The Truth About Body Positivity

I'mma tell you what I told my husband about 2 or 3 years ago. I said, "The next time I gain the 40 pounds, I'm done. I choose to be fat and happy." I did not mean that I would never eat right. I did not mean that I would never work out. I did not mean that I wouldn't lose the weight or that I wouldn't focus on taking care of my body. What I meant is, that's the last time I let the way my body looks define how I feel about how I live in it. Every year when we were growing up, my parents would take us on a drive from our home in Dallas to Baltimore. My dad's parents were in Baltimore. So every August, we'd get in the car and we would drive. And he would start out at midnight. We'd shoot for 10 or 11. But he would go to sleep. He'd take a nap. We'd start out at around midnight. There was this donut shop. That was about 15 minutes from our house and it was open at midnight. I don't know why, but we'd stop and we'd get donuts and then we'd keep going. I would usually be the person who was up the latest. I'd be listening to the sermons on tape that he was listening to or reading a book or looking out the window. Late nights with my dad on the way. Eventually I would fall asleep too. And in the morning we'd wake up definitely out of Texas. Maybe somewhere in Arkansas, we'd stop for breakfast, but we wouldn't wanna stop too long because my dad started late at night so that he could get somewhere. And we would end up in Cookeville, Tennessee, early enough to eat dinner, early enough to go swimming, early enough for him to get some rest and for us to have a good time. In Cookeville, Tennessee, there was a mall and my mom, in Cookeville would go school shopping for us. When I think of Cookeville, Tennessee and the mall, it was actually a great little mall because it was small, small town. So it wasn't overwhelming, wasn't expensive. But my overwhelming feeling about going shopping for clothes in Cookeville, Tennessee, even now as I talk about it, I feel a twinge in my heart. I hated school shopping. Hated it. And not because I was a size I didn't prefer. In high school, I was a size 8, but in high school I had big boobs. And trying to shop for juniors clothing when you are busty on the top is no fun. It would fit me from the waist down, and I'm Coke bottle, always have been, y'all. I may be way curvier than I have to be, but you better believe if you cut that waist, my waist has something to say. A lot of that is possible because I'm chesty on the top. But I remember being in that mall and trying on clothes and over and over again having to wear something that wasn't cute, but it was modest, that wasn't current or trendy. But I was covered. That wasn't— I didn't feel amazing about it, but it fit my figure well. So before I ever gained a pound that I did not like, before I ever had a number on a scale that I wanted to change, I have always had something about my body, as most of us have, that has made me go, uh, I have a girlfriend that to this day, she's one of the most beautiful people I know, and she says she hates her body because she's just straight up and down. And when I talk about my body and I'm like, you know, I'm curvy in all directions, it's a 360 experience, okay? I look like this if you're looking for me from the front. I also look like this if you're looking for me from the side. And she said But as far as I'm concerned, yo Coke bottle is amazing. We look at each other. We look at what we don't have. We look in the mirror. We look at what we wish we had. And one of my dearest friends is like, I got a flat booty. And she looks at her daughter and she says, I'm so sorry I gave you my flat booty. I have no shape. She said, how am I a Black girl with a flat booty? I mean— Y'all, it's a thing. And we probably all have something. It could be our nose. It could be the shape of our chin. It could be the flab on our arms. It could be the pudge on our stomach. It could be something that happened after we had children. You know, some of y'all are rocking a strong fupa. I'mma let y'all tell them what that means. But we have an issue with our bodies. And many of those issues have nothing to do with age. Have nothing to do with childbearing or have nothing to do with weight gain. Because there's something when you were in the third grade someone teased you about, or there's something that when you were in the ninth grade that you couldn't shop for or wear. Girls and our bodies, man, it's a whole thing. So you have a whole movement that says, be who you are, body positivity. Body positivity is a little bit of a Sheep in wolf's clothing too, because body positivity, even though I think there is some goodness to it, has a whole generation of women ignoring their health for the sake of being positive. And if you're young and you want to hail body positivity, you have that luxury. And there are certain women in certain seasons of their lives where the body positivity movement will have sold them a bill of goods that then time catches up with them and their body wears out