An Open Letter: The Hidden Struggle of Eating Disorders

The below information is solely to encourage you to speak up and embrace your body image through God’s amazing love for you; it is not to replace professional help.

---

I feel like there’s a topic that needs to be touched with grace, love, and understanding. It’s a topic that nobody exactly wants to talk about or address, because it’s embarrassing or hard to read, but eating disorders must be addressed in a loving way more often.

Girls and guys alike struggle with this and it shouldn’t be something they are shamed away from telling.

We’ve all heard the Bible verse about being fearfully and wonderfully made, but do we listen to it? Not many of us do.

Eating disorders are worldly disorders. I believe most of them are caused by fear, anxiety, worry, doubt, and low self-esteem. Whether we are struggling with anorexia, bulimia, or obesity, we all have “that person” stuck in our head that we want to look like.

Right now, you feel alone and as if you can’t tell anyone what your struggling with. The words are constantly on your tongue, but you can’t even begin to speak the words. You feel like if you speak it, it’s true and you don’t want it to be true.

You hear a voice inside your head declaring to tell, but you’re unsure if it’s you or God. You’re afraid if you tell, everyone will think of you differently. You feel like they will always look at you and think of you as a struggler or the one that had a disorder. Worse yet being that they will no longer accept you as their own.

You feel like if you can just get through the battle by yourself, no one will ever know and you’ll feel confident in that. But that is where the misconceptions begin.

I’m here to tell you something very important in the most caring way I can say it… You won’t feel confident in them not knowing, because more than likely you’ll still be struggling.

This voice you hear that is telling you to tell someone is God crying out to you. Isn’t that beautiful? Most of us think that it’s a one-sided thing, humans are the ones to cry out to God, but no, God can be heard crying out to us too. He wants you to tell because He knows that you need somebody to know. The longer we are silent, the longer we will struggle.

Even though God can do anything without any help, he knows that we cannot. God knows that we need a physical hug and somebody standing right in front of us. Why do you think there are pastors? God can share His amazing words by Himself, but He knew that He made the human mind to need physical, in-person care.

I know it’s scary to tell someone your deepest inner thoughts, but when you do it’s like a caterpillar finally breaking out of its cocoon. I have been there. Are you ready to be there too?

A caterpillar can’t get to its greatest potential, being this beautiful butterfly, until it breaks out of its cocoon. It’s the same for us, but our cocoon is the cocoon of silence we have to break out of. If I only had thirty seconds with you I would simply say, “Keep God in the center and yell to the world what He speaks to you.”

It may take time for that beautiful butterfly to spread its wings, but that’s okay! Take that needed time.

You are way more beautiful/handsome than you realize. When someone tells you that you’re beautiful/handsome, take it to heart. Let it sink in. Don’t try to impress anyone or hold onto the lie that you have to “stay the same“, because truth be told, you’re gonna change. You’re gonna get older and your body is gonna hold food differently, that’s just how it works.

Take time out of your day to stand in front of a mirror and tell yourself that you’re beautiful/handsome. Find confidence in the creation that God crafted.

If you’ve ever been ridiculed for the way you look, please forget about it. Someone’s hurtful words will never affect the amount of precision and care God put into making you.

Remind yourself that you are one of a kind, that when God made you, He made you unique in every way. Allow God to tell you how wonderful He made you.

If you’re not already hearing that small voice inside, then pray for Him to speak louder. It’s gonna be a battle, but what isn’t? With God, we can win any battle! An eating disorder is no exception.

Recognize and accept what you’re feeling. Stop pushing it away. Sadly, it is reality, but when you accept that it’s reality, it’s way easier to fight against it. Instead of using all your energy pushing the reality away, you will start to use that energy in fighting back. You have God by your side and God… He makes worldly burdens a lot lighter.

Recognize, accept the reality, and start fighting back today. Let God’s healing love pour over you like heavenly rain. You feel like nobody could possibly heal your broken emotions about your image, but deep down you know that God is in the midst of healing you as we speak.

Breathe. Let go. An eating disorder does not label you. You are labeled as God’s child no matter what you look like or what size you wear.

These negative emotions you feel about your body image are formed from the devil. You deserve better than that.

Just be you. Don’t be someone else; they’re them and you’re you. There’s so much more to you than meets the eye, you’ve just gotta find it and embrace it. God doesn’t look at your pants size, He looks at your heart.

God doesn’t look at your pants size, He looks at your heart.

I beg of you, look at what God looks at, not what this society looks at. How many times is society actually right? Society is only human. You’re simply forgetting the beauty and light within. It’s trying to shine through you like a lighthouse. Do you feel it?

Once you win this battle, you will have a renewed joy in yourself. The joy that only comes from our God who stays. Sing it out loud! Go ahead and declare that you’ve won because I believe that you will. You should believe it, too.

---

For You formed my inward parts: You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully; marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows very well.

Psalm 139:13-14 (NKJV)