cinnamon buns (Pioneer Woman anyone?)<\/a> and sugar cookies, the turkey and potatoes and perogies, and for a former anorexic, the choices are overwhelming. Do I just take all five salads? How many pieces of ham? And what about the dozens of desserts?<\/p>\n\n\n\nI\u2019m far from those eating disorder days, yet not as far as I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve got two boys now, and I know they\u2019re watching me. I\u2019ve got a husband who loves my curves, yet when the pants grow snug, I feel less-than.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I immediately make plans to cut back in January, because it\u2019s the magical month, isn\u2019t it, ladies? The month to get back into shape? The month to reclaim that size six dress, to purge for all of December\u2019s sins?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diet pill companies love January. Commercials full of men and women lamenting their size, and none of it\u2019s about health \u2014 it\u2019s all about the bottom dollar, and meanwhile, we\u2019re losing our sons and daughters to the industry. The message of Bethlehem forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Girls as young as four years old are dieting<\/i> because mommy and daddy are complaining about their \u201cChristmas rolls\u201d and the damage of holiday excess lasts year long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can celebrate, yes, but let\u2019s teach our girls and boys how to do it with grace. Let\u2019s show compassion towards ourselves when we eat too many chocolates because we are human.And let January be a month of forgiveness. What better way to start the New Year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forgiveness \u2014 towards ourselves, towards each other \u2014 even as we stumble along and try to figure out this life, in our snug pants, the hospitals full of starving youth, because it\u2019s not about the size of our bodies. It\u2019s about the size of our hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not about getting<\/i> anything \u2014 be it thinner or back into shape. It\u2019s about giving, long into the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s about giving our time, our food, our money, our homes. Like Magi we follow the stars laden with presents for the Christ-child. And the pants will adjust, even as the feasting dies down. The fridge will one day be emptied of leftovers, the candy put away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even as the tree is packed up and the ornaments stowed, Jesus is still being born among us. <\/i>Come to set us free from the scale, from food, so we might know life abundant in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this, friends, is something worth celebrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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