Episode #194 Let Your Relationship With God Transform Your Relationship With Food – What’s Going On?!

Hey friend, it's Jen. Welcome to Good God Talks. We're getting super practical and talking with God about some key aspects and seasons of life.

And recently I was a guest on the Joy-Filled Eater podcast with Brittany Braswell, talking about how you can experience God in your day-to-day life. And we had such a great time that I invited her to be a guest here and to share about how our relationship with God can positively impact our relationship with food. And so if you're asking what's going on in any aspect of food or body image or physical health, this episode will especially equip you to bring that conversation to God. I have links here in the show notes for all the places where you can connect with Brittany, and I'll pass the mic over to her for the rest of this episode.

I don't exactly have what you might call a green thumb. Most of my attempts at gardening end up in a sad spectacle of wilting plants. However, my aunt and uncle are pros. Their garden every spring is this bountiful harvest of colorful flowers and fresh herbs and all kinds of produce.

But I remember one winter in this colder weather, I remember seeing this garden and it looked kind of a bit of a mess. It was a kind of run over with some weeds and a bunch of the plants had died from the cold spell. And I just kept thinking that it looks kind of hopeless. Like I don't even know how it might be able to create fruits again. But with a little bit of patience and expert knowledge, as the weather got nicer and warmer again my aunt and uncle pulled the weeds, cultivated the soil, and of course, as per usual, they ended up with another beautiful garden.

And that got me thinking a little bit about our relationship with food and what it can look like. I think it can often seem like that sad garden that is kind of run amok. It's a bit chaotic and overwhelming. And again, just a bit of a mess, but just like those gardening experts, there is a way to cultivate a healthy and thriving relationship with food. And instead of inviting a gardener into the mix, I want you to invite the Lord into your relationship with food.

If we've never met before, my name is Brittany Braswell. I'm a registered dietitian, food freedom coach and host of the Joy-Filled Eater podcast. And I have worked with hundreds of women to help them learn how to confidently nourish their body without feeling deprived, grow in their faith, and improve their body image.

1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Now sometimes bringing glory to God might look like honoring our bodies through gentle nutrition.

Other times it might be enjoying a Starbucks drink with a friend, and still maybe other times it looks like hosting a small group for high school or college girls at your local Chick fil a.

Whatever it might look like for you right now, there are ways to find food freedom and invite the Lord into your relationship with food in all of these scenarios.

For the next few minutes, I want to give you a framework to follow with three different areas that you can invite the Lord into when it comes to your relationship with food so that you can become what I like to call a joy-filled eater.

Science,
Body wisdom, and
Faith

Now, when it comes to science, the Lord is absolutely an expert.

He created your body. And my friend, it is very good, regardless of how you feel about it.

He created it in such a beautiful and masterful way. And so when we can lean into the science piece a little bit and look at things like our metabolism and how does nutrition through food actually work in our bodies.

What are the lies or the myths maybe that we need to uncover there? Maybe that have been creating a lot of fears around how you relate to certain types of food, or maybe certain behaviors that you've engaged in, like restricting or binging.

In this area of science, we're also looking at how our mind operates. Where are our thoughts coming from when we notice maybe some unhealthy or disordered thoughts come up about food or our body? This is a huge area to invite the Lord into. This is where we start looking at how can we cope with stressors and fears and anxieties in a positive life-giving way that's actually going to be effective.

So it's with science that we want to ask the Lord to give us wisdom to discern truth from lies when it comes to maybe what are some lies that you've been believing about food, or about your body, or about the worth that either one of them gives you.

Now, the second area we want to look at in this framework is body wisdom.

We want to lean in and invite the Lord to really help us get back connected with what's going on in our body. How do we recognize sensations that he gave us like hunger and fullness? How do we lean into recognizing how certain foods feel in our body or certain amounts so that we can take care of our body in a way that doesn't just feel great, but that also honors the Lord in the process?

This is also where we learn how to identify emotions and how does our body respond to the different ways that we're feeling. How can we learn to cope effectively and to move our bodies from a place of joy and gratitude instead of a place of obligation. And in order to make all of this happen, we want to invite the Lord in by saying, Lord Jesus, how can I learn to cultivate a greater level of trust in myself, in my body, but especially Lord in you?

Our last of the three components of this framework is faith.

Intentionally inviting the Lord into your day-to-day decision making. This involves a lot of reliance on the Holy Spirit. It's also absolutely about surrendering control.

Lord, help me to seek your will first and submit to you. Let me lay my will aside and say, God, I'm going to put my faith in you and know that you love me, you know what's best for me. And God, I want to learn that along the way. So help me with that.

So as we wrap up, I want to leave you with this question to take to the Lord during your next God Talk. And it's this,
Dear God, how can I intentionally invite you into my day-to-day decision making when it comes to my thoughts and behaviors surrounding food?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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