By Jade Whitehurst
Doesn’t it feel amazing to hit your weight loss goal? To see that number you’ve been working so hard for finally hit the scale is rewarding. However, I want to challenge you to lose a different kind of weight: the weight of perfection.
I just gave birth to our third and final baby in mid-August, and while I am so eager to begin my workouts again, I want to be mindful of the why and the what my goals are rooted in. It is so easy to let comparison and worldly expectations of how I should look creep into my heart.
Therefore I want to be mindful and godly in how I approach any goal. To do this, I ask myself a few heart-check questions:
- Are these goals realistic when considering my time, energy, and capabilities in this season?
- Do I just wish this, or do I want this?
- Who am I trying to please? God, myself, or man?
- Am I rooting my goals and expectations in perfection, or in Christ?
How do I measure whether I am in a perfection or Christlike mindset? The best way is to look at my initial response when I do not meet my goals. If it is frustration and defeat, I am more likely seeking perfection. If it is growth and grace, my goals are likely rooted in Christ.
Like our walk with Christ, our health and fitness goals are not a destination to be reached on this side of eternity. Instead, it is a journey in which we grow and make improvements along the way. It is also about learning to view our health journey as a praise response to the One who designed our bodies to move in the first place. We are already immeasurably loved by God just the way we are, and that is WHY we live it out in and through our healthy and holy habits.
I believe this is why so many fail and give up: We have the wrong mindset before we ever start! It is a “do to get” mentality instead of an “I do because I have” mentality. When you have the mindset (and heartset) that you already are loved and are not working to be loved, you will find so much more joy in your journey.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let me urge you to stop carrying the weight we were never designed to carry — perfection.
Stand confident in knowing that you are in Christ, but you are not Christ — and thank goodness! This is a solid and humble reminder that I am human. It is time we stop letting Satan steal our joy from making healthier choices, and begin showing up because of WHOSE we are, not because of who we are not. Defeat is not any of ours who are in Christ Jesus. May we walk boldly in that truth.
Jade Whitehurst is a wife, mom, fitness coach and eighth-grade science teacher. You can follow her on Instagram @jadewhitehurst_thefaithfitmom.
