Your Biggest Battle Is Not With Your Body [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Your Biggest Battle Is Not With Your Body

Podcast Date: September 16, 2025

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Heather speaks into the aftermath of last week’s tragic events to address how these unsettling times can actually serve as a wake-up call for Christian women struggling with body image and comparison.

Instead of focusing on the headlines, Heather invites listeners to examine what we’re really battling daily. She explores the big idea that our struggle isn’t with the scale, the mirror, or even other women—it’s a spiritual battle, not “against flesh and blood,” as Ephesians 6:12 says. Heather shares a relatable story about getting a speeding ticket (and her less-than-humble reaction!) as an illustration of the subtle ways pride and self-focus sneak in, keeping us distracted from what God is calling us to.

Here are some references & main themes:

• The assassination of Charlie Kirk: Not the main focus of the episode, but this tragic event is used as context for discussing spiritual wake-up calls and living boldly for Jesus.

• Us vs. them mentality: How cultural polarization and volatility can lead to numbness or withdrawal, even from our spiritual callings.

• Spiritual battle vs. physical struggle: Using Ephesians 6:12, Heather emphasizes we need to recognize the spiritual nature of our struggles—especially with body image, insecurity, and comparison.

• Armor of God (Ephesians 6): Are you more worried about what you wear or making sure you have the armor of God on?

• The lie of “my truth” vs. God’s truth: Heather draws from the cultural trend of embracing “my truth” and contrasts it with God’s truth, especially in how we view ourselves and our worth.

• Pride and self-righteousness: Illustrated through her personal speeding ticket story, reminding us how quickly we default to excusing ourselves and judging others.

• Encouragement for action: Rather than “doing more” or “trying harder,” Heather invites listeners to actually follow Jesus, not just fit Him into their goals and plans.

• Overcoming shame and guilt: She warns listeners not to get caught in the enemy’s trap of shame for not being "further along" in their spiritual walk, and instead to run toward Jesus, the light, and real security.

Programs and Resources Mentioned:

• 40-Day Journey: Starts October 1st, with groups beginning October 7th. Details at improvebodyimage.com or directly at: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge

• Body Image Freedom Framework: Heather’s online course for deeper freedom in the areas discussed in the episode. 

• Coaching and community offerings: Here are links to programs designed to equip women for the real battle.

Questions to Reflect On:

• Which “battle” am I spending most of my time and energy on each day?

• How does believing my own truth about my body or worth keep me from living in God’s truth?

• Am I taking Jesus along for my ride, or am I letting Him lead?

Final encouragement: Heather calls listeners to reject shame, fight the real battle, and let their light shine for Christ. She challenges us to think about how we will be remembered—not as women obsessed with their image, but as those unafraid to shine the light of Jesus.

For more: Listen to this episode for Heather’s personal stories, practical encouragement, and a heartfelt call to step out of comparison and into true freedom. Plus, details on the 40-Day Journey and more great episodes at LifeAudio.com.

Loved this episode? Share, subscribe, and leave a review—or join a journey to grow deeper in faith and freedom!

