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    Body Image Lies Women Believe: And the Truth of Christ That Sets Them Free
    Body Image Lies Women Believe: And the Truth of Christ That Sets Them Free
    Body Image Lies Women Believe: And the Truth of Christ That Sets Them Free
    Ebook112 pages1 hour

    Body Image Lies Women Believe: And the Truth of Christ That Sets Them Free

    By Shelley Hitz

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    About this ebook

    Body Image Lies Women Believe

    * Are you insecure about your looks?

    * Have you ever compared yourself to someone else and found yourself wanting?

    * Do complements or put downs determine the image you have of your beauty?

    Real Stories of Overcoming Body Image Lies Women Believe with God's Truth

    Throughout this book, Christian women share their stories of how they have struggled with body image lies and a distorted view of themselves. However, each of their stories also contains hope - the hope of replacing these lies with God's truth. Our prayer for you is that you find encouragement within these pages and allow Christ to transform you with His truth.

    We Are Each Created Unique

    God has created each one of us with unique abilities, unique talents and a unique personality. As women we are influencers and God has given us that role and our beauty to share with others. Yet so often we settle for a counterfeit. The enemy has counterfeited our idea of beauty, convincing us to share our beauty with the world in a distorted way. Today that often means that we see our beauty as what we look like on the outside.

    What Lies Have You Been Believing?

    Join us for the journey of replacing body image lies with truth from God's Word.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBody and Soul Publishing
    Release dateFeb 11, 2013
    ISBN9781301516254
    Body Image Lies Women Believe: And the Truth of Christ That Sets Them Free
    Author

    Shelley Hitz

    Shelley Hitz is an award-winning and international best-selling author. However, she gives all the glory to God for what He is doing through her life. As she likes to say, “God is the author, I am simply the pen.” Shelley has been ministering alongside her husband, CJ, since 1998 and her main passion is to share God’s truth and the freedom in Christ she has found with others. She does this through her books, websites and speaking engagements. She is also the co-owner of BodyandSoulPublishing.com where she shares free Christian books on her blog, owner of Self-Publishing-Coach.com where she helps authors get published and noticed and co-founder of CrossReads.com where Christian readers and authors meet. The main reason Shelley writes and publishes Christian books is to share her testimony, use the gift of teaching God has given her and bring glory to God. Ironically, she never dreamed of being a published author and English was one of her worst subjects in school growing up. However, God is now using her weaknesses for His strength to impact many for eternity (2 Corinthians 12:9). She is humbled and amazed that He chooses to use her and her life goal is to keep her eyes fixed on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). Shelley’s openness and vulnerability as she shares her own story of hope and healing through her books will inspire and encourage you.

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      Book preview

      Body Image Lies Women Believe - Shelley Hitz

      Introduction

      Shelley Hitz

      Growing up, I was insecure. To outsiders, I looked confident, like I had it all together. But, on the inside, I was broken and dying a little more each day.

      I was really good at hiding my brokenness. You see, no one knew the real Shelley as I was ashamed of my true self. I thought that if people knew who I really was on the inside, they would reject me.

      As a result, I felt a deep ache - an emptiness. No matter what I did, it would not go away. I tried to fill this void with many things, including the attention of guys. However, if a guy I liked rejected me, the emptiness would return.

      I also tried to perfect my looks. And some days I would feel on top of the world because I had a good hair day. However, if I had a bad hair day or received a negative comment about my looks, I would plummet into insecurity again. I rode this rollercoaster of emotions up and down and never found true satisfaction.

      The Broken Cup Illustration

      Eventually, God gave me an illustration of a broken cup. I had several tragedies happen in my life including my grandma’s murder, an instance of sexual abuse, the loss of two cousins in separate car accidents, my parents’ divorce, and the list goes on. These tragedies represented cracks in my cup and brokenness that came into my life. However, instead of bringing my broken cup, my pain and brokenness, to God for healing, I was trying to deal with it myself.

      And so the illustration is this: I was trying to fill my broken cup with water from several sources (i.e., guys attention, perfecting my looks, etc.) to fill the emptiness I felt inside. But, no matter what I did, it did not satisfy because my cup was not equipped to hold water. The water would simply drain out slowly over time. So, although I might feel temporary satisfaction, it never lasted.

      Why?

      Well as Oswald Chambers says, No love of the natural heart is safe unless the human heart has been satisfied by God first.

      Having a concern about my physical appearance and wanting to look good is not necessarily wrong in and of itself. However, I learned that trying to satisfy my heart with these things before coming to God became an idol in my life and therefore never satisfied. It was only a temporary fix.

      Jeremiah 2:13 says: "My people have committed two sins; They have forsaken me, the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

      I sensed God saying to me, Shelley, you have committed two sins, you have forsaken Me, the spring of living water and no matter what you do, you will never be satisfied apart from Me. I want you to come to my spring of living water that never runs dry.

      God showed me that I was going to other sources of water and no matter what I tried, no matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, my broken cup was not capable of holding water. I had to keep going back again and again to these sources as they were only a temporary fix. I am sure some of you have felt the same way before as well.

      A Cup That Overflows

      I walked through a season in my life when God asked me to surrender my brokenness, my broken cup to Him for healing. It was a painful season as I began to face some deep wounds from my past. However, over time, as I surrendered my broken cup to God, He replaced it with His cup - His cup that no longer had any cracks and was able to hold water. As I chose to come to Him each day for His living water, my emptiness was replaced with true satisfaction in Christ.

      If you put a mug underneath a waterfall, what will happen? The cup will fill with water and then eventually overflow. And that is what began to happen in my heart. As I was filled with Christ each day, I was not only satisfied in Christ but His Spirit in me began to overflow. Instead of being needy and going to other people to feel good about myself, I actually had something to give to others. I had love to give. I had joy to give. I had encouragement to share.

      Psalm 23:5 says "My cup overflows…"

      And I love how the amplified version says it, "My [brimming] cup runs over…" This is a picture of having more than enough.

      Philippians 4:19 (AMP) says, And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

      Do we truly believe that God is going to fill us to the full? More often than I care to admit, I find myself simply scraping by, barely getting through the day. Have you ever felt that way? I still have days where I pray, "Lord, help me just get through this day. I start thinking like a minimalist again. However, God is asking me to change my thinking and instead pray, Lord, fill me to the full! How do you want to use me today?"

      One of my friends says she prays about the small decisions in her life, like which grocery store she should shop at each week. She prays about it and then waits to hear from God. For example, she will sense that she is to go grocery shopping at Kroger on Tuesday morning. And it is amazing to hear her stories of what happens when she listens and then obeys. She told me one day, Shelley, I was at the grocery store and ran into someone I knew. We ended up talking and I had the opportunity to pray with her right there in the grocery aisle. She says God opens doors for ministry in even the most mundane tasks of her day simply because she asks Him. How about you? Do you think about asking God for direction in which grocery store to shop at and on which day? When we come to God with a minimalist attitude, trying to just make it through the day and get our needs met, we often miss opportunities like this.

      The Chrysalis

      "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

      I love the story of the chrysalis: a caterpillar that spends time in a cocoon and finally emerges as a beautiful butterfly. It takes time for the caterpillar to become a butterfly. In fact, if someone would try to speed up the process and cut open the cocoon early, the butterfly would die. It has to go through the entire process in order to emerge as something completely different… and beautiful.

      Most of the time, we look for an instant fix in our culture. We look for instant gratification instead of allowing God to take us through the entire process of healing He has for us. Some of us may still be caterpillars; we

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