At the beginning of this year, I threw away my scale.
Not because I don’t care about my health, but because I was tired of letting a number decide how I felt about myself that day.
This year was supposed to be different. A year of learning how to live well — eating better, moving my body, taking care of my family, growing in my faith, and building this little corner of the internet called Held, Not Measured.
But the truth is, old habits have a way of sneaking back in through the side door.
Today I found my tape measure.
For a moment I thought, Maybe this is fine. Maybe this doesn’t count.
But deep down, I knew better.
Because the tape measure was just trying to become the new scale.
Just another number.
Just another way to measure myself.
And that’s not the life I want anymore.
So tonight I threw it away too.
Not because measurements are bad.
Not because health doesn’t matter.
But because I know my own heart.
If the numbers matter enough for me to check them today, they will matter tomorrow. And before long I’ll be right back in the same cycle I lived in for years — measuring, analyzing, adjusting, worrying.
That cycle never brought me peace.
God never asked me to live that way.
Scripture tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. For a long time I thought that meant I needed to control, fix, or perfect my body. But I’m starting to see something different.
A temple isn’t something you obsessively measure.
A temple is something you care for.
You tend it.
You nourish it.
You strengthen it.
But you don’t stand there every day with a ruler trying to prove its worth.
This year I’m learning how to care for the life God has given me — my family, my body, my spirit, and even my mind.
I’m learning to eat better.
To move my body more.
To pray as I walk through my neighborhood.
To rest when I’m tired.
And I’m learning that peace is something worth protecting.
If I’m going to write about living Held, Not Measured, then I need to live it honestly.
Tonight the tape measure went into the trash.
And what I felt most wasn’t fear.
It was relief.
Maybe healing looks less like controlling every outcome and more like trusting that God can do His work in us while we simply learn to live well.
One day at a time.
When the Tape Measure Tried to Replace the Scale
At the beginning of this year, I threw away my scale.Not because I don’t care about my health, but because I was tired of letting a number decide how I…