Episode 015: Your weight is not your worth.

If we were to sit down at a coffee shop together, I’d buy you a cappuccino or a hot tea and I’d listen.

I’d listen to you share about your struggles with your weight, how it’s been up and down and up and down for so long and you’re never satisfied and you feel like you’ll never hit your goal weight. You’ve tried everything, the diets, the shakes, the cleanses, the ‘healthy lifestyle’ and your weight always goes back. I’d listen and I’d nod, because I’ve felt the same way too.

And then I’d look you in the eyes and tell you the thing that took me nearly thirty years to realize: your weight is not your worth.

Your weight tells the world NOTHING about who you are as a woman. It tells the world nothing about your role as a mom, the things you’ve overcome, the relationships you’ve fought for… it says nothing about your character, your career, your intelligence, the desires of your soul.

Putting your worth in your weight takes the weight off of the God who created you in his image and died for you. That is a weight that can never be measured.

But we continue to measure. And judge ourselves and others. Calling ourselves a failure every time the scale doesn’t budge. Calling each other lazy for being in a body that was created just for them.

Our beauty is in our uniqueness. Our beauty is in how we treat others, how we show up in the world- our impact is not measured by the weight on the scale.

No one asks what Marie Curie weighed when she won her first nobel prize for science.

No one wonders what Rosa Parks weighed when she stood up for segregation.

No one cared what size Florence Nighttingale was wearing when she made rounds by dark to heal wounded soldiers.

No one asks what Amelia Earhart weighed when she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. And Oprah, no one cares what you weigh. We care about how you’ve changed lives. And isn’t that how we want our children to see us? As change makers, whether it be in our own homes- changing the trajectory of our children’s future from a life of restriction and guilt around food to one of freedom, or someone who changes the whole world– in writing, in science, in art, in standing up for what you believe in. Our children don’t care what we weigh when we read them another bedtime story. They don’t wonder if we’ve put on a few pounds when squeeze them a little tighter to protect them from the monsters.

Because your weight doesn’t make you a better mom, a better wife, a better human. Your weight is a number that says NOTHING to define you, or your worth.

You are valued for the thing you bring to this world, the people you lead and the impact you make, large and small.

You are valued for simply being you, authentically.

And guess what? Your weight is going to change. That’s inevitable. And it can be a struggle, or it can be a natural part of life. Knowing that you are nourishing your body, your mind and your soul on a daily basis is ENOUGH. No matter WHAT the scale says. YOU ARE ENOUGH.

Your weight doesn’t tell the world, your doctors, or any nutrition expert your health.

Health is not marked by a number on the scale but by the habits you create to nourish yourself and your family and by wellness- true wellness, the absence of disease.

Because cancer doesn’t discriminate due to weight. So why do people?

Your worth is SO beyond a number or a size. Your legacy will not include your weight.

At the end of your life, when you stand at those pearly gates, and share what your life was all about … what will you weigh? It. doesn’t. matter.

It is up to you to prove to the world you are worth something more than your weight by flipping the script. It is up to you to set the example for your children of their worth in God and and following his call for their life, NOT the number on the scale.

Because at the end of your days, I can promise you you will not be thinking about how worth it it was to squeeze into those skinny jeans.

Your worth is YOU. Perfectly imperfect, Fearfully and Wonderfully made, uniquely, remarkably, YOU.

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