How Spiritual Maturity Can Transform Your Body Image Struggles Part 2/2 [Podcast Transcript]

Title: How Spiritual Maturity Can Transform Your Body Image Struggles Part 2/2

Podcast Date: October 4, 2024

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Description 

Host Heather Creekmore continues her discussion on the concept of agency and growing up, specifically focusing on how Christians can grow up spiritually. 

Drawing from the Apostle Paul's teachings in Ephesians, Heather explores how healing body image issues is tied to spiritual growth and understanding one's identity in Christ. She stresses that spiritual maturity provides the foundation for finding freedom from self-obsession and societal pressures regarding body image.

Throughout the episode, Heather encourages listeners to pursue a deeper relationship with God, grow in their spiritual gifts, and find their identity in Christ, rather than in their appearance. 

Learn more about the ministry of Compared to Who? here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com

Join a coaching program here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/christian-body-image-course-coaching

Check out Compared to Who? merch here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/shop

Outline

04:45 Knowing Your Gifts

11:59 Knowing God’s Word

16:43 Spiritual Infancy

21:47 Are You Growing?

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:

Life audio. Hey, friend. Heather Creekmore here. I'm glad you're listening to the compared to who show today. Last time we talked to you about agencies, kind of a psychological concept where you're kinda becoming a grown up, where you're figuring out that the way you relate to the world is on equal footing with everyone around you instead of always kind of being one under everyone and submitting to their opinions and people pleasing and searching for approval and not being able to make your own decisions, all of those things. So if you missed that episode, go back and listen to that now. But today, we're gonna dig into this more from a biblical perspective. We're gonna look at what the apostle Paul means when he talks about really, throughout the New Testament.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:45]:

But in Ephesians, when he talks about growing up, what does it mean to grow up? Because as we talked about last time, growing up is important if you wanna heal your body image issues. Growing up is vital to knowing who you are in Christ, being able to do what he made you for, what he called you to, and also just being free from the encumbrance of thinking about yourself all the time, which is, let's be honest, what happens a lot when we have body image issues. So that's where we're going today. I'm so glad you're here for it. Hey. If you're brand new to the show, welcome. We are so glad you're here. We want to help you find freedom from body image issues, whether or not you've been obsessing over your body since you were a kid or since pregnancy or just you just feel this sense of angst around food and body, all the things.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:37]:

You are in the right place if you're looking for biblical answers. Hopefully, delivered the truth with love, like, we're gonna talk about today. But we're glad you're here. Go to improve body image.com, and you can learn more about compared to who, our ministry, and find other podcast episodes that we recommend so you can figure out really what we're all about here. Thanks for listening. Hey, let's get right to today's show. Welcome to Compare to Who, the podcast to help you make peace with your body so you can savor God's rest and feel his love. If you're tired of fighting body image the world's way, compared to who is the show for you.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:15]:

You've likely heard lots of talk about loving your body, but my goal is different. Striving to fall in love with stretch marks and cellulite is a little silly to me. Instead, I want to encourage you and remind you with the truth of scripture that you are seen, you are known, and you are loved no matter what your size or shape. Here, the pressure is off. If you're looking for real talk, biblical encouragement, and regular reminders that God loves you and you're not alone, you've come to the right place. I hope you enjoy today's show, and, hey, tell a friend about it. Well, hey there, friend. Today, we're talking about growing up spiritually.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:57]:

You know, we work a lot with women around here. I've been doing coaching for almost a decade now. You know what I find? I find that when women go through my program, they go through the body image freedom framework, and maybe they go through the 40 day body image, workbook or the 40 day journey, which we go through the workbook on that 40 day journey. And most of the time, after someone's worked with me for a little while, they say something like this. Like, I thought what you were gonna do was tell me how to eat or just tell me how to, like, look in the mirror and love what I see is, like, some big magic secret you're gonna give me. But instead, what you did was you brought me closer to Jesus. And, you know, I'll be honest, like, you know, I know for some of you, that's not a good enough answer. And I know you probably feel weird about agreeing with me that that's not a good enough answer.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:59]:

But, friend, if it's not, then that's even more of a reason why you need to pursue spiritual maturity. Because spiritual maturity is the only answer. And Paul, in the book of Ephesians, talks about spiritual maturity. Actually, it's interesting because Paul refers to himself as he's talking about how we're infants. Paul refers to himself in that, like, grouping. Right? So the apostle Paul thinks he still has some growing up to do. So if that's the case, okay, let's just be honest. A lot of us have growing up to do of the apostle Paul as an apostle, said he's still growing up to do.