For more Christian podcasts, check out lifeaudio.com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio. Oh, friend, Heather Creekmore here, y'. All. I had another podcast recorded for this week, but in light of the events of last week, I felt like I should hop on here and give you something fresh and more timely. Many of you might be trying to process what happened last week when Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Social media is a messy, terrible place around what happened with this. And maybe you just have a lot of feelings or maybe not. Maybe you don't really feel affected at all and perhaps to some degree, maybe feel a little numb around things like this because over the past decade or so there's just been so much volatility, so much us versus them, that you've just kind of run out of energy for it.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:43]:
I get it. No matter where you are today, hear me, this episode isn't really about what happened or why it happened. It's not that. But I think we can, as we assess current events, we. We can learn something super important as it applies to body image comparison, all those first world issues that we Christian women get caught up in. And I do think that the events of last week can be, forgive me, a turning point for all of us. A wake up call, really. We are directed in scripture to be in the world, but not of it.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:21]:
And that's a challenge. And seeing what happens when someone takes a stand for Jesus or takes a stand against popular cultural issues that don't align with scripture, that can result either in us wanting to shrink back and blend in even more so we feel safe, or it can embolden us to take a stand. And today I want us to see how all of these issues we're battling, they're not about being a Republican or Democrat or popular ideologies or our battles aren't with the scale. Or comparing yourself to that woman at church who's skinnier than you and seems like she never has to diet. No, friend, our real battles are not against flesh and blood. Ephesians tells us they're spiritual. And we spend so much time looking for flesh and blood answers like we talked about last week. We want to reason it out.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:09]:
We want to lean on our own understanding. We want to just fix ourselves so our flesh and blood won't struggle anymore. But none of these things are really the answer. Oh, and I got a speeding ticket this weekend that just may have helped me see everything clearer. So I'll tell you that story. We'll wait to see how I wind that in. But that's where we're going today. I'm so glad you're here for it.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:30]:
Hey. Our next 40 day journey reading starts October 1st. Groups start October 7th. Learn more about how to be part of [email protected] it really just could change your life. Okay, so I got pulled over this weekend coming up from Costco, driving down a semi residential street. We have a lot of those around here where it's actually a thoroughfare. Like it's a street that lots of people have to drive through to get places, but it's also a neighborhood. And I thought the speed limit was 35.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:04]:
I was driving 39. Apparently the speed limit was only 30. And so I got pulled over and I got a speeding ticket. And here's what happened in my head. As I was waiting for the officer to come and ask for my license and registration, I was thinking, why me? Seriously, I'm not a threat to society. Aren't there other criminals out there? Real criminals out there? What I did wasn't that bad. I mean, if I had seen any kids in yards playing, I would have totally slowed down immediately. I wasn't on my phone, I wasn't texting and driving.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:37]:
Like I saw three other drivers that morning who were far, far worse than I was. Why didn't they get pulled over and get tickets? Friend? I kind of defaulted to this pride filled, self righteous place where I was so ready to give myself grace and write off what I had done. My sin, if you will, as not really that big of a deal. While pointing fingers at everyone else, I almost talked myself into the fact that I didn't really deserve a speeding ticket because I wasn't trying to hurt anyone and it wasn't fair that I would get one when there were other worse people out there than me. Okay, yeah, it's a little embarrassing to confess all of that out loud, but maybe you've done it too. Why aren't you getting the real criminals, not me? But here's the thing. That ticket paying that $184 was a wake up call. And as I've been driving the last few days since I got the ticket, guess what? I am a much more careful driver.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:39]:
I'm stopping before the white line at every stop sign. I'm paying careful attention to speed limit sign. It was a big wake up call for me to get out of automatic mode just driving. However, I'm kind of used to and without thinking about it or being conscious of it to now driving as if it matters. And it matters a lot because I think I have to go to traffic school if I get a second ticket and our insurance will probably Go up all those sorts of things. Now, this may be a silly illustration, and admittedly it doesn't hold any gravity next to what happened last week. So hear me clearly on that. I'm not trying to compare my speeding ticket to the atrocious murder of a young Christian leader.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:19]:
But like my wake up call, I believe what happened last week is a wakeup call for Christians. It's a wake up call for us to realize that we are in a real battle. And it's not a battle between political parties. It's a battle between good and evil. There are only two sides. There's not a comfy middle where you don't have, like, you have a secret faith. You don't really have to worry about persecution because no one actually knows that you're a Christian. You just keep that quiet, like friend.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:51]:
