Good Morning Girls!  Last night I attended a Girl's Night Out get together at my friends house.  There were 75 beautiful women there!  Let me tell you something- us Jesus freak, Bible lovin' women know how to have a good time!  I haven't laughed and enjoyed myself since......well since the last time I was with this amazing group of women! 

In addition to all of the laughter, there were a few tears and tender moments.  As you can imagine, when you get 75 women together, there is bound to be some "diet" talk.  Well not so much diet, as much as weight talk. 

I talked to many amazing and beautiful women about their struggles, prayers, and hopes regarding their weight.  Some are on specific eating plans, some are in training for specific events, and others, like me, are exploring the "inner weight" that has been haunting them for years.

 We are all different shapes, sizes, and ages.  Our goals are different.  We are in different places in our journeys.  But as much as our individual stories are different, they are also very much the same. 

We all have painful memories.  We all have the feeling we are missing out on life.  We all feel tired of it all.  We all want to change (some internally, some externally, some both).  We all want to feel good about ourselves.  We all want to be good mothers to our children.  We all have an idea in our hearts what we want our life to look like.  And Praise the Lord we all have the ability to laugh- even when we feel like crying!

Last night as I lay in bed thinking about the night and the different conversations I realized that we all share one thing in common.  We all want to feel loved.  Not be loved- FEEL loved.  We all know in our heads that our children love us.  Our friends love us.  Our family loves us (even if they have no clue how to show it).  We all know as Christians that God loves us. 

Despite the fact that we KNOW we are loved (or at the very least we know that we should know that we are loved), we often do not FEEL loved.  I believe for many it is that lack of feeling that drives us to food.  We want to feel loved.  For me, when I feel loved it creates a feeling of wholeness.  Completeness.  Contentment. The void is gone.  The emptiness is gone.  Life is good.

When I stop and look at some of my eating patterns and my dieting history I see that so much of it was driven out of the need to feel loved.  I overeat to fill the void- to feel whole and complete.  Then I diet to make myself more lovable as I have learned that being overweight disqualifies you from truly being loved.

In order to be Set the Fat Girl Free for good I need two things.  First of all I need to address the lie that says that overweight equals unlovable.  More importantly I need to experience Gods love.  I need to feel it.  I need to allow myself to surrender completely to it.  I know in my heart that God loves me just as I am.  Skinny or fat.  Tall or short.  Bad hair day or runway ready.  I know in my heart I am loved.  It's time to turn that knowledge into experience!

Girls, we are loved.  We are loved so deeply and dearly that we cannot even comprehend it.  I encourage you to ask the Lord to show you his love for you in a way that you experience it.  Experience the fullness that only He can bring.  As always, please feel free to share your experiences with me as they warm my heart and encourage me as well!

Ephesians 3: 18-19 And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness or life and power that comes from God.

Love, grace, and a love experience to you all-
Jen