sooner. Because while they were being positive, their organs were wearing out. So I believe in body positivity, but I also believe in truth, and I believe in celebrating our image because God created our bodies and they were good. But what do we do with— I don't like my body, I don't like my insecurities— how can I build up my girls, my women My friends, let me tell you another story. I went to Hawaii for my 50th birthday. It was under the auspices of a work trip, and I did do the work, but you better believe I wrote that whole thing off and spent a couple of extra days, okay? When I was packing my clothes, I packed what I wanted to wear without having to think about people seeing me. I packed what I wanted to wear in a place where the weather was perfect. I packed what I wanted to wear that I did not feel on my skin, because as far as I'm concerned, God designed us to be naked, and clothes ever since then have been tripping me up. I don't want to feel the tag. I don't want to— I don't want it to get in the way. I don't want to shift it. I don't want to wonder, is it, you know, tight? I don't want to know if the seam is right. I don't want to have to worry if it's inside out. It's not even about— Does it fit? It's about clothes on me. I enjoy my life most when I am naked or wearing something that makes me feel like I am, or that I just got out of the bed. Like, pajamas for the win. I'm saying, when I went to Hawaii, that's how I packed. I am not going to Hawaii to please anyone. I am not going to Hawaii to look the part. I put a couple of outfits in there. You know, I put a hat in there. But in general, No. I packed for Hawaii thinking nobody's going to care about what I look like in my own skin or in these clothes. And all that matters is when I go to Hawaii that I feel the way I want to feel. That, to me, is body positivity. Because when I got there, because clothes weren't an issue, Not only did I feel in my clothes the way I wanted to feel, felt in my skin the way I wanted to feel. I didn't care who noticed what my shape was. One of the outfits that I had was this, like, net cover thing and my bathing suit underneath and some shorts. And my work engagement required that me and other women walk from the hotel along the beach and into the woods. And we sat in the woods and I had my shoes off and my thighs out and my arms were dangling and my cleavage was spilling out. And I was completely comfortable in my own skin because I was in paradise. I was celebrating the atmosphere, the beautiful weather, the sun, the perfect temperature, and in that perfect environment, I was free. That's what you want. Regardless of your environment, you want to feel free. You want to know that regardless of your environment, that you are comfortable in your own skin. That if the temperature outside does not match the temperature that you have, that your temperature is the right temperature and the right temperature wins. You want to know that whatever you put on your body helps you to think less about yourself so that you can be more of yourself in the spaces and places you should be in. So what does that mean, we should think about? Well, let me tell you a few things. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The main thing I should be focusing on is what's happening in me, and that should radiate out of me. And I want to start with that because yes, that is a spiritual principle, and yes, that influences how you should think about it. But what does that mean about how you should think about your physicality? You were stitched together. Psalm 139 tells you in your mother's womb, like, you're made well. But then there's what God gave you to house the Holy Spirit in you, and then there's what you've done to your body or what other people have done to your body. Or what other people have said about your body. And some of us go through life with the reverberation of the words of other people and what they've said about our body that has given us these great insecurities and it made us feel wrong about the way we're made. And it made us second-guess whether we are acceptable and whether we even belong. When I went to Hawai'i, The God in me was agreeing with the God outside of me, and in between the two of those, my body was just a tool. Your body is just a tool. It's a house. It's a mechanism. Jesus lives now in heaven at the right hand of the Father. He was before because in the beginning, what word— was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But in 33 years, Jesus who existed came and was housed in a body. It's a tool. And just like any tool that you want to use, you want to make sure it's kept in tip-top shape. I have some Cutco knives in my kitchen, and y'all, I'm so glad that they will sharpen those things for free because Cutco knives are not cheap. I do have a a knife sharpener in my kitchen also. Occasionally I'll sharpen them myself. But those are amazing knives. And on day one, they were razor sharp. In fact, I have a little nick on my finger right now where I was cutting a little too fast and that Cutco knife cut the skin on the tip of my finger right off. It didn't just make a little superficial slice. It like, I had to like put it back, hold it closed and super glue it. Because who needs to go to the ER when you have super glue? That knife was sharp. It was given to me sharp. But I have to keep it sharp because the more I use it, the more it wears out. We know that whether it's a Phillips head or a knife or whether it is a generator— my husband's been playing with his generator, y'all. Make sure it's ready if everything shuts down. 