By Michaela Gordoni
Candace Cameron Bure and body theology expert Lisa Whittle recently shared how respecting our bodies respects God and His creations.
Bure shared last month that she struggles with bulimia, and it’s an everyday fight for her not to view her body in a negative way.
“I always describe my testimonies like the veil coming off because that’s described in scripture,” Bure reflected on realizing that her body is God’s creation. “It’s like…my eyes were opened, and it affected my heart now in a way to say, ‘God, you did make me. And I’m created in your image,’ and if I’m talking to my body and saying, ‘You’re disgusting. I hate you. I hate the way you look,’ I’m telling God, ‘Your creation sucks.’”
But that’s not how Bure views God, and she doesn’t want her actions to reflect otherwise.
“The even deeper level of this is that not only is it about this body has carried us, but Christ came,” Whittle shared. “It’s that this burden that we carry around, this body struggle, He came not just for — I mean, yes, for the redemption of our life so that we could go to heaven — but also that this body struggle could be redeemed here on earth, too.”
Whittle explained that no one has to live with their body burdens. Jesus died for those, too, and will take them away if we let Him.
“And every time we whip our body so terribly, we are forgetting that He bore those stripes already…John 10:10 says, ‘I came that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly,'” she said. “When we are sticking our finger down our throat, that’s not abundant life.”
“When we are giving into an addiction to porn, that is not abundant life,” Whittle continued. “When we are overworking our bodies, that is not abundant life. He did not come so that we would…like just have to struggle in our bodies. That is missing the whole point of the embodied Christ.”
Related: How Candace Cameron Bure Tackles Tricky Topic of Body Image By Looking to Bible
Whittle created her book and video Bible study, Body & Soul, to help readers accept and love their bodies as part of God’s design. It teaches that our bodies were designed by God and matter to him.
Whittle recently wrote about the importance of speaking positively about bodies, especially in the presence of others.
“Women have gotten so used to hating our bodies, we don’t even know that’s what we are doing anymore. Now, the jokes seem normal. No one blinks when we gather at a backyard barbecue and the first thing we bring up in a circle of friends has to do with our jiggly thighs,” she wrote.
But “…what if we could stop accepting conversations with each other that relegated us to objects?…It truly is a shame if all we can see is how big our thighs are in a picture. And that starts with how we first talk about them with our friends,” she said.
Whittle’s and Bure’s main message is clear: our bodies were made with intention and love, and we should honor that.
Read Next: ‘I’m a Bulimic’: FULL HOUSE Star Opens Up About Her ‘Body Story’
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