If that's where you are, you've chosen a side and it's not God's side. We don't biblically have the option to stay silent, to live a quiet, silent faith. And so if you are a Christian woman with body image and comparison issues, or really any issues that you feel are weighing you down, things of this world that you just obsess over, you spend lots of time worrying over, I want to encourage you to heed this wake up call. The call is to decide which kingdom you are going to be a part of. Which world do you really want to live in? Do you want to fit in with this world, with this culture? Do you want to buy into their systems and values and their ways of believing and doing things? Or do you want to be not of this world? Do you want to actually be a follower of Jesus in his upside down, sometimes just weird, according to the standards of this world kingdom? Do you want to think about and see and do things differently than those unbelievers around you? I think Charlie Kirk's assassination is waking Christians up. So many of them are young people, which is so amazing to see. This may be the first time in our modern history that there are more young people, people under 30, on fire for God than there are older people. It's the younger people who are taking a stand and saying, I have decided to follow Jesus and they're not ashamed.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:16]:
And as I was thinking about it, I was thinking, I wonder why, I wonder why it's not those of us who are a little older, those of us who have more faith that's grown, we've been further down the road. Why is it not us? Like, why are we not the ones out there taking a Stand, sharing our faith, living that loudly for Jesus. And I'm afraid the problem goes back to what happened with me and my speeding ticket. You see, I think we've spent a lot of time looking at the world without having our hearts arrested. Figuratively, of course. And no, I wasn't actually arrested. I just got pulled over. Let me be clear on that.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:55]:
But we may feel a prick of the Holy Spirit kind of pulling us over. He may be convicting us around something like, here's one. Hey, Heather, you're spending way too much time worrying about what you'll wear to church. Instead of focusing on worshiping me. But instead of listening to that conviction, instead of paying attention to that speeding ticket, if you will, instead of hearing him repenting, moving forward, I respond with, yeah, but that's not a big deal. I mean, I want to look nice for church. There's nothing sinful about looking nice for church. So it's not really as big of a deal as you're making it.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:33]:
God, you should really go look at all those people who are doing much more awful, sinful things. All those people who are sitting in this way and this way, like, that's who really deserves your attention. That's who really deserves a speeding ticket. In other words, I'm not a menace to your kingdom, God, but all these other people, they really are. Pull them over. Not me. Oh my pride. Oh my self righteousness.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:59]:
God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. And I wonder, I wonder if that's why so many of us have lost our light. Or at a minimum, our light is shining so dull that you'd have to be in a really, really, really dark room in order to see it. And since we avoid really, really dark places, no one sees that we have any light at all. But friend, without any light, you're going to be lost in the darkness. You can't just have light sometimes or just shine your light for church for an hour on Sunday morning and then turn it off all week and go back to living as if this world and your body and your appearance and your clothes and the way your house looks and the way your children act and all your. That those are the things that matter most. And some of that darkness you're feeling, friend, it's tangled into all these issues that you're wrestling.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:50]:
That darkness is part of your body image issues, that darkness is part of your comparison issues. That darkness is your marriage issues. You cannot win, solve, heal or handle any of these issues without Jesus. That light has to be turned on high power all week long, unless that light is on, the darkness is not exposed. And so here's the challenge. And I can almost hear your pushback, sweet friend. You're like, Heather, I do all the things. I read my Bible, I try to pray, I go to church.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:20]:
I do all the things. And I still have body image issues and I still compare myself to other people and I still get offended really easily and I still spend a lot of time analyzing what other people think of me. And I still fill in the blank here. And here's what I say to you, my friend. I know, I see. I see how hard you're trying. I see your efforts. But all this doing isn't going to fix this.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:44]:
You have to start being Christianity is not about doing. It's about following Jesus. Are you following him or are you trying to take him along on your own journey? I'll dig into this more right after this quick break. Yeah, it's the question I've asked several times on this show, but are you just trying to take Jesus along on your quote unquote Christian journey? I think I know I've said it before, that God is my co pilot bumper sticker is the most heretical thing you could have in your car because God is not in the passenger seat. If you're a Christian, God shouldn't be in the passenger seat going along whatever journey you take him on. God should be driving. Is Jesus showing you where he wants you to go or are you praying and telling God where you're headed next? I sense that we may be entering unchartered territory in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death. I don't know.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:43]:
I don't want to be someone who overstates things or is too dramatic. But I know from scripture that the time will come when we'll have to make a choice. We'll have to be more obvious about who we are following, will be called into dangerous situations and asked whose team we're on. Even here in the US we may no longer have the option to just stay quiet and blend in or be a quote unquote nominal Christian. There's no such thing. You're either all in or you're all out. And friend, I don't want you to be so caught up in trying to get your weight right or pause aging or get as muscular as that woman you envy on Instagram. I don't want you to be so caught up in that that you miss the real battle.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:31]:
The real battle is not with your body. The real battle is a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. You are in a battle, and it's a spiritual battle. Now, what's the Context of Ephesians 6:12? That's probably a familiar passage to many of you. It's Paul telling the church at Ephesus that they're going to have to put on the full armor of God because they are going into this battle. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the shoes of readiness.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:18]:
Like you may have heard or studied all of these. So let me ask you gently, do you make sure you're wearing the full armor of God every day? Or are you more concerned with what you are literally wearing on your body or how it fits every morning? Which one's more important to you? Which one do you spend more time thinking about? Because right there, friend, that's indicative of which battle you believe you are really fighting. You may be missing the spiritual battle because you believe the real battle you're fighting is with your physical body. The real battle you need to win is in the way your body presents itself to other people. And then likewise, you may also believe that the real safety you find is when you fix your physical body. If you can get all the body stuff right, then you won't be persecuted, you'll be safe, you'll be accepted. No one will look at you funny. Everyone will love you more.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:15]:
You'll be part of the group, life will be easier. This life will be better because you fixed your physical body. Is that the battle you're trying to win? And if so, then I have to ask you this follow up question. Who promised you that? Who promised you that you would get that safety, that security that you long for if you fix your physical body? It wasn't Jesus. He didn't promise us safety if we get the right look. He didn't even promise us earthly safety with no fear of persecution if we live loudly for him. Kind of the opposite, right? I mean, we don't have to be afraid of persecution, right? Because we know from Scripture that they can kill or persecute this physical body, right? But we get to live forever with Jesus. But Jesus didn't promise us that this life would be pain free.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:10]:
Kind of the opposite, right? The safety and security we long for is only found in Him. This world can't promise a believer that for any reason. So if it wasn't Jesus who promised you that? Then who's whispering that into your ear? Who is luring you into a battle that's very different than the battle scripture explains? It's not God. Hear me, friend. I know some of you are fighting so hard. You fought so hard for so long. You've prayed. Maybe you felt like God was assisting you in the battle against the scale or in your battle against how you feel about yourself or insecurity.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:46]:
But hear me, friend, to win this battle, you have to retreat from that battle and fight only the battle that matters, the war against the evil one. Those other battles are just draining you and diverting you from the real battle you're in now. Yeah, we don't blame everything on the devil. We do fight our own flesh. And when I say flesh, I don't mean our physical bodies. I mean our sin nature. Let me be very clear about that. But again, identifying which battle is biggest to you may reveal your citizenship.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:23]:
It may reveal what you're really looking to save you. It will certainly reveal your idols. It will reveal whether or not you've put all your trust in God or whether or not you've kind of just put your trust in yourself, hoping God will go along with your plans. Let me try to fill that part out just a little bit. You see, what I find most often when I work with women is our biggest problem is we believe we have the God and Jesus answers down, friend. I did. I thought I knew them all. I knew the Bible, I went to Christian schools, God and Jesus stuff, check.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:57]:
But I was still bogged down with all of these things. In fact, I was just remembering yesterday how I used to spend so much time just angry with my husband. I would just kind of walk around just feeling silently, secretly upset with him, mad at him for whatever. I would come up with something new all the time. He found new ways to offend me regularly. And I was thinking yesterday how nice it is to not live like that anymore. How for the most part we, you know, we still have our disagreements, of course, as every married couple does, but for the most part, we live peacefully together. And the problem was I was way too self focused.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:37]:
Another way to say that is I kind of became my own God. Ooh, yikes, that's yucky. And it's gonna sound so over the top and unfamiliar to some of you, but just stick with me for a second, right? Because becoming my own God isn't really as difficult as it sounds. Because this idol of self hides so, so well in all of these issues that we struggle with. Now, you see, Charlie Kirk went to college campuses and he talked to people about what they believed to be true. And then he would challenge them with what is actually true from the Bible. Scripture was where he based truth and people hated him for it. That's why he died.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:24]:
