Embracing God’s Truth About Your Body
Korrinna Kelly (RDN, CPT) is a registered dietitian based near Bellingham, Washington, specializing in disordered eating, body image, and sports performance nutrition. She is passionate about helping women feel empowered, nourished, and confident both physically and mentally. Through her practice, Nourish and Renew Nutrition, she helps individuals heal their relationship with food + body image, improve performance, and support their health through a compassionate, evidence-based, and whole-person approach. You can learn more at nourishandrenewnutrition.com.
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Over and over again, I have heard the same story.
“I will finally love my body… when I lose weight… when I have clear skin…
when I can fit into those jeans again… when I can hide all my scars…”
Maybe you’ve said these things to yourself. Maybe you’ve believed that if you just worked hard enough or reached a certain milestone, then you would finally feel joy, peace, or freedom in your own skin.
Both in my own story and in my work as a dietitian, sitting with women wrestling with eating disorders and body image issues, here’s what I see happen again and again.
For some, the “goal” is reached.
The scale shows the right number, the jeans finally button, or the scars fade but the joy they expected doesn’t come. Instead, a new voice whispers “maybe just five more pounds. Maybe if I fix one more things, then I will be happy.”
For others that finish line was never reached. The diet is abandoned, the jeans stay folded away, and shame and guilt sets in.
What I hear and see in both stories is this: joy and freedom keep getting pushed into “tomorrow”. We keep waiting for an ideal that never comes the way we thought it would.
What if we could do this a different way?
What if we didn’t have to keep waiting?
What if freedom could start now?
God calls us to live in today.
What if we embraced who God made us and did not delay walking in His truth? When we believe that joy and love are waiting for us in some distant “tomorrow”, we miss the life God has placed right here in front of us. God never asked us to get everything “together” before coming to Him (side note – what does that even mean? and who even has it together??). In fact, He invites us to bring our mess, our questions, and even our pain to Him today.
Each time we stand in the mirror and choose criticism, we are delaying love for ourselves until “tomorrow”. But healing starts when we take small steps today. Sometimes that looks like whispering truth over ourselves, even when it feels uncomfortable or shaky.
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14)
God’s works are extraordinary… and YOU are one of them.
The Comparison Trap:
How many times have you felt like you just couldn’t keep up? Couldn’t keep up with the latest fashion trends? The newest diet, or the most popular workout routine that promises to change everything about you?
You reach for anything that promises to make you feel whole, to feel worthy, or beautiful. Culture sells an image of beauty that changes with trends… it is a moving target. What is considered beautiful today may be rejected tomorrow. And if you’re constantly chasing society’s approval, you’ll always come up empty-handed.
But God’s image of us never changes. In 1 Samuel 16:7 it says, “the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The world tells us beauty is about appearance but God tells us beauty is about the heart.
So why do we keep chasing a standard that He never asked us to meet? Why do we keep running from the beauty he created in us?
When we allow society to define beauty, we inevitably compare and come up short. But comparison is the thief of joy. But when we choose to anchor ourselves in God’s truth, we discover freedom that no shifting cultural standard can take away.
And let me pause to say this: eating disorders are not just about culture or beauty standards. They are complex illnesses, often intertwined with trauma, personality traits, and other life experiences. Culture may not be the cause, but it can often fan the flame and deepen the lies of “not enough”, keeping women stuck in shame. This is why it’s so important to anchor within Jesus, because His truth has the power to stop us from going further down that path and to begin resorting to what has been broken.
The Whisper of Lies:
I have sat with too many women who are trapped by a relentless whisper: “You’re not good enough. You need to be smaller. You need to weigh less. You’ll finally be worthy when you reach this goal.”
That whisper is a lie. It tells us that freedom is always just out of reach…waiting for us tomorrow.
And in that waiting, many women turn to coping strategies that feel like they offer control but only bring more pain.
Restricting food.
Overexercising.
Hiding eating habits in secret.
Punishing themselves with shame.
These patterns may feel like survival in the moment, but they are not the abundant life God desires for us.
Disordered eating and body image struggles often grow out of this place, the belief that “someday” I will feel whole, but for now I must strive, punish, or hide. And yet, Scripture already tells us the truth in Psalm 139:14: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
The enemy wants us to wait, delay, and postpone walking in that truth. But Jesus invites us to step into it now.
Today Is the Day to Invite God In.
You don’t have to delay giving God access to your pain, your body image struggles, or your disordered eating. He doesn’t need you to be polished or perfect before you come to Him.
He just wants you.
Invite Him into your reflection time and ask Him to help you see yourself through His eyes.
Invite Him into your meals and let Him reframe food as nourishment and grace instead of fear or control.
Invite Him into your self-talk, so when shame whispers “not enough,” His Word reminds you: “You are mine. You are loved. You are wonderfully made.”
Don’t put off loving yourself until you lose the weight.
Don’t put off surrendering until you “feel ready.”
Don’t put off healing until you’ve tried everything else.
Jesus is ready for you today.
He calls you His daughter.
He meets you in your struggles, your questions, your imperfections, and even your pain.
Freedom doesn’t begin when you “arrive.” Freedom begins the moment you take one brave step toward Him, right here, right now.
