DISCUSSION ABOUT EATING DISORDERS

I was surprised today by something someone said, and that rarely happens that someone surprises me. I usually have heard most everything. I was working out at Curves (which, if you have never been there, is a workout place for women only, is a small setting where you can see everything that goes on, and is a place where they help monitor your measurements and body fat), and I saw a woman that I see frequently. She always pushes herself very hard to work out, she gets on the scales at every workout, and she is pencil thin. After she left, I asked the women who run the place if they ever ask anyone like that if they are struggling with an eating disorder and then offer them help. (They said no they don't.) What shocked me was the response of the other women in the room. I heard comments of "O, she's a great woman - she wouldn't have an eating disorder," "O, she has a family and has had children - she wouldn't have an eating disorder," O, she goes to church - she wouldn't have an eating disorder." I responded to each individually, saying that someone can be great, have a family, and be in church, and still struggle with eating. But this accurately represents the worlds' perception of things, and maybe I need to have conversations with the world about eating disorders and about what those who are churched really struggle with, more often. Why do we so often relate struggle with someone who is doing wrong things and making bad choices? That's so bizarre, because we obviously all struggle with many different things. Yet we try our hardest to make others think we don't. Let's become a church that walks together in our weaknesses and shows the world what beautiful relationships that makes.