'Cause we are never gonna be caught again without any kind of power. But when he went to go play with that generator and turn it on and make sure it was working, recently in the last few weeks, it wouldn't start. He put new gas in it. It wouldn't start. He had to bring somebody out to fix it. And now once a month he starts that thing. You wanna know why? 'Cause he said, if I don't start it up and let it run, it won't work when we need it to. God gave you something that was perfect. Even if it wasn't humanly perfect, he gave you the body he wanted you to have. And someday you'll trade that body in for a heavenly body. In the meantime, it's yours to steward. And when he gave it to you, he said it's good. The problem is, y'all, we dull it out and then we start saying horrible things. About the tool. We start lamenting the tool. We start calling out what we don't like about the tool. And God said, I didn't give you that tool for you to look at it and comment on it. I didn't get it for you to put it in the sheath and comment on the sheath. I gave you the tool so you would use it. So I want to frame for you what having a good body image should be about and what body positivity should be encased in. I should be positive, especially in a world that would seek to be negative or to tell me that if my body doesn't look a certain way, that it's wrong. So there is room for positivity and to celebrate what God made, that it's good. There is room to say, I am made in God's image, and there is room to say, I house the living spirit of God. But also, there's room for us to recognize that it's a tool and to partner with God, yes, in being positive, but also knowing that we can contribute to how we see our bodies. When a knife gets dull, you don't look at it and say, well, this sucks. How terrible of a knife is this? You see it for what it is. And you say, this is my Cutco knife. I invested in these. This one needs a little sharpening. The goal is for you to think less about your body in negative ways, because if you think more about it in positive ways, you might become prideful. It's just— it's a tool. Enjoy it. Take care of it. Are you picking out things you don't like about your body and focusing on them? That's a sign that you are not honoring God's gift of body tool to you. Instead of body positivity and body image, why don't we talk body tool? If you are telling yourself that other people won't like you as much because of something that they see in you You're not recognizing your body as a tool. You're recognizing it as a facade of what other people will see first and whether that will impact how God wants to use you. It won't. If you spend so much time changing what you see or what you have because you want to feel accepted and loved and included, well, now you're asking for something from people who didn't give you the body. And you want something more from them when they can't really do anything for the life he's given you to live the body in. So in these situations, being hard on yourself or being stressed out about your body, cultivating, noodling on negative thoughts related to the emotions that you have about your physicality. I'm not saying they're not real. I'm talking about you not being willing to take your thoughts captive and to choose to think on things that are good, to look at what is good about your body, Your choice to not sharpen the tool is your choice, as it is for you to sharpen the tool. When you think about yourself with negative words and self-limiting ideas or exaggerations about imperfections, you are sitting on God's gift to you. So what do you do with all that? Well, instead of picking out things that are wrong with your appearance? Why don't you celebrate the things that you see and find some things that are good? For example, when I lose weight— when I gain weight and lose weight, the first place I gain it is in my stomach. The last place I lose it is in my stomach. So usually that's the first thing though that I want to go. So when I'm lamenting, ugh, I can't wear this shirt because my gut is kind of large and I need to fix that, and, oh, it's taken so long to lose that. I can also say I've enjoyed many meals with my family celebrating amazing monumental moments. I have also given birth to 4 children. Thank you, Lord, for the fullness at the table and for the fullness of my house. Doesn't mean you don't want to change it. It just means that you are choosing the positive version of why you are the way you are today. Sometimes