Grace For Your Waist-Living A Lifestyle Fitted With HopeSampel

Information to Transformation

I embraced my collegiate years with a carefree and fun attitude, eager to learn new ways to be popular and pretty. With my quick wit and outgoing personality, I quickly became a leader in a circle of accepting girlfriends. We ran as a pack and put our “twenty-something” independence to the test with all-nighters, snack raids and sharing our care packages of junk food from home.  

Every summer I would come home heavier - both physically and mentally - as I lived under my parents strict rules. And then when August rolled around, I let go of all that I knew to be good, healthy, right, and holy and returned to the same destructive habits. I was trapped by a duplicitous lifestyle.

I completed a college degree, but I failed (with flying colors) in my relationship with God. I felt closed off and distant from Him. Something that college didn’t teach me is how to care or consider my body as His temple. I needed an overhaul to get me back on track with healthy eating and I knew I was out of sync with God. 

I had to unlearn some information to be transformed by God’s grace. Can you relate?

“I’ve tried everything, and nothing works!” or “This is the way God wants me to be!” I too, have felt the weight of these half-truths and felt powerless to change. The reality of it is, we choose our own prisons and chain our behaviors to fear and acceptance by other opinions. 

You can never erase the pain in your life by attaching your feelings to something false.  There is a way out AND God will you help you get there. It’s easier to place our weaknesses and insecurities on the top shelf of your closet or quietly sweep them under the rug. Dysfunctional behaviors will inform you of your past, however transformation by God’s grace will change you to see your future.  

Grace strengthens your will to overcome the chains that bind. Your closet of hurts and scars can inform you of your mistakes OR transform you to see how God can heal you. You were created to stand out, not fit in with the crowd. He helps you heal AND deal, growing you in grace to be more like Him.  

What is one habit you can break to gain freedom?