Over the last 10 years, my life has been a constant up and down battle, trying to be "normal" while fighting an autoimmune disease. Though the journey has been hard, and at times I've given up, the lessons I've learned as to how our bodies impact our spiritual health have been worth every single trial...
Hoshimoto's Thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease in which your body thinks your thyroid is a foreign object, like a tumor. So while my body thinks it's doing the right thing by "fighting off" the invasive object, it is actually preventing my thyroid from working. Your thyroid produces many hormones, and this being out of function, can really cause your body to be out of whack.
Before I bore you with all of the nitty, gritty details, let me just give you a list of symptoms I experience at any given time:
- extreme fatigue
- unmanageable weight gain
- muscle fatigue to the point of extreme pain
- hair loss
- "leaky gut" (look that up for more information)
- migraines
Though I look totally normal, my hidden struggles have caused me to go through some deep moments of depression and struggle with insecurities since I was 8 or 9. Thankfully, with the support of family and friends, help from doctors, and a lot of trial and errors from hours of research, I have found ways to overcome my health issue and tell the devil to kick rocks when it comes to my insecurities!
**I also want to note right here, that I would highly recommend/encourage you to seek help from a Christian counselor/therapist who can help you walk through some of the deep rooted insecurities and hurts that lead to the superficial vanity/outward symptoms!**
My relationship with God has been the number one reason I am an overcomer and not a succumber to my health.
1. Believing in the Lord, means you believe in His unique, and good plan for you.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. Jeremiah 29:11-14
Though your body may not look exactly like you'd like, your hair is too thin, your body too weak and flabby, you're too muscly, you're butt is too flat or too big, whatever the reason you think, God created your body just as it is to be used by Him! We aren't here on this earth to kick our feet up and have fun. We are here to help God's kingdom grow, and no matter the body or struggles, you CAN love other people! You CAN be a light in these dark times. You CAN serve other people. If you focus on God's plans to use you through your intimate relationship with Him, you'll be less worried about your vanity.
2. God made you intentionally, beautifully and wonderfully.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Psalm 139:13-17
God created you intentionally. Before you were a thought in your parents' mind, He had great plans for you. Embrace the intricacy that makes you up, embrace the ways your mind, body, and spirit are intertwined. Be bold enough to look at yourself in the mirror and speak life over yourself. I am beautiful. I am strong. I am intelligent. I have a purpose. I am not alone. I am loved and cherished more than I'll ever know.
3. If my body is the home in which the Holy Spirit dwells, the least I can do is eat healthy and stay active to honor the temple in which the Lord resides.
And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Ephesians 1:13-14
Do y'all realize that eating healthy and staying active is actually a form of worship?! Think about that, when I am riding horses, or cooking a meal for my family, when I'm playing with my niece, or hiking with friends, I am worshiping God! We have to change our mindsets in so many things from "I have to do this" to "I can't believe I get to do this!"
4. Comparison will keep you in a rut, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually longer than just about anything else.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT
When we compare ourselves to others, either thinking we are less than or more than, we are shifting our gaze from God to the world. Once that shift happens, we are no longer experiencing the fullness of God's love. We have shut our hearts to it either due to our ego or our self pity, but when we keep our gaze fixed on Him, we find a new confidence in ourselves while still finding the good in everyone we meet.
Through these four things, I have learned to listen to my body. I have realized that when I am extremely emotional, I may be experiencing the on set of a flare up. My emotions are "out of control" because physically my body is out of control. I've learned that when I am indulgent in what I want to eat and binge watching Netflix, my spiritual health plummets. Stress from relationships can send me physically and mentally to the bottom.
All of these things are intertwined, but when we listen to our bodies and become so in tuned with how God has created us, we experience a freedom and a joy in our relationship with Him. I know I am in awe of the God who can create me to be so gloriously complex.
Rough edges and all, I am so extremely grateful God created me to be just as I am. After all, diamonds are formed under an extreme amount of pressure.
xo,
Sara
P.S. I would love to come along side you and cheer you on in a quest for health! I am not a health professional, but I have done a lot of research and have put an enormous amount of work into figuring out how to be healthy while living the life I have always dreamed of. If you need prayers, practical ideas on how to apply this, or encouragement, please let me know!
I have been at my most healthy and been the most useful to God and I have been at my fittest and far, far from God. Wherever you are, there is to be no shame or guilt, just hope for a future closer to God than where we are now!
If you look closely at my face, you can probably guess which photos I was in the middle of a flare up in. My eyes get puffy and swollen, and I just look dull. Taking your health for granted is something I would encourage you to never do! Take care of yourself, you'll be glad you did one day!
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