Knowing Your Gifts

Heather Creekmore [00:04:45]:

Right? So it's a journey. It's a long journey. Sanctification doesn't happen overnight. You're not gonna wake up tomorrow and suddenly be spiritually mature. But here's the deal, friend. If your life is characterized by thinking about your body and your body size and your appearance and how you look and your image, you need to grow up. And I say that with so much kindness and compassion and gentleness and love. And I wanna help you grow up.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:19]:

Like, I'm not just pointing fingers saying, you need to do this. No. But, friend, that's your answer. Your answer isn't in changing your body because, like we said so many times on the show, you can change your body and still obsess over it. Right? Like, changing your body doesn't mandate you freedom from body image issues. It just means you might have body image issues in a smaller or different sized body. The key to being free from thinking about yourself all the time, and let's be honest, that's what happens when you have body image issues, is growing up in Christ, growing in spiritual maturity. So let's look at Ephesians 4, and I'm gonna start reading at verse 11, and it really starts with the spiritual gifts.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:06]:

But here we go. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children. And he says we, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Well, what does this mean? It means as the church, we are the body. Right? He gave us all different gifts, and we are to use those gifts to build each other up. We are to be a part of a body.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:19]:

If you're not part of a body of Christians, bible believing, followers of Jesus, that's the first place to start if you wanna grow into spiritual maturity. You cannot mature on your own. It's not possible. Right? Like, I know a lot of people are, like, I have an individual faith. I don't like church. I just do my own thing. Sorry. No.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:37]:

You cannot grow up unless you are around other believers. That's just what the Bible says. That's not what I say. It's what the Bible says. And we grow up when we are in community, and we all have these gifts and when we're able to all use our gifts together, it builds up the body of Christ. Now there's like an important note I wanna make here for those of us who struggle with body image issues. A lot of times, I'll work with women who wrestle body image issues and I'll say, do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Sometimes they know, but a lot of times they don't. Or maybe they know, but it's been decades since they took any kind of spiritual gifts assessment.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:22]:

And, you know, sometimes our spiritual gifts, it's like it's like working out muscles. Right? Like, if you haven't worked your biceps in 20 years, you can't go pick up the 25 pound weights and just curl for 50 times. Alright? Like, it just doesn't work that way. Spiritual muscles that aren't used atrophy, just like spiritual gifts atrophy if you don't use them. And so you may be gifted in some areas, but you just haven't used it in so long that you're not even sure you're gifted in that way anymore. You're not even sure you can do it. But there also may be other gifts that you've been given that you've had an opportunity to use.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:57]:

Like, maybe you suddenly found yourself in a position where you maybe never had the gift of hospitality, but suddenly you find yourself in a position where you are hosting unbelievers in your home all the time. And maybe it was a little out of your comfort zone to begin with, but now you've done it for a decade. And you have grown and developed into a gift of hospitality that may have been dormant or just maybe you tested really low in that area when you took that spiritual gifts test 20 years ago. But it's there. But here's the thing. Right? The enemy, my friend, is always trying to tell you who you aren't. Right? You're not good enough. You're not smart enough.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:36]:

You're not pretty enough. You're not thin enough. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. And unless you know who you are in Christ, you can't answer him back effectively.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:48]:

And part of knowing who you are in Christ is recognizing these gifts he gave you. Because when you recognize the gifts he gave you, you're able to say, oh, I get it. I was made on purpose intentionally. He knew me by name. He knows every hair on my head. He just knit me together in my mother's womb. Like, there's nothing about me that surprises God. He knew exactly who I was gonna be, and he had a purpose for me.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:20]:

And in order for me to live out his purpose, he needed to gift me in certain ways. And when you know what your spiritual gifts are, oh, it just makes so many things come in so much clearer. Oh, I see. I have the gift of administration. That's why I'm so good at organizing everyone. Oh, I see now. I have the gift of teaching. That's why I'm really good at explaining the Bible to people.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:44]:

Like, we all have different gifts. Do you know what yours are? And if you don't, friend, find out. There's a ton of free, like, spiritual gifts assessments online. But you have to actually know who you are so you can combat the enemy's lies of who you aren't. So knowing who you are, knowing your spiritual gifts, that's super important for being able to grow up in Christ. Because growing up means that you are starting to use those spiritual gifts, and you're growing in those gifts. You know, none of us start out great when we start practicing our gifts for the first time. Oh my goodness.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:26]:

You could go listen to my old podcast and hear me teach the Bible. And, hopefully, now I'm a little better at doing it because I've had a lot more practice. Right? And that's just the way it is with all of our gifts. We get better as we use our gifts. We grow in confidence in our ability to use those gifts, and we're able to use those gifts more effectively. But friend, you have to start somewhere. It's not gonna be perfect. It might not even be pretty, but you gotta start using your gifts so that you can grow up.

Knowing God’s Word

Heather Creekmore [00:11:59]:

Now, let's look at what else this passage says about growing up. It says the reason why we wanna grow up is so we may no longer be children. And what's wrong with being children? Well, children are tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes. So the message paraphrases this. Let's look at that just so maybe it's a little bit clearer in our language. The message says it like this. It's kinda funny.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:28]:

It says, no prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up to know the whole truth and to tell it in love like Christ in everything. So what's wrong with being a babe in the woods? Well, you're gonna get eaten. Right? Small children are easy prey for predators. Friend, this means that as long as you stay a spiritual baby, you're in dangerous territory. And I feel like there's a lot of messages in the church around food and body that are dangerous messages that we can't recognize as Christians because we are babies, because we don't know scripture, because we don't read the Bible for ourselves, because we only get our scripture from an Instagram influencer’s, like, reading or translation of it. Right? Friend, you need to know the word.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:38]:

Are you talking to God? Are you praying? But unless you are in a relationship with God where you're hearing from him through reading his word, understanding his word, studying his word and I'm not saying you have to be a biblical scholar and go learn the Greek and the Hebrew and all those things. No. No. No. There's a ton of easy to access resources, like blue letter bible and commentaries online that can help you understand scripture. But, friend, just reading the Bible is the place to start. You know, I did an episode, maybe last year, on Philippians 4:13. And by the way, I keep getting Philippians 4:8, saying Philippians 2:8 on this podcast.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:19]:

If you heard me say that, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna blame it on my perimenopause brain. But Philippians 4:8 is, the list of things that, we should be thinking about. But I did an episode on Philippians 4:13 last year asking the question as to whether or not it should be our weight loss goal. And Philippians 4:13 is, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And this is one of those verses, right, where if you are only getting your scripture from Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or Soundbytes, right, like, it kind of does sound like it's a weight lifting mantra or your diet, like, Bible verse. Right? But that's not what it means at all. It's actually talking about, you can endure suffering because of what Christ did for you.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:08]:

You can endure suffering. You can do all things through Christ. It is not talking about meeting your personal goals, getting better at something. That's not what it's about. And friend, that's what spiritual maturity is. It's being able to read the whole entirety of Philippians 4, reading the whole book of Philippians if you have time. Reading the entirety of Philippians 4 and saying, oh, that verse. Yeah. You gotta read that in context.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:32]:

That's not what that means. Right? And so we have to be spiritually mature. We can't be tossed to and fro by these doctrines that are telling us things like, well, God really wants you to eat clean in order to be acceptable to him. I don't see that in my Bible. I think the food rules kinda disappeared after Peter saw the vision and Jesus told him to eat whatever he wanted of those animals. Or what about those teachings that tell you that you have to be a certain size or weight to participate in the body of Christ to serve at church? Oh, that's not there either, is it? I scoured the whole Bible, and I can't find a single recommendation for how much I should weigh. Friends, we have to know the word in order to grow. Tim Keller does a great job talking about, really, what it means to be a spiritual infant is very similar to what it means to actually be an infant.

