“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19

Eating disorders are complex things. Shame, self-hatred, disgust, hunger, hopelessness, guilt. Emotions and compulsions we don't understand and can't seem to control overwhelm us, robbing us of the joy and the peace of God's Kingdom.

Unlike physical illness and injury, eating disorders do not have a virus to be defeated or wound to be healed. Because their roots are deep within our psyches, the answers offered by well-meaning friends and family - "just eat more" or "Just eat normally" - focus on the symptoms, not the causes, and have little effect other than to frustrate us.

This booklet looks at the thoughts that trigger the behaviours, the thoughts with which, sadly, we often agree. The thoughts that tell us that we are nothing. The thoughts that equate our body size to our worth. The thoughts that whisper "if you could just lose five pounds more..."

The most pressing issue for a Christian is to discover how God's opinion differs from ours on the subject of our bodies. He will never tell you your bodyweight matters more than your heart. But it is one thing knowing God loves us and accepts us, it is another to believe it when the belief we are worthless has taken such deep root in our lives.

I do not claim to be a Doctor or a psychiatrist. But I do have personal experience of thirty years of suffering Anorexia, Bulimia and other disordered eating. I also have personal experience of the God who is still untangling all those painful issues and helping me understand and defeat the lies in my head so that I can live in His Kingdom, rather than in a hell of my own making.

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