My New Blog!!

Yeahhh!!! I finally have my own blog! I'm really excited to get started. My boyfriend Jake created it for me...doesnt it look great?! He does a great job with html editing, as you can see. He's really creative and I'm pretty sure he can do just about anything on a computer. Thanks Jake, I love it!

Runway Models

As I have written about before, weight issues are something that I have a heart for. It's not because I am too fat or too thin or have struggled with weight before, I think its just because I care about how people feel about themselves and I know the pressure we all face to look a certain way. The fashion industry is something I find very frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I love fashion and part of me dreams of being a designer...but its the models that bother me. I'm sure not all runway models are way too skinny, but many are. Why is it that the 'standard' size of runway models seems to get smaller and smaller? I'm not trying to blame the models themselves or put this on them, I'm sure they face a tremendous amount of pressure to be thin. I can't imagine what these girls go through

Obesity - How bad is it really?

CAUSES OF DEATH - U.S. 1990

Tobacco 400,000
Diet/Activity Patterns 300,000
Alcohol 100,000
Microbial Agents 90,000
Toxic Agents 60,000
Firearms 35,000
Sexual Behavior 30,000
Motor Vehicles 25,000

We've all heard about these numbers right....labeling obesity as one of the top causes of death in the US? But where does it actually say anything about "obesity" or being "overweight"?

Yes, our nation is becoming more and more fat, but is it really as lethal of a problem as we make it? It sad that we dont hear the real statistics on this:

"For overweight and obesity combined, our estimate was 25,814 excess deaths" (Flegal et al, JAMA 2005)

What they don't tell us is that the "obesity rate" is actually a combination of undereating and overeating. If only we were aware of the fact that being too thin may be just as harmful as being too fat.

A little of my Urbana experience...

I am so thankful I had the opportunity to be a part of Urbana 06. It was such a great experience and through my time there I learned so much about myself personally and the world around me. Throughout the week we studied the book of Ephesians, in which Paul makes a strong emphasis on the unity of the body of Christ. Taking a deeper look at these passages really made me see some things in a new way. As Paul writes, we are all ONE body. Yes, of course I've been taught this before, but sometimes I forget what that really means. We all come to Christ the same way, kneeling before him, and are all unified through him. As one body, each part should feel the effects of the others. Urbana game me just a small picture of the oppression faced by many people in other countries. Some of these issues include the effects of AIDS on children and families in Africa and the horrific reality of child sex trafficking. As I thought about Paul's teaching of being one body in Christ, and then learned about some of the issues that others are facing everyday, it changed my heart and really made me feel for these people in a new way. It's easy to feel the effects of things that happen to people in our own church body, but in these passages Paul isn't talking about just the people we see on Sunday or in our community; he is talking about our brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere. Many of these people suffering from the effects of AIDS or from human trafficking are our own brothers and sisters in Christ; and as one body, we should feel the effect of their suffering. Of course we can't all go out and save each person, but as I was also reminded at Urbana, God is greater than we could ever give Him credit for and he hears our prayers. Many of these people are crying out to God for freedom from their suffering and though we will probably never know these people, we can at least join them in prayer so they will not be alone!