Spiritual Infancy

Heather Creekmore [00:16:43]:

Right? Infants have very short attention spans. Right? Infants only think about themselves. They don't think about anyone else. And Keller talks about, like, their reality is, like, as a child grows, you have to teach your child things like sharing. Things like paying attention to other people's feelings and not, like, being all about yourself all the time. Like, that is a learned skill. Well, it's the same with spiritual maturity. The other thing that I thought was funny, Keller shares about how babies don't have any discernment at all.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:20]:

You can give a baby poison on one plate and food on the other plate, and the baby's not gonna know the difference. The baby will eat the poison. And that's why it's so important that we grow up. We cannot stay spiritual babies who can't tell good teaching and dumb teaching from poisonous teaching. What are you consuming? Do you know the difference? Another one, I think this might be the most important one of all, is Paul talks about bearing with one another in love. And, really, that is the test of maturity. How well are you loving other people? And Paul says, we have to be humble and gentle and patient and bear with each other in love. Like I said, if you're a baby, you're self centered.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:05]:

You don't really love others because you're thinking about yourself and maybe what they think of you. If you're always thinking about yourself, you're not thinking of other people. You can't take criticism. Maybe you can't admit when you're wrong. This is when you're overly concerned about your image. You're overly concerned about how you look. This is what being a spiritual baby is. Spiritual babies are not discerning, and they're self centered.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:31]:

And they're not steady. They're back and forth. Right? They're up and down. Some of you feel that way. You're like, one day I'm good because I like my body. The next day I feel fat and I'm not good. Friend, you gotta grow up. Maturity means that you're not tossed to and fro by the number on the scale.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:52]:

Because when you've got a greater hope than that. You know the truth. The truth is that the scale doesn't define you. The truth is that that's not where your worth comes from. You know the truth and, like scripture says, the truth will set you free. The other illustration Tim Keller uses around babies, I thought was funny too. He said babies, you know, they can be easily distracted by shiny objects. And I think about myself when I was a spiritual infant way longer than I should have been.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:21]:

I was a spiritual infant well into my thirties, and I shouldn't have been. I'd known the Lord. I walked with the Lord in some way for decades, but I hadn't grown up. I hadn't taken responsibility for my own faith walk. I didn't read the Bible unless I was depressed. I listened to Christian music. I went to church, but I wasn't involved in church because being involved in church conflicted with my classes at the gym. And, friend, I wasn't growing.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:49]:

But Keller talks about, you know, just how easily distracted spiritual babies are. And that was me. That's why I was so distracted by every new diet plan that came along because it seemed to offer me a way out. New fitness plans, new gizmos, new supplements. They seemed to offer me a salvation and I wasn't mature enough or grounded enough in the word to know that that wasn't actually gonna save me even here on this earth. I needed to grow up. Tim Keller also talks about how a mark of a spiritual baby is someone who's always saying to God, what have you done for me lately? What have you done for me lately? Because someone who is spiritually mature, who's theologically wise and discerning, is not self centered, not always thinking about themselves, serving other people, quick to admit where they're wrong, not self conscious, but also acutely aware of the reality that God sent Jesus to die for your sins and your salvation is secure. And that's the best thing God could have ever done for you.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:01]:

You have confidence that you're going to heaven someday. Your name's written in heaven, and that should give you infinite joy because of what God's already done for you. But you don't have to keep saying, what have you done for me, God? When are you gonna do this for me, God? You can look at the big picture and say, wow, God, that was amazing. Like, you got me taken care of. Like, that's enough. Another mark that Keller talks about is a spiritually immature person is always getting their feelings hurt. And, again, it's back to the baby thinks of himself all the time, only thinks of himself, can only see the world through his or her own perspective. As we grow, as we mature, we start to realize that there's more to life than just us and our needs and our wants and our desires.

