Do You Ever Skip to the Back of the Book?

I’m not embarrassed to tell you, I’ve been known to skip to the back. If it’s a fiction book, if it’s non-fiction, I just want to know what happens. I want to know how it ends. I’ll read the rest of it - but first, tell me where we’re headed.

I need some hope, you know? 

It’s in the spirit of that desire that I decided to send you some words from the last chapter of Breaking Free from Body Shame. To close out the book, I was getting very detailed about my body image struggles and what my current freedom looks like:

Let’s cut to the chase and let me just tell you the good news: 

I love this body. It breathes and moves and builds the kingdom of God. It grows and groans and gives great hugs. It gives me a home to experience heaven here on earth; it gives me space to be still and small when the world seems to be spinning out of control. I want it to experience the ultimate healing that is headed my way in eternity, but I don’t want to ditch this body like it’s been bad all along. I want to spend the rest of my life showing gratitude and grace toward this particular body that God intentionally placed me in. I love this body.

And if I could hand you a pill or tell you to say a special prayer and feel this way, I would. I’d give it to you for free. Because I do now know that it is possible for someone who has felt the depths of pain and hatred toward her own flesh to feel grateful and filled with gratitude. But the best thing I can give you is this path that I have walked. 

That’s it. That’s the end. Well, I guess for us, this can be just the beginning.

You don’t have to feel shame about your body. You don’t have to change your body to make it lovable. You don’t have to treat it like a project, like a trophy, or like a marker of righteousness.

Your body is good. Breaking free from body shame IS possible, and we’re just getting started.