Weighing In

Hello, Hello!  How captivating is this picture above?  How many times do we step on one?  How many times do we wish that it said something that was smaller than what was blinking back at us?  What about yo-yo dieting in order to get to a point where we think the number looks good?  Who set that number in place anyways?  Is there a particular person that designed a standard that we have to live by in order to be called "Healthy"?

I can tell you friends, according to what the standards say, I should weigh no more than 120 to 125 pounds.  As of right now I am not ashamed to say that I am probably close to 20 pounds "overweight", according to their charts.  Not to mention all the cellulite I'm sure that is a big no no. What's in a number really anyways?  I have been talking to God about helping me, not with the scale,not with helping me lose weight, but show me who I'm supposed to be according to His standards alone.

If we take a few steps back and look at how weight comes in to play you can see that from the time of birth one of the very first things that they do is weigh us.  They gauge how healthy that we are by how much we weigh.  I remember being excited that my babies weighed over 7 pounds, I equated that to meaning I did a good job eating right enough to help them grow.  Isn't that one of the first things that people want to know?  How much did your baby weigh and how long was he/she?  It's like bragging rights if you will.


Then as we begin to grow and go to the doctors for a check up the first thing they do is weigh us.  As a kid it's exciting to get on that really neat thing they call their scale, most of them have a smiley face pasted to the front of it.  Then when they get off they're so pumped to hear the nurse say "Wow you're so big, you're already 45 pounds" or whatever the great number will be.  Then as moms, don't we encourage that usually with a great deal of excitement for them.  Even as we get older we get weighed as soon as we go to the doctors.  Except now with a large eye roll, we're begging to be able to take off our tennis shoes, go pee first and we make sure to wear light weight clothing.  Now I know that of course they need to know our weight in order to gauge a correct amount of dosage of medications, that is obviously going to be a given, right.  However, I could do without a mention of how much I gained or lost, the cycle just seems vicious!  If you are anything like me, you've also weighed yourself in a manner where you put more weight on the backside, hoping for a smaller number.  ;) 

So at what point does it change for us?  Where we go from being weighed to measure our growth, to weighing and placing our self worth by what the numbers on the scale read back.  Is it something that is instilled within us from the time of birth because it's something usually bragged upon.   Is it all the peer pressure as young adolescents?  Is it pressure from society?  The other night I was talking with God about how I can come to a place where I don't do that anymore. You seev I have been seeking answers to all these questions and I swear to you it was not 5 minutes after I got done praying that I felt the urge to check Facebook and a friend from high school had posted the following on her page.

“Get Off The Scale! - You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness, and success, is immeasurable. Day after day, countless people across the globe get on a scale in search of validation of beauty and social acceptance.

Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile. Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life.

It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

HOLY MACKREL!!!!  He answered my prayers right then and there, with a simple yet so large of a post from an ol' time friend.  Did you notice the end there...The Truth...and Being Free.  This is huge people, what he is teaching us in life is the Truth when we seek it and a relationship with him, it will set us Free.  A Beautiful scripture that he has given to me on several occasions these past few weeks has been the following:

1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

The standard that we should all go by is that of God's.  We are a temple that the spirit of God dwells in.  We are to cherish it, take care of it, nurture it and feed it not only good food, but good spiritual food as well.  I don't believe anymore that my sense of worth comes from a number on the scale, I am being taught to believe that my worth is held in my creator.  He knew before I came into existence what that dreaded machine would read back to me and he knew that I would one day seek the Truth that would free me from the bondage of those digits.  I don't think that he said in order for me to be a Temple for him I had to weigh 125 pounds or I wouldn't qualify.  Something great he does want from us is complete obedience in all things.  If you feel something telling you to stop eating so much, not to drink of that, go for a walk today, see if you can run just a few minutes.....Do it, be obedient.  God can also be the greatest trainer out there and you want to know something wonderful about that......he's FREE!

I want to end today with re-iterating to you who choose to read this today or tonight, that you are beautiful.  That you are perfectly and wonderfully made in his image.  That deep within that outer shell you've been given for your time here lies an individual of courage, depth, sincerity and love.  You are not alone in this journey whether it be in seeking a solution for mastering the scale or trying to journey through this crazy wild thing we call life.  So put on your armor and put on your running shoes, it will be the very best race of your life.  Seek God, Seek your ultimate trainer, Seek The Truth and Be Free, the rest will come.