That's why he was killed. And why do people hate him so much for it? Because honestly, we all want to be our own gods. We all want to think we have the right answers and not report to anyone who would would disagree with us. We want to believe that what we believe or what we do is the best way to be or the best way to live. We want to be our own gods and decide for ourselves what is true and what is not true. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, friends, all the way back there, right? The choice that Eve made to eat the fruit was not a choice about being tempted by food. It was a choice of her saying, yeah, I know there's God, God's truth, but I believe God's holding out of me on me. I don't know if I believe that God is good, right? My truth is maybe there's a better way for this whole thing to go down.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:20]:
And so I'm going to eat from this tree and live according to what I think is best. And this is what Charlie called out. Charlie called out this whole my truth concept. He contrasted it over and over again with God's truth. And I talked to many, many Christian women who would never disagree with what Charlie did. They would take, I would call more conservative positions on the ideological issues of the day and say that Charlie Kirk was right on disagreeing with his people and calling them out for their truth being wrong and not matching God's truth. But then when I asked these women what's true about themselves and their bodies or their worth or their, oh, boy, they disagree with God's truth. They've established their own version of this my true thing, and they live by it.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:20]:
And I go into great detail about, like, how this works, and I kind of help you work through this in my online course. It's just called the Body Image Freedom Framework. Like, you can Access [email protected] I'll put the link in the show notes. Right? But this my true thing is a big deal, even for Christians, even for Christian women. We don't get to have our own set of what's true. It can't be my truth that God made other people's bodies good, but not mine. That's not true. According to scripture, it can't be my truth that other people should thank God for the good gift of their body, but I can't because mine doesn't look how I want it to look.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:03]:
Not consistent with the Bible. It can't be God's truth. Envious and harmful to ourselves and our relationships. But my truth is that I just look at other women online because it helps me and it motivates me to be my best, healthiest self. No, no, you don't get that out to entertain envy, Friend. It can't be my truth that God made a mistake when he created me or formed my body because Scripture tells me that he carefully knit me together in my mother's womb. He made me on purpose for his purpose. I have to believe God's truth, not my truth.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:45]:
And I could go on and on, but friend, agreeing with God's truth, calling out the lies of the evil one, this is the best way to get into the right battle. Get into the battle that will actually help you win these issues. And that's the spiritual battle. That's the battle for your soul. That's the battle for how you're going to spend this little tiny bit of time you have here on the earth. Are you going to spend it living loud for the light like Charlie Kirk did? Whether or not you agree with his politics, he let the light of Jesus shine. He talked about following and living for Jesus all of the time in very dark places. Or are you going to stay dim? Are you going to keep trying to just fight the battle with the scale or fight the battle with the mirror or fight the battle with your husband? Oh, friend, I hope you've heard today's message with so much love and grace, because I truly just want to inspire you and call you to a place where your faith is stronger and where your light shines brighter because you're not deceived by the enemy and his tactics to keep you in the wrong battle.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:46]:
If you're struggling, please don't respond with guilt or shame again. That's another one of the enemy's great tricks. You've been a Christian for how long and you still don't get this? Shame on you. Shame on you. You should feel so bad about yourself now. That, friend, that's the enemy. And he may be saying that to some of you right now. Reject that, my friend.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:07]:
That is not the Holy Spirit whispering in your ear. That's the one who wants to steal, kill and destroy. You do not have to listen to him. Reject him. Tell him to flee if you're ready to fight the real battle, then let's go. We're going to be talking about how to grow up in your faith all this fall here on the show. I'd say some of you should also look into joining our 40 day journey or consider the Body Image Freedom Framework course I mentioned or one of our coaching programs because they're about so much more than body image. We want to help you fight the real battle.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:38]:
We want to equip you to see your struggles not as struggles with your body, but as part of the war between good and evil. Oh friend, there's so much hope. Jesus is the answer. He's the light of the world. He will never leave us nor forsake us. The greatest reward is ahead of us, spending eternity in heaven with Him. When our time comes, how will people speak of us? How will they remember us? As women who were always trying to reach their goal weight, or as women who were unafraid to let their light shine for Christ? I hope it's the latter. Hey, thanks for listening today.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:14]:
I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye bye. The Compare to youo Podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to lifeaudio.com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.