Have you ever walked into a room and, almost without realizing it, started sizing yourself up against every other woman there?
Her arms. Her waist. Her confidence.
And suddenly your peace feels smaller.
Comparison can feel automatic — like background noise we've learned to live with. But this week on Nourished to Bloom, we're naming it for what it is:
A rope.
A quiet tether that shapes how we see ourselves… how we eat… and even how we show up in the world.
In Episode 107, we dive into the "body check game" so many of us play without even noticing — and we explore how true freedom begins when our identity is rooted in Christ, not in the mirror.
Here's what we unpack together:
✨ The Sneaky Body Check Game – How comparison becomes a habit that quietly dictates our mood, our confidence, and even our food choices.
🪢 The Rope of Comparison – Why this isn't just a "bad day" struggle, but a deeper identity issue that tethers our peace.
💡 Image Bearers, Not Performers – We are made in the image of God — not size-dependent, not conditional, not earned. That truth changes everything.
🛑 Holy Boundaries – Practical steps to fast from comparison: unfollow accounts that stir envy, step back from mirror obsession, and set limits around diet talk.
🕊️ Ornament vs. Instrument – Our bodies were not designed to be evaluated — they were designed to love, serve, and carry out God's mission.
Comparison whispers, "You'd be more worthy if…"
But the Gospel says, "You are already beloved."
This week's invitation is simple but brave:
🌱 Fast from comparison in one tangible way. 🌱 Notice when it rises — and reorient your thoughts to truth. 🌱 Remind yourself: "I am made in the image of God."
By Easter, we're not striving for perfect body confidence.
We're loosening the rope.
We're anchoring our identity somewhere unshakable.
And when identity is secure, food and body anxiety lose their grip.
Let's rise together.
You were made to bloom. 🌸
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
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The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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The game that every woman plays but never knows she's playing
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is what we call the body check game.
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You know that moment when you walk into a room and you instantly start
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comparing yourself to every other woman there?
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You definitely don't do it out loud, but you just do this quiet
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scan. What do her arms look like? Are they
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toned? Look how thin her waist is. Look how confident
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she is. And then you start to
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compare all of this to how you see yourself in the moment
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and in the mirror later. Comparison can be so
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subtle, we barely notice that we're doing it. It just becomes this,
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like, habit that we have. But it quietly
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shapes so many things: how we see ourselves,
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how we show up, and even how we eat. So
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today we're talking about that rope of comparison that is
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tethering so many of us and how rooting our
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identity in Christ is the solution that will
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change everything when it comes to body image.
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Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast, where your faith meets
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your health. I'm your host, Kara Trocta, a registered dietitian and
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certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection
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with your body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them
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both. In a world filled with noise and
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confusion about food, health, and body image, this podcast
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offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered perspective.
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Together, we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover
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what it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful
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nourishment of mind, body, and soul. We're here to dive into
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the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of
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our Christian faith. With every episode, I'll be cheering you on,
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offering insights, inspiration, and practical tools to help
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you heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty
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of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit with
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confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ.
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Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness,
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one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation
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the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to fulfill.
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You were made to bloom, to come into
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full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit for the Lord with
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your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body, feed your soul,
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and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in the right place, and
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I'm so happy you're here. Welcome to Nourish to
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Bloom, where every day is a sacred invitation to thrive.
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Hey there, friends! Welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast.
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Happy to be back here with you again this week, and we are talking
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about probably one of my favorite topics—
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body image. And it is the work that I probably
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really love doing the most with women because it is so
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transformational when you just see that shift in a
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woman who spent so much of her time
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comparing herself, trying to live up to unrealistic societal
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standards, and that shift that comes when she is able
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to let it all go and she truly just lives in her
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identity as a beloved daughter of Christ. How
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everything just shifts for that woman. It is
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truly, truly transformational and just probably one of
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my favorite things to ever be able to to witness.
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So we're going to continue on our Lenten journey
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this week, and over the last few weeks we've been talking about loosening those
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ropes and those tethers. We've talked about it in terms of food
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and control, in terms of distraction and
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emotional eating. But today we're really
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going to talk about, I think, what is the
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strongest rope of all for most of us women, and that's
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comparison. And comparison not
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really in the relation, uh, relation of houses or
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careers or lifestyle, because that's definitely one of
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those areas, but we're really going to talk about body comparison.
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And I think what is really important to know is
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that when we talk about body image and then really
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comparison in general, it's really a deeper self-image
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issue or struggle. It's really— the issue is how
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we are seeing ourselves, the narrative that we have about ourselves
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in, in our minds. But this all starts to
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really manifest itself really in that body
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comparison. The glance in the mirror, the scrolling through
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social media, the mental note of how your clothes are fitting,
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the awareness of how someone else looks in a dress that you'd never
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wear. Oftentimes it's subtle. It's
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just, again, that narrative that's always there, but
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it's constant. And it can feel so normal
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that this is just the way we talk to ourselves. But let's go back to
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that question we've been asking all Lent. Does this help
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my heart rise or does it tether me?