Are You Growing?

Heather Creekmore [00:21:47]:

And so we're not as self centered, and we don't get our feelings hurt as often. So how do you know if you're growing in spiritual maturity? Tim Keller actually used this illustration. I thought it was really good. The question is, are you more humble and happier? Do you have more inner peace than you did last year at this time? Are you growing? If you asked a friend that about you, would the friend say, yes. I see. You are growing. You are maturing spiritually. Or would they be like, yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:22]:

I don't know if you're more humble. I don't know if you have more peace. It seems like you got a lot of anxiety around some things. So no shame or blame here. Just ask yourself that question or maybe ask a friend that question. And then the follow-up question is, if not, why? Why aren't you growing in spiritual maturity? What is standing in your way? Is it your body image issues? Is it because you are so consumed, so believing the lie that fixing your body will fix everything, so consumed on trying to change the way you look, so consumed on people pleasing and trying to be approved of by everyone, trying to make sure your mom is happy with you and your dad is happy with you. And I'm not just talking about you teenagers. I'm talking about your 50 year olds too.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:11]:

Are you so concerned with what other people think that you're spending time trying to please man instead of trying to please God and grow to be like Jesus? You know, another way to put this is, like, do you wanna look more like Jesus, or do you wanna look more like Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift or Jennifer Aniston? Or name your celeb. Who do you wanna look more like? Just be honest with yourself. And if the answer isn't Jesus, who, oh, by the way, had nothing attractive about his appearance, like, yikes. That's a whole another episode. Isaiah talks about how Jesus chose to come as someone who wasn't good looking and didn't have anything about his physical appearance to draw others to him. Like, that's an uncomfortable, comfortable theological truth for those of us who chase more attractiveness to face. Do you want to grow up? And if you do, what steps can you change today in your life to grow up? Do you need to be part of a Christian community? Do you need to join a church? Do you need to figure out what your spiritual gifts are and start using them? Do you need to be in the word? Are you reading your bible? Are you praying? Are you listening to quality teaching that's gospel centered that keeps your focus off of you and onto Jesus. I mean, again, like, there is a lot of teaching out there that is “you” focused.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:48]:

And it might feel good to listen to at first. You might come away like, yeah, me. This is awesome. Yay, me. I feel great. But friend, it doesn't last because the message of the Bible is God's story. It's God's love story. It's God's history of the world and what he's done for his people and how he's protected them and how is and how good he is.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:12]:

If you try to like diminish God's word to just be about your weight loss goals or your body goals, oh friend, you're missing it. That's not what it's about at all. Do you need to grow up? And if you do, again, no shame or blame. Do you need help? We all need help. Right? That's why we do coaching. We talk about body image issues. We get to the root of body image issues. We talk about why some of us are more prone to body image issues than others.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:42]:

We talk about, like, things that might have happened in your past that maybe are contributing to why you still believe the lies you believe and have the body image issues. We get into all that. But candidly, friend, part of our main goal in coaching is just to help you draw closer to Jesus so that you can grow up. And like we talked about last time, growing up spiritually, growing into an adult psychologically has all kinds of benefits for your body image and your relationship with food too. So what are you waiting for? Are you ready to grow up? You need some help? Seek out someone at your church. If you've never been mentored or discipled, find someone who loves Jesus and knows what the Bible's for and about. And ask them to disciple you. Find a mentor, an older woman in the faith who can coach you and encourage you and exhort you to grow up.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:42]:

And if you don't have anyone like that, think about joining coaching so that we can help you. We wanna see you mature into the woman that God made you to be. We wanna see you live on purpose for a purpose. We wanna see you stop comparing, stop envying, like Galatians says. Oh, friends, we were not created for that. We were created to know what God calls to do and walk forward in it, not to be looking around at what everyone else is doing, wishing we were them. Friend, freedom is possible, and we wanna help you find it. Thanks for listening today.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:17]:

I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye bye.