Don’t let dieting distract you from your true purpose

Don’t let dieting distract you from your true purpose. Discover how the lies of Diet Culture are distracting you and holding you back from your true purpose. Recognize the false purpose of weight loss and trade it in for God’s purpose for your life.

If someone put you on the spot and asked: What is the purpose of life? – what would you say?

I know what I would say.

The best answer I’ve heard to this age old question is the purpose of life is to glorify and enjoy God. I love that purpose because it’s so simply stated. It captures both the doing and the being side of things.

What are we to DO? Well, we are to bring God glory. That’s what we are to do.

We are human beings. The being side of it, why did God make us? Well, he made us to BE in relationship with Him, to enjoy Him.

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

The Westminster Catechism

We are meant to be in a loving relationship with our Creator. From the love that is born out of that relationship, we will then seek to bring Him glory.

I think I know how to enjoy God, that seems clear enough to me. I know how to enjoy a relationship with someone (get to know them, spend time together, communicate often, do things for them) and that would apply to a relationship with God as well.

But how do you glorify God? What does it mean to bring glory to God?

One of the best descriptions of glory I’ve ever heard says the glory of God is a human being fully alive. To me, that means you are who you were created to be, you are living fully, you are not holding anything back, and you are your true self.

Another explanation that shaped me describes glorifying God as pointing others to God, serving and loving like God, and that brings Him glory.

“When anything in creation fulfills its purpose, it brings glory to God. It’s all for him. The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God.”

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

I think a lot of people don’t know this is their purpose.

And if you’re living in American culture, it is very easy to start believing the worldly purposes and what society tells us we should be doing with our lives.

Our culture would have us believe that it’s our purpose to be happy, it’s our purpose to be successful, that’s why we are here… the “American Dream”.

We can fall into that trap of only thinking about ourselves, where the only purpose is meeting our own needs, making ourselves happy, making ourselves successful, rich and powerful.

But that is SO not the point.

It’s actually the opposite of the purpose God has for us, to be in relationship with Him, bring Him glory and enjoy Him. That has nothing to do with us. That has to do with Him.

I certainly found myself in this trap, believing that my purpose in life was to make myself happy, to be my “best self”, to get a degree, to have a successful career.

There were some things slightly outside of just me. I wanted to have a career that I’m passionate about, that will let me impact on the world for good… but if I’m really honest, that has a lot to do with feeling good about myself in that role as opposed to the good it actually does.

We really need to be turned inside out. I did.

One of the defining measures of happiness and success for me was my appearance. On some level that is simply vanity. But on another level, it was believing the lie that I needed to have a certain appearance to be good enough.

And it all comes from this LIE that Diet Culture sells us that if you’re thin, then you’ll be happy. If you’re pretty, then you’ll be lovable.

So you think you need to become thin and pretty to be good enough, to measure up to other women and feel like you have value.

But I am here to tell you that your weight is not your worth. Your body is not your beauty. Your appearance is not who you are.

It becomes so easy to identify with our physical form and attach our identity to our body, to our weight, to what we look like or to a certain status or success.

But that attachment completely keeps us in the world and not in the Word.

Because it doesn’t say in the Bible that your purpose is to be happy and to have a two-story house with a white picket fence and a husband with 2 1/2 kids and wear your wedding dress on your 10th anniversary because you still fit in it.

That’s what the world says.

Don’t let dieting distract you from your true purpose.

Your purpose as a child of God is to glorify and enjoy God. Your purpose is not weight loss.

Your purpose is not to successfully complete the Keto Diet so you can lose 10 pounds before your vacation.

Your purpose is not to wear a size 4 jeans.

Your purpose is not to have a certain physical appearance or body shape.

Your purposes is not to be known as a pretty girl. Your purpose is not even to think you’re pretty or to have other people tell you you’re pretty.

Your purpose has nothing to do with your body or your looks and has everything to do with your heart and soul.

So if weight loss and looking a certain way is not your purpose, why WHY are you spending hours a day obsessing and worrying about food, what you’re eating, meal prep, meal planning, can you have this or should you have that, when will you go to the gym, did you stay at the gym long enough, and when can you squeeze in one more workout this week???

Don’t let dieting distract you from your true purpose!

5 Ways Dieting Is Distracting You From Your True Purpose

1. It takes up your precious time.
2. It drains your energy.
3. It takes up your mental space.
4. It keeps you focused on yourself.
5. It tricks you into believing you need it.

You are spending your life on things that don’t matter and things that are not your purpose. You are giving all of your energy and your time and your money and your passion to dieting and trying to look a certain way.

You are basically giving your life away.

I am preaching to myself here.

Those things are not your purpose. You should be giving your time and money and energy and passion to your purpose.

—-–insert record scratch sound effect here —-

To the ladies spending hours and hours a week on their body and their food and their workouts, this record scratch is for us.

Let’s stop and think about the freedom, the energy and the mental space that is about to open up. Let’s think about how different our lives will be if we give that opening back to God.

He is setting you free from chasing a number on the scale.

He is setting you free from trying to fit into that old pair of jeans in the back of your closet.

He is setting you free from needing to have a flat stomach.

He is setting you free from worrying about how you look all. the. time.

God is setting you free from dieting like it’s what you’re put on this earth to do, because it’s not.

Don’t let dieting distract you from your true purpose. Weight loss is NOT your purpose.

What’s one thing you can do today to GLORIFY God?

What’s one thing you can do today to ENJOY God?

Which of the 5 Ways Dieting Is Distracting You From Your True Purpose is the most distracting for you? Flip that pain point on it’s head!

Example: If dieting is taking up your precious time, try giving that time to God today instead.