointing at the window. ‘A rainbow.’

M was distracted, lost in thought, anxious about what lay ahead. Would it be good news or bad news?

So much prayer had gone before us, so much prayer for the power of Jesus’ blood to heal her and preserve her body. But the rogue cells may have spread, and the cold fear of it was on her face and in her eyes.

I cuddled up. ‘God is trying to tell us something you know.’

‘Oh yeah?’ she said, smiling away the lines on her face for a just a moment.

‘Yeah!’ I smiled back. ‘He’s sending a sign to reassure us that it’s going to be OK.’

‘A rainbow?’

‘A sign of hope .’

***

We waited in the hospital cafe with two hot coffees, too hot to drink. The corridor smelt of disinfectant and illness, and nurses in blue walked hurriedly up and down, up and down. M fidgeted with the Styrofoam cup, I looked at the clock. Ten minutes to go. Ten minutes until we know.

After weeks of waiting with worry, her name was finally called. A tall man with glasses approached our table and we followed him into a little room. A little room where her world might have come crashing down around us. But God had given us hope along the way for good reason.

The news was all good! She was in the clear! The problem cells had been contained and removed and there was no sign of spreading!

Tears of relief and joy spilled down her cheeks. She said later that she felt she had been given back the gift of life.

M is just getting to know about the possibility of God, but that night as we celebrated over dinner, she asked for a few moments to thank God for the gift He had given her that day.

The Bible tells us to that “the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” Psalm 145:9. You know what I loved most about God’s goodness yesterday? That not only did He show it in a big way, with M’s amazing healing, but that He cares enough to show it in other ways too, to lift our spirits with encouragement, in this case – a rainbow from the sky, a sign of God’s covenant with every living creature, and also a sign of hope.

“The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth” Genesis 9:16.

As I stood there at the sink, glass in hand, I started thinking about health stuff and how I hadn’t had the five portions of fruit and veg that is recommended we eat each day either, and for that matter I had skipped one of my weekly gym sessions too – eek! Bad health day  .

There are lots of things that are recommended we do each day for health, I’ve mentioned water, I think it’s eight glasses that’s recommended, and also the five portions of fruit and vegetables, but some of the other ones I know of are getting around eight hours sleep at night, at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each week, eating breakfast each morning, and flossing every day!

Do you follow any everyday advice that we hear about for good health? Why / why not? 

Well, today’s started off much better with a full litre of water, yay! 

Each part looks at a different aspect of this topic of beauty and body image. ‘Part IX – Letting God Define Us’ as an example, gives us a glimpse from Scripture about how God sees us and cherishes us and shapes our identity, and ‘Part VIII – A Man’s Perspectives’ gives a few insights from a group of men about what they personally find beautiful in their wives, girlfriends or women in general.’ ‘Part X – My Story’ is about the futility and sense of desperation that I found that went along with all the rules about diet and exercise I imposed on myself, and the freedom that Jesus is leading me in.

God bless and I hope these are of some encouragement.

Part I – Why Are Our Looks So Important To Us?

Part II – Beauty and Identity 

Part III – The Lengths We Go To

Part IV – What Does God Say?

Part V – Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

Part VI – Beautiful To The Core

Part VII – So, Is Make-Up OK?

Part VIII – A Man’s Perspective

Part IX – Letting God Define Us

Part X – My Story