By Mallory Mattingly
FULL HOUSE actress Candace Cameron Bure got candid about her body image struggles, something “a lot of women” deal with, in a new episode of “The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast.”
“I whipped my body. I’ve spoken to it so harshly,” Bure said with tears in her eyes. “Why don’t you do this? Why can’t you be like every other body?”
But God used a passage from Numbers 22 — the story of Balaam and his talking donkey — to help her see herself differently.
Bure recalled, “And then God allowed my body to speak back, and my body said back to me, ‘Have I not been the body that’s carried you all the days of your life? Am I not your legs that allow you to walk? Am I not your arms that allow you to pick up and feed yourself?…Why do you hurt me so badly, and why do you talk to me so badly, and why do you treat me this way? I can lift you up…you have to tell me what to do. I’m following your lead.'”
“And it was like this amazing revelation in my life,” she continued. “And the weirdest story out of the Bible that God spoke to me about how mean I’ve been to my body. I never saw it that way — it’s this beautiful amazing thing that God gave me.”
Bure posted a clip of that podcast on her Instagram. In the caption, she wrote, “I was so mean to myself… and looking back, it breaks my heart.💔 Learning to speak with kindness to my body has been a journey, and I know I’m not alone in this. To those who relate — I hope you can feel me giving you the biggest virtual hug right now. And I hope you’ll join me in showing ourselves the grace and love we truly deserve.”
Bure isn’t alone in her struggle.
According to the National Organization for Women (NOW), by age thirteen, “53% of American girls are ‘unhappy with their bodies.’ This grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen.”
Oftentimes, if a woman is unsatisfied with her body, she may resort to eating disorders.
“According to The Center for Mental Health Services, 90 percent of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25,” NOW shared.
A negative body image can put you at risk for mental health disorders, like depression, and eating disorders. However, remembering that you are made in the image of God and that He designed you “fearfully and wonderfully” for His special purpose can transform how you view your body — a gift rather than a curse.
Read Next: Bethany Hamilton on Body Image: ‘God Has Created Us Uniquely Beautiful’
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