it's strictly looking in the mirror and saying, girl, you look good. And maybe you feel like you look good because you like your new outfit. That's fine too. But celebrating that you're good needs to be a part of your language. Even if you want to change things, you need to celebrate the effort that you made today to do so, even if the change is 6 months, a year down the line. Your image, saying to yourself over and over again that you were made in the image of God, that he made you the way he wanted you. And if you're not the way he made you, that he's given you everything that you need to be able to survive to the best of your ability and to thrive if you choose to partner with what his word says about how you treat the body he gave you. When you are unnecessarily hard on yourself or negative about yourself, then I need you to remember that you are being negative about something God gave you for free. So it's important for you to recognize how you think about your body. If you have clothes in your closet that make you not feel good about your body, take them out. That's like taking your knife to somebody who's supposed to sharpen it, and all they do is say, oh my gosh, this is so dull. I don't know how I'm gonna get this to work. Let me see if this will even work this time. Don't take it there again. Take it to someone who knows what they're doing. Those clothes, if they are producing a response in your closet and in your heart that's not good, get rid of the clothes. Put them in another closet while you're waiting on changing your weight season. You choose how you participate with how God made your body. You choose with how you participate with what God says about your body. You choose to celebrate what God has already said is good. Watch how you think, watch how you talk, and watch what you say. Because if there is anyone else who needs to be celebrating the fact that you have the gift of a body to walk this earth, it should be you. Now, there are some real concerns, and I understand, about, you know, shopping, because I'm still a well-informed and endowed individual. But this is where you have to use the tools that you have at your disposal. There are people, friends, sisters, cousins who would love to take you shopping and to do it on the cheap. Come on, Kato, let's make it to a Kato. Express is going out of business. Go buy something there. If you got a little money, go to Nordstrom's and ask them for a personal shopper. You don't have to do it on your own. You also can contribute toward the improvement of your image. If you don't like it, don't talk about it. Go do something about it. Go for the walk, join the gym, hang out with a friend, set goals together. And while you're on your way, get clothes that fit where you're at. Body image. This is what God says about you. Colossians 1:16: For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created for him and by him. In the Bible, when Samuel was going to be looking for the next king, God told Samuel, don't look at his appearance, don't look at his height, because the people who you're going to look for, I am not interested in them. God doesn't see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. There are some things you're not going to change. You're not going to change your flat booty. You're not going to change your whole big old calves. There are some things you're not going to change. You're not going to change your height. But here's what you can do. You can say, OK, Lord, if you can use anything, you can use me. And when you come back to get me, can you say that I used everything you gave me and that my heart was pure? Hey, y'all. It's me calling all speakers, writers, bloggers, podcasters, Masters communicators. Why? Because it's time for me to host another coaching cohort. Because people ask me all the time, Chrystal Hurst, can I pick your brain? Can I take you to coffee? Can I call you? Do you have 15 minutes? And if you know me, you, you know, I'd love to. I would love to go deep with as many people as I can, but there's only so much time. So I am excited about kicking off my next coaching cohort and it's for communicators. You do have to apply. Apply just so we can make sure we got the right group together at the right time to go through the right content. And you can apply by going to chrystalevanshurst.com/cohort. All the information that you need to know about that will be there. I'm excited about your message and I want to help you maximize it, monetize it, and market it. I'm willing to tell you what I know, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you. All right, y'all. I hope you apply. You can be positive about your body. You just need to be positive about it for the right reasons. You can have a good image of your body. You just need to have a good image for the right reasons, because if you build your positivity or your image on the wrong reasons, the reasons will go away and you'll be left starting where you just were, even if it's decades later. There's so many scriptures about what the Bible