The Scale is Not God

Each day I get a short devotion in my email from an organization called FINDINGbalance. The balance they are specifically addressing surrounds issues of weight loss, food, body image, and mostly, God and His Word. I need that in my life for so many reasons.

I struggle with food – either eating too much or eating too little. I don’t have a healthy balance many days. However, focusing too much attention on the food issues is also not living a balanced life. I like the way the FINDINGbalance devotions always lead me back to focusing on my Creator God and His plans for me. His most basic plan is that I focus on Him each and every day, that He be taking up the most space in my head. Not my last meal or my next meal. Not how much exercise I did or plan to do.

Today’s Scripture for the devotion is 1 Corinthians 8:5-6: “For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods, and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” [NASB] This passage of Scripture reminds me (and I do need reminding) that there is nothing else in this world that is the one true God. It reminds me that there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ. I tend to make certain things my gods and lords. I let them dictate how I will act and think. However, nothing should be doing that except the one and only true God. Everything I do should be dictated by His Scriptures. The Scriptures direct me to do many things, but not once does it say, “Feel bad about yourself and call yourself names because you are overweight.”

When I make the scale my god, I do feel bad about myself and call myself names. I choose to behave in ways that show I place more value in what the scale says about me than what God says about me. What God sa

ys about me is not determined by a number on a scale. He says He made me, that He formed “my inward parts” and weave[d] me in my mother’s womb.” God’s Word goes on to say, I’m “fearfully and wonderfully made” and that His works are “wonderful.” (Psalm 139:13, 14) He made me just as I am.

I’m not saying that I should just forget about trying to eat healthy and lose some weight. God also said we are His temple (1Corinthians 6:19) and therefore, I should do what I can to take care of His temple. I just need to live and think as though I’m serving God and not as though I’m serving the numbers on the scale. My attention should be on doing the things of God, which includes healthy eating, but not obsessing over my last or next meal. If I focus on living a healthy lifestyle, God will be pleased . . . and I might lose some weight in the process.