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Comparison rarely feels dramatic. Now, of
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course, we kind of all have those like comparison meltdowns,
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of when we are just overwhelmed with not feeling
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good enough. But the reality is, is that for many of us,
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comparison just feels automatic. You walk into a room
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and you immediately compare how you're measuring up to
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every other person. You see a photo of yourself and you are
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evaluating or picking it apart. You try on
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clothes and, man, that can just lead to
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a really deep downward spiral,
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spiral. And slowly and quietly and over time, your
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peace becomes tied up to how you're measuring up.
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That is— that's a rope, y'all. Now
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I want to make something clear, like wanting to care for your body is
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not sinful, it's stewardship. And desiring to
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be of good health is not vain. But the issue comes
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when your identity starts attaching itself to appearance
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or material desires or societal standards or
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whatever, right? But again, for the sake of sticking with body image,
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when your worth rises and falls with a number on a scale,
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how your reflection looks in the mirror, or someone
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else's body, that's when that rope tightens.
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And here's what makes this rope so powerful.
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Comparison doesn't just affect how you see yourself.
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It affects literally everything in your life.
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The things you think, the way you feel about yourself,
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the things that you do or don't do.
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It also shapes how you eat. I mean, think about it.
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You start to restrict food because you don't measure up, or you over-exercise
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because you're trying to compensate. You avoid certain foods because
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you're afraid of what they'll do to your body. You try to eat
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perfectly to feel safe.
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Food becomes that tool,
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but comparison is really that tether.
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And it's important that we return to really
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what is so foundational, and it's really answering the question
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of Who defines you?
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Not culture, not the scale, not a pair
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of jeans, not an algorithm.
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Genesis says you were created in the image of God, not in the
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image of Instagram, not in the image of your younger
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self, not in the image of someone else's highlight reel.
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We are image bearers of Christ.
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And that is not conditional. It is not size-dependent.
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It is not something that is earned. But
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comparison whispers otherwise. It's really the voice of the
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enemy saying, you'd be more worthy if, you'd
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feel more confident if, you'd be more lovable if.
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Y'all, that voice is not from God. And
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here's something important. When we can fast from comparison,
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it's not that we're not— it's not that we are pretending
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our bodies don't matter. It's that we are detaching our
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identity from appearance.
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And that can be some really holy work. I know it
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was holy work for me to untether
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everything I thought about myself
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measuring up to some unrealistic expectation and
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truly letting the way that
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I think about myself, the way that I feel about myself, the way that I
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care about myself, how I show up, the things that I do, really
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be fueled by my
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identity in Christ and, and not a
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worldly identity, identity. So what can this
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holy work look like practically? First,
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it's really about building that awareness, noticing when
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comparison starts. Is it when you're scrolling
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or when you're trying on clothes or when you're standing next to
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someone? Is it when summer approaches? Get
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curious. When does comparison creep up on you?
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Second, having boundaries is important.
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Unfollow accounts that stir envy or jealousy or
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comparison. Step away from
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mirrors if it becomes a battleground for you.
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And learn to limit conversations that revolve around dieting and weight
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loss. And then third, it's
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reorientation, right? The whole point of what we're
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doing this Lent in fasting is to reorient
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our lives, to let Christ be the center, to let him
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reorder things. And one of the most powerful things that we
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can reorient and reorder is our mind and our thoughts.
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So when the thought arises, I wish I looked like her,
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replace it with, I am made in the image of God and I
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am a beloved daughter of God.
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Y'all, it is not affirmation fluff. It has to be your
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theological truth.
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And that's that deeper shift, that your body is not
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this, this ornament, but it's really
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this instrument, this tool, this gift that
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God has given your soul to live in.
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It's how you love and how you serve, how you
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hold your children, how you walk into church, how you
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kneel in prayer. All the things that your body
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allows you to do. But comparison
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simply reduces the body to appearance.
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God designed your body for mission,
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to love and to serve. And when we detach from
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comparison, we free ourselves to use our
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bodies for this life-giving work.
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Instead of obsessing over them. And
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really, that's, that's like food freedom on a much deeper level.
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Because when your identity is stable, y'all, your identity being rooted in
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Christ is the answer to your body image
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struggles. Nothing else out there is going
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to shift your body image struggles until you
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work on rooting your identity in Christ. Because when your
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identity is stable, you no longer need food to manipulate your worth.
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You no longer need restriction to feel superior.
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You no longer need perfection to feel secure.
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That rope loosens, that tether is
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undone. And so this week,
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I invite you into just one brave act to fast
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from comparison. And maybe that means getting
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off of social media for the whole week, or
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turning your mirrors around. Or maybe it's not
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asking how something makes you look.
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Maybe it's choosing clothes simply for comfort,
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not for camouflage to hide
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flaws or whatever, right?
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And if you find comparison rising this week, just really ask
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yourself, how is this helping my heart rise, or is it tethering
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We really need to learn to root our identity somewhere that is
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unshakable, unchangeable, and that is only found in
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God. Because when your identity is secure, everything
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else falls into place, including food.
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Just remember that your body image is
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shaped by your self-image, the things that you think and
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feel about yourself. The narrative, the story of
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who you are, and let that story be told from
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a place of God, of
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what he says about you.
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Thank you so much for spending this time here with me. I hope you have
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a beautiful and blessed week. Remember, beauty held is the
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seed, beauty shared is the flower. It is your time to bloom.
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Take care and God Bye!