says, and I've given some, but I want you to think about these answers to the questions that I'm sharing with these girls, these interns. How do we help our daughters? You give them words. How do you help your friends and your community? You give them words. When my friend said to me, girl, you look good in that outfit, and I was like, girl, please, I'm just plopping out in every which direction. She said, honey, all I see is Coke bottle. I've been saying it ever since. Give your girls words. While you're building them up on the inside with the word, because the Bible also talks about not being concerned with the braiding of the hair and all these external things, but with the internal. While you're building up the internal as a mother, also build up her outside. If she's athletic, if she's muscular, if she's fast, if she's smart, if she's capable Give her words. Trust me, she will remember those words later. And when you hear her as a teenager lamenting what's not, remind her of the word you already gave her. You got to give— we have to give each other straightening up the crown if it's there, putting it on if it's not. Give each other words so we can build from there. You foster body positivity, y'all, in the circle of our communities by being positive in our circles. You see a girl at church and she looks cute, tell her, girl, you look amazing today. Is this new? I love your hair. Who did your hair? Girl, your shape is so flattering in that outfit. Give each other words. Don't just say you look nice today or I like your dress. Talk to me about the full picture. How do you build secure identity in adolescence? Same way. You have to keep feeding the truth until it crowds the lie out. When we talk about social media and plastic surgery, listen, to each his own. I'm not going to tell a woman that she shouldn't go and get a needle in her mouth if she wants to get a little plumped up lips. I'm just gonna say, count the cost, do your homework, take your time. There is a way to age beautifully. When Anne Graham Lotz came to our church this weekend, Karris commented that her dress and her mannerisms reminded her of mom, that just the way she moved, she said she was so classy, gracious, and gorgeous. You just got to notice what's classy, gracious, and gorgeous. And we give each other those words. Everything on social media isn't classy. Everything on social media isn't gorgeous. These women who make up their faces and they're a completely different tone, and then we don't know what we— they look like if we see them in the store. If you are teaching your girls, delay the makeup, delay it. Let them get comfortable in their most uncomfortable season with the way God made them. My husband, when we went on our honeymoon, there's a picture that is his favorite. My hair is straight, I was still getting a perm. And I'm leaning with the ocean behind me. And I'm leaning like this. He gets up close and personal in my face. And he says, oh my gosh, you're so beautiful. Even though he can recognize when I have to go out and do something important, that I may have to put on some makeup because stage and lighting is a whole thing, he says to me, you're so beautiful. These are the words. That we want to give. What do I wish my mother had told me? Because I know that she wanted me to be healthy and she wanted me to make sure that I was not eating myself into oblivion. There was a lot of counsel about being healthy in that regard. What do I wish she had told me? Because it was hard to dress a young girl that had curves. And because I know it was work for her to dress a young girl who had curves, and that I was going to see her frustration because we had to go to a million different stores to find one store that would fit this year, I think maybe I would have said that she would have celebrated the shape instead of lamenting the shape because it was work to dress, because I heard her. And even though it wasn't at me, and even though she loved me, and even though she made me feel like I was fearfully and wonderfully made, when we dressed. The stress for her that attached to me in adolescence continued with me through adulthood. I will say that when I got pregnant with Karris, she made it her business to dress me. And we went and got all these drapey things because at 19, she just wanted to make sure she was buying me things that I could wear the whole time. She didn't have money, neither did I, but she made sure I was dressed. She always made sure I was dressed. But I would say learning enjoyment of getting dressed probably would've influenced me now, 'cause some of y'all know I don't like getting dressed. The messaging that we share with our girls, even if it's not at our girls, even if it's not about their body specifically, the frustration that we have about the privilege of being in this world in our bodies, If we don't have positivity about it, we won't transfer positivity. And that's why the world is so big on body positivity, because what the church and women who love Jesus made it all about was covering it