麻豆约拍

Good morning. On this day in 1987 Lynne Cox became the first person to take the chilly swim across the Bering Strait, 2.7 miles between Alaska and Siberia, crossing between the USA and the Soviet Union. It took two hours and six minutes and was a great achievement. Lynne Cox had been warned about the dangerously low water temperature. Nevertheless, she swam in her bathing suit and survived. Experts believe she succeeded in part because of her body fat. Body fat, we know, is insulation and if you don鈥檛 believe me ask a seal!
It is publicly recorded that Lynne Cox weighed 13 stone and had about 36% body fat- higher than the average for most women. I wonder if many of us would want to be publicly proud of our body fat?
The Mental Health Foundation鈥檚 Body Image Report published this year, tells us that one in five adults in the UK have felt shame because of their body image. Over a third have felt depressed or anxious and a shocking one in eight adults in the UK have experienced thoughts or feelings about taking their own lives because of concerns about their body image.
It鈥檚 staggering that how we look can have such an impact on life. Without the level of perfection we desire or are led to believe matters, we feel bad about ourselves perhaps sadly missing out on the joy of living life to the full.
We pause in prayer to give thanks to God for looking on our hearts and seeing who we truly are. We pray that we will learn to love who we really are as much as God loves us. Amen.