I don't know very many women who have not struggled with body image and you can count me among those considering I suffered from an eating disorder from the time I was 13 to well into my 30s. My mother who has had a hard time realizing that the Lord has healed me from that every now and then will send me articles or pictures regarding body image and things like that. However, recently she sent me a magazine clipping from the 1960s to 1970s that shows two women in their bathing suits. It says "how do you look in your bathing suit?" and it has one woman who is curvy and one woman who is very thin. Then it says, "1000s gain 10 to 25 pounds this quick and easy way."

The funny thing is if you were to look at this and not read the text, you would think it's an ad to help the woman lose weight or an ad showing how she lost weight, but it's not! It's an ad showing how to become what I think looks like a size 10 size 12. So what I want you to remember as men and women made in the image of God; as we start a new year thinking about resolutions, gym memberships, and health goals, let's remember that beauty is a cultural construct. It's something that our culture creates. You go back several centuries and the idea of being skinny was not a celebrated thing. Actually, to be what we would call overweight today was a sign of prosperity, wealth, and beauty.

In both Hebrew and Greek, the word translated to good also means beautiful. So I just want to remind you today that when God created you, he said it is good, and He created you with a certain body type. Do not call ugly or unfit what God Himself calls beautiful.