up. Your body is bad. We don't want to see the rolls and all those things. And you got to decide where you live on that. But I think that there's a way to be modest To not advertise everything and to still look like a million bucks. That's what my grandmother would say. In fact, I have a letter from my grandmother in my nightstand where I told her when I was pregnant, I don't feel like getting dressed. I don't feel like I look good. My stomach's getting a little bigger and people are just looking at me weird. And I— and in her letter says, oh, you always have to get dressed. You just get up, put a little lipstick on, dust your face. Put on your best, and walk out the door. We can learn a lot from people who say, oh, let me tell you, honey, how to do it. So you need to attach yourself to— and I do— women who like shopping, women who enjoy the process, and I let them enjoy it with me. And I also attach myself to women who celebrate their bodies, even if their booties are flat. But they love working out. They love being outside. They love taking care of their bodies. I want to be in that number that Jesus will say to me, thanks for taking care of what I gave you. And when it got a little dull, thank you for doing the work to sharpen it. We transfer our ideation about what body image and body positivity is. So I want you to watch how you talk about your body to others and to you. When someone gives you a compliment, accept it. Say thanks, and don't say, girl, because I barely squeezed into it this morning in the Spanx. No, thank you, I really appreciate that. I get a Stitch Fix box in my mailbox. It used to be every other week, and then I went to every month. Now it's once a quarter. I might go back to every week soon. Why? Just so I'll try on new things. Literally, the other box came in the office the other day. And I wasn't sure, but one of the shirts was Vince Camuto. And I know Vince Camuto. And I was like, I don't even know if I like the shirt, but it's Vince Camuto and it feels good, so I should try it on. And I put it on and I was like, I feel like an Oompa Loompa. That's what I say about my life when I feel like all my life is just one big bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. But I feel like it's a Vince Camuto and I think it could be cute. So you know what I did? All the girls in the office, I put it on over my shirt. I said, is this cute? And they said, "Oh yeah, you could put it with this, you could put it with that." I said, "Okay, y'all gonna have to help me to put it with other things." But I tried it on and I tried something new. Just like I would challenge you in your life to try new things, go travel to new places, try a new genre of book reading, try new friends, go to Meetup, try on new clothes. Look in the mirror, stand in front of it butt naked, and call out what God says is good. And then talk to your body and be kind. Because if you've lived for any piece of time, your body has been kind to you. The reason why we love the way that babies smell, because they're new. And it takes getting to the 6-month version, and then those babies get their knees on the floor and it's not new anymore. They got carpet burn and then— You know, we got to cut the fingernails, and that new baby stage, we lose it quickly because we're on the move. So from— it's not because you had the baby, it's not because you gained the weight, it's not because you don't have that size, it's not because your boobs are too little or because they're too big, it's not because your legs aren't shaped the way you want to because you're bowlegged, it's not because you have freckles, it's not because your nose is too straight or too flat, it's not because of whatever you would like for your hair to be going, it's not because of any of that. It's because from the day you got here, you started decaying. And if you don't wait until you're old and you have wrinkles and you can't do anything about it and your skin turns leathery and your neck gets floppy— and that's going to happen. Before that ever happens, a million other things are going to change. You would not say to a toddler, "Your knees are kind of rough. What's wrong with you?" You would celebrate the fact that they were crawling. And I need you to look at your life and I need you to think about what your body has brought you through. I need you to thank God for your body because he gave it to you to house the power of God. And I need you to praise your body and let other people praise you too. And then I need you to sharpen it. Yes, drink your water. Yes, work out. Yes, eat right. Yes, go to the gym. Yes, lose the weight. Yes, gain the weight. Yes, get your blood work done. Watch your numbers. Yes, all the things. Take care of it when you're young so it'll take care of you when you're old. Y'all, I have a lifetime of hiding my upper body. I have a lifetime of making sure that my derriere is draped. I have a lifetime of making sure— I went to a Christian school where I had to put 3 fingers above my kneecap, and the dress couldn't be longer— shorter