That woman called me fat.

The other day, I drove to the grocery store to get some ice cream for my family. (That’s pretty much the only reason I have my license…) Once I got inside the store, I immediately headed into the ice cream aisle. There was a woman standing in front of the ice cream with her cart that had a few quarts of ice cream. As she put a couple more quarts of ice cream in her cart, she said with a laugh and slightly rolling her eyes, “My husband will eat all these by the end of this week.”

I kind of laughed along with her and said, “Hey, I’d do the same!”

She had started walking away and smiled. “And look at you!” She was referring to, what I assumed at first, the fact that I did not look like I ate seven quarts of ice cream in a week. In all honesty, I was pretty flattered. I mean, any girl would be flattered, right? Ask any girl you know and she’ll probably say that she’s felt embarrassed or self-conscious about her body at some point in life, so to have this woman implying that I look to be in shape was a nice idea.

Well, a few minutes later as I was waiting in the line to check out, my brain started thinking about that woman’s statement.

“And look at you!”

Wait—at first I’d thought it was a compliment. No, of course it wasn’t a compliment, she was insulting me! She was saying, “And look at you! It’s obvious that you eat seven quarts of ice cream in a week! You’re fat!”

That woman called me fat, shouted my brain. And then it started screaming at me, YOU ARE FAT. SHE’S RIGHT AND YOU’LL NEVER BE AS SKINNY AS THE PRETTY GIRLS.

Okay, let’s back up a second.

I took a comment, made by a complete stranger who was totally polite, and made it sound like she was insulting me and telling me I was fat.

Now, I’ll be honest—I am on the slimmer side and while I do tend to wear baggy clothes, they don’t make me look fat or overweight.

And I know this. My brain knows this. My body and my heart knows this.

But my brain still made me believe that this woman said I was fat and that she was right.

Y’all, it’s scary how much power our brains have over us when it comes to lying. You see, whether you are on the slim side or not doesn’t matter. You’re awesome either way. But it’s the fact that we let ourselves believe these lies that is the problem.

But let me tell you: these lies are huge loads of crap.

Your brain—as amazing and awesome as it may be—does not have the right to tell you that stuff. You can choose not to believe those things and you can choose to silence those things.

Now you might be thinking: why is important to learn how to silence these things?

Well first of all, it’s not listening to the voice that we should listen to. What is that voice?

The voice of God.

God’s voice is going to say things that are always true (Psalm 119:160) and his word is truth that will last for all eternity. What does he say?

You were made in my image. (Genesis 1:27)

You are not a mistake. (Psalm 139:13-16)

I love you so much. (John 3:16)

These are just three things that God says to you—directly from Scripture. He is your biggest supporter and he wants you to know that.

But what the enemy has to say? All bad stuff.

You’ll never measure up.

You are ugly.

You are unloved.

See? These things are going to bring you down—and that’s not what God does.

God is here to lift you up and encourage you.

I hope this was encouraging, thanks for reading!
~Willow