The story of Michelle told in her own words:

A little over a year ago, I was at a friend’s house and I was sitting in the kitchen listening to her speak about how the Grace and Strength program had changed her life. At this point in my life, I had already thrown away an incalculable amount of money on an incalculable number of diets, all of which had been failures, and I had always gained back more weight than I had lost. After shedding several pounds in preparation for my wedding, it took me just a single year to put all of those pounds back on. When I saw a number on the scale that was greater than I had ever seen it before, I felt dejected and began to believe the myth that I would never be able to take control of my life or my health. I had always played the role of a mature adult. Even though the people who cared about me would tell me that I was “beautiful,” I never could bring myself to trust that description of myself. When my friend was explaining to me how God was reorienting her perspective on food, I could only listen to her for part of the conversation because I was thinking to myself, “Well, that’s all fine for YOU, but it’s not something that would work for me.” Once she completed the program, I was astounded by how rigorous her lifestyle and the decisions she made about food were throughout it. She had said that she was going to go through this period of sacrifice because of her dedication to the Lord to free herself from the control that she had allowed food to have over her life. My response:

“I have no idea how you’re managing to pull this off. I could never give up eating; I have too much of a passion for it!

Her humble response of just nine words, “That’s the problem,” slashed me like the sharpest knife, went straight to my soul, and caused an awakening within me that led me to involve the Lord in my health for the first time in my life: “That’s the problem,” she said. “That’s the problem,” she said. “That’s the problem.” “My passion for eating was excessive.”

Because of her remarks, I found myself giving a lot of thought to the topic. I was CRAZY about eating. I didn’t understand it at the time, but throughout my whole childhood, the thing I enjoyed eating more than anything else was trying new foods. First and foremost, I had a stronger passion for food than I had for God. I allowed food to have power over me, which led to the destruction of my body and prevented me from loving and serving in the ways that the Lord was leading me to do. Since I did not acknowledge the role that food had begun to play in my life, I was unable to see the negative impact that it was having on every facet of my existence.

On December 13, 2013, I embarked on what would become the most challenging yet exhilarating adventure I’d ever had in all of my 29 years. Because of my weight reduction of 150 pounds, you would believe that “loss” will be the overarching topic of my journey on Grace and Strength. In spite of this, GAIN has turned out to be the overarching theme of my trip. Throughout my trip, none of my belongings were stolen or lost. I never would have guessed that the Lord would provide me with the perspective, the skills, and the connection with Him that He did. What I’ve taken away from this experience is the obedience that I owe to the Lord. The GNS women are fond of saying that the defeat was only a reward for their hard work.

Throughout the last year, I have gained more knowledge than I ever had before about myself, as well as about food and sin. The outcome has not made me flawless in any way. That has prevented me from having a complete understanding of anything. More significantly, it has led me to a position of humble submission, where I can now understand that on my own, I do not have a hope of honoring the Lord and his temple, which is my body, with the decisions that I make about how I live my life. If I am not held accountable for my actions, I will always fail dismally. I’ve provided evidence of that assertion on an almost daily basis for the better part of my life. MY CONTROL allowed me to reach a weight of 318 pounds…

Yet because I put my faith and reliance on Christ’s power, I am able to do EVERYTHING (Phil 4:13). This enables me to live a life of freedom in regard to food, including the freedom to say “yes” or “no” and the freedom to do everything for the glory of God. While at the beginning of my trip, I would have guessed that the objective was to gain liberation from my relationship with food, it was not the only thing I was looking for. Even more importantly, the freedom I sought depended on my capacity for mental and physical fortitude as well as devotion to the Lord’s calling. It was about destroying idols, turning my attention to the Lord once again (or, in numerous aspects of my life, turning my attention TO him for the very first time), and undergoing substantial soul surgery in order to discover a lot of places in which I had room for spiritual development. As a result of the many benefits that God has bestowed upon me along this journey, I am at a loss for words. I could not begin to express the things that God has given me to experience, achieve, see, and do during this period of “turning around,” even if I had a million pages to write on and an endless amount of time. The connections, on their own, are nothing short of priceless. The fact that none of these things have been merited serves as an even stronger demonstration of how caring and magnificent our Lord is. Why on earth wouldn’t I express my gratitude to him by devoting the rest of my life to serving as his guide?