than that. I have a lifetime of, "What are you wearing?" You know what I want to practice in this season of my life? I want to practice my Hawaii moments, where I wear what I want to wear so that I can enjoy the world that I'm in, and I'm not thinking about my body and what other people would think. I'm thinking about, first and foremost, where my body is carrying me and what my body is enjoying, and that's where my positivity comes from, that I love my life and I love my body that's carrying me around in the life that I have. And yes, I need to lose weight. And yes, there are some things that I need to change. And 100% do I need to do something that'll fill out this back fat on my arms with some triceps that are doing something. I know what to do. I know what to do. But in the meantime, I'm going to tell you what I told my husband about 2 2 or 3 years ago. I said, the next time I gain the 40 pounds, I'm done. I choose to be fat and happy. I did not mean that I would never eat right. I did not mean that I would never work out. I did not mean that I wouldn't lose the weight or that I wouldn't focus on taking care of my body. What I meant is, that's the last time I let the way my body looks define how I feel about how I live in it. Let me tell you something. It's been amazing. It's been amazing to wear the clothes I feel good in. It's been amazing to go where I want to go. And yeah, I mean, you know, grace, OK? Class. I'm Lois Evans' daughter. I ain't going crazy out here in these streets. But it's been amazing for me to say that feeling that I had when my clothes were not a barrier, when my oomphaloomphaness did not distract me from enjoying my life, I know what that is, and I can bring that into my everyday. Body positivity is being comfortable in your own skin every day. And even if today is a day that you know you can sharpen the knife, okay. What do we do when we have a knife that's dull? We use it. We still cut the tomatoes. We still cut the onions. We still do what we need to do, and it might take a little longer, or we might know that it's going a little slower than it should, and we might lament the fact that the knife is not exactly what we want it to be, but you know what we still do? We still eat. We don't let it get in the way. I need you to celebrate your body because, listen here, you are having a spiritual experience in your body. I need you to be kind to it. I need you to celebrate it. I need you to watch what you say. I need you to be kind and considerate. I need you to be grateful. I need you to understand the beauty of you being made in the image of God. I understand— I want you to understand that you're praiseworthy and that every day when you walk before the Lord in your body that you're in the land of the living. I want you to understand that even though you may want your legs to be a little smaller, or you may want them not to look as chickeny as they do, these are the legs that take you into the house of God. I need you to celebrate what your body does for you because God didn't just come and save you. Jesus put on human flesh. He said, "In order for me to fully save them, I have to do it in my body," and his body, even broken, was good. So what do I think about body positivity? I think you need to watch how you define it and don't let what the world defines it as distract you from what you need to do with your tool. Be positive about your body, but don't allow a body positivity movement to confuse you about what your body is for. Don't let the body positivity movement be another sheep in wolf's clothing where Satan distracts you from what you actually have to do to make sure your body lasts. Should you be positive? 100%. Should you celebrate who you are as you are right now? Absa-dog-on-lutely. Should you wear what you enjoy? Yes. Should you check in with the mother of the church? Probably. But also, Should you enjoy your body? Yes, you should. One last word. After Jesus died, the women who found him in the tomb, they came to put spices on his body. They expected that it would have started the decomposing process, and they thought that it'd be smelling, and they came to take care of it. He was dead, and they came to take care of it. That's how important your body is. So if you're feeling dead in your skin, if you're like, I'll never lose this weight, I, I have these medical problems, I have the autoimmune disease, I have skin that breaks out all the time, I am in pain, I have body parts that don't work right. My knees are giving out. My insides won't work. Why won't my body work? I'm having miscarriages. I'm— I've got these fibroids. I'm trying to get this palpitation in my heart to cease. Whatever you think is wrong with it, The women dressed Jesus' body. They planned to when he was dead. So no matter how bad it is, oh my goodness, please be kind to your body. And whatsoever is good and whatsoever is right, whatsoever is of good report, and all the other things that Philippians talks about, think on those things. Because let me tell you something about Chrystal