In His Image Testimony: Tarrie

I have been caught up in being obsessed with my weight and eating for as long as I can remember. I have tried every diet and exercise routine thats out there in the hopes of acheiving some magical number or size that I feel "good" at and would make me "happy." The problem is I never got there. I never got to that perfect number on the scale or perfect size , I dont even know what that is really because no size or number was ever good enough. It never satisfied me. I came to Setting Captives Free to complete a different course "United Front" but I found myself continually looking at the food issue courses wondering if they would work for me. I decided to take In His Image and see if I really could be free from the bondage I was in. When I say bondage I mean being so caught up in worrying about my weight that I didnt have time or energy to focus on my responsibilites. When my husband or children would talk to me I wouldnt always hear what they were saying because I was thinking about food or dieting or exercise. Many times at work I would stop doing my work in order to search some new diet or exercise plan and just waste time that I was supposed to be giving to my employer. I was in a constant state of shame and guilt over this, but didnt have the power to stop. When I started taking this course I was skeptical thinking that I would be the one person who it wouldnt work for, everyone else would be set free but me! That hasnt been the case. Through taking this course I have learned that my obsessive thoughts and destructive eating habits were habitual sin and that I was a slave to it. I learned that I cant be a slave to sin and enjoy God at the same time. I learned to ask God God to help me and to forgive me for my sin and to show me the way to freedom. It is hard for me to believe and even difficult to say that I have been released and freed from the bondage I was in. My focus has switched from the desire to be a perfect weight and obsession about food and eating habits to a desire to be at peace with myself by Gods grace. My focus has shifted off of the food and the desire to be thin and onto Christ and all he has done for me. I have found the happiness I was looking for in Christ, not in a number on the scale or a pant size, what a relief, the energy I was putting into my obssesion with food and thinness I now put into getting to know Christ and I am fueled by that rather than exhausted from chasing something that was unattainable. The satisfaction I have found in being close to Christ is more than I ever could have imagined and was never going to find chasing thinness. I am so excited to be free in Christ , it happened for me, in spite of myself and my doubts, Im so thankful for this minisrty and all of the people in it who have shared the truth and the light with me.