Hurst. I know what it is to be free and lighthearted in my own skin, and there is nothing like it. Can I stand here right now and tell you that there are some things I need to work on? 100%. Do I think less of my body because of that? I do not. At all. Do I have moments where I'm like, ugh, like right now I got 6 sizes of bras. In my drawer. In the— I was looking at the bra and I buy the same bras because who has time to be trying new things when the old things work? So I'm buying the new bras, y'all, and I'm looking at them and they're all the same. And I'm like, I don't even remember what size I am right now. But you want to know what? You better believe if I outgrow or shrink, I go get a good bra. We're going to hike these boulder holders up, make sure everything is working like it's supposed to be working. When I was nursing, and I'll close with this, I had to go to a specialty store. It's now closed in Dallas, Hallmark Shop. Women that have mastectomies would go there. I didn't know that. I just knew that I went to Dillard's and they said, we're sorry, we don't carry your size because I was pregnant and about to give birth to a baby and my boobs were getting big. And I did not know what kind of store it was. They just said they could make custom bras. I was so dejected. I'm a 19-year-old young woman who's going to a custom bra store. And it was— that was not in my vocabulary before that. They sized me in a bra that was way too big, but then they had a seamstress in the back and she would put darts in the side and then it would custom fit. And I remember when they tried the bra on me and she says, okay, and she wrote down my size on her little card. And I just remember standing there like, look in distress. And I said, oh my God. And she said, what? And she says, I cannot believe my boobs are that big. It's like I'm 19 years old. And she said, honey, you're about to give birth. You're about to give life. That is a blessing that you'll have something to give your baby. It's all in how you look at it. Your body is a blessing. Whether you have children or not, you are designed to give life, and you do that through the mechanism of your body. When you birth children, disciple women, raise other women up, they would not be able to see you if you did not have a body. They would not be able to hear you if you did not have a body. They would not be able to see you or feel you or experience you or touch you if you did not have a body to give them a hug. So you better wrap your arms around somebody. And let your body tell them indeed what your mouth is saying. And yes, find your store. And yes, keep it simple. And yes, have a friend go with you and order online and have it delivered so you can change in the comfort of your own home. And yes, get on Pinterest. And yes, find out what your body shape is. And yes, Go to the gym and go to the spin class and eat the salad and drink the water, all the things. But when you stand in the mirror and look at yourself clothed or unclothed, be honest about the things you've told yourself that are wrong and then create a new script. And sometimes, every now and then, you should go to a beach, wear clothes that nobody cares about, and see and feel and sense what it is to be happy and free in your own skin. And the day that that happens for you, write down how you feel and then orient your life so you experience more of that. That's what I have to say about it right now. I'm sure I would love to give a whole nother talk about this with statistics about the girls and overweight and bulimia and statistics about what young women say about themselves and sound really educated. But today, I just need you to know, my goodness. I will say this one last thing. I don't know. I feel like I might have the gift of being with someone when they're passing. It has happened numerous times. And in those moments, I have watched myself become someone else. And I have ushered now in my lifetime 4 people into eternity, had the gift and the privilege of doing that. And as I, as their bodies weaken, care and watch their bodies fight to stay alive. What an amazing body we have that until it simply cannot any longer, it fights for us. And I want to be thankful to the body I have that every single minute my heart is pumping and the blood vessels that run all the way through my body are delivering oxygen. I want to be thankful. And I want to help this girl live her best life. My 12-year-old car, y'all, gets amazing oil changes. I pay more for the oil changes now and I do them more frequently. You want to know why? Because I love her. She's paid off. She's paid for. Y'all, she got dents in the back. My trunk won't even open. I still pay somebody twice a year to come and detail her. You want to know why? She's taking care of me. I want to take care of her. And there are some things that don't work, but you better believe I invest in her because she takes me everywhere I want to go. So your girl, the body you're in, she takes you everywhere you want to go. Make sure you're taking care of her too.