By Momsanity Sister Leah Harvey

Note from Coach Emily:  Sometimes God puts people in our paths that we are MEANT to meet.  That’s how I feel about Leah.  She is one of our fabulous “not a Mom yet” Momsanity Sisters and we love her to pieces.  God crossed our paths through mutual friends and we just so happened to be visiting our tiny home town the same weekend and bringing us together for a coffee date.  Thank you Leah for sharing your heart and your journey!  We love you Sister!

Do you want to get well?” – Jesus to a man who was paralyzed for 38 years; John 5:6

Hi beautiful sisters! My name is Leah. I’m from a small town in Western MD and now live with my husband, Zack, in Alexandria, VA. I love Jesus and desire to live life with everything I have for the sake of His Name and His highest Glory. I’ve been a wife for 9months which is super awesome & the best “Yes” i’ve said second only to a life committed {fully} to Christ. I work as a Physical Therapist in a local hospital where I feel privileged, honored, and challenged on a daily basis-helping people to get moving after surgeries, illnesses, and really anything that lands you in the hospital. My favorite things include: studying the Word, coffee, family, girlfriends, coffee, ice cream, sunshine, exercise & Momsanity. I thought I should formally introduce myself since i’ve not yet gotten to meet any of you. Thanks for taking time read about why this sisterhood is so dear to me.

I’m on a healing journey. It’s freeing & refreshing to know that we’re all on a healing journey in the hands of a God who made us, knows us, & takes the absolute best care of us. My journey began when I acknowledged my addiction to exercise and obsession with my body image. I truly believed that I couldn’t find it in me to be kind to people if I had not exercised for at LEAST 1 hour. My mom told me I needed a prescription for exercise because I clearly could not function without it. I was in bondage to exercise and what I looked like on the outside. Dry bones, sisters, dry-joyless & stuck-bones. For me, step one was recognizing that although I claimed to be a Christian, I was not in a relationship with Jesus and my life did not reflect my claim. That was really difficult and made me really sad, but by God’s grace, this realization lead me to the cross. February 2011, I recommitted my life to Jesus and a life marked by loving him mind, body and soul. Matt. 22:37.

As I fell in love with Jesus and began to discover the woman I was in Him, he ever-so-gently revealed to me more about this addiction to exercise and body image and food. Bringing women into my life to hold me accountable to the life I wanted to live for the sake of the Name, I experienced freedom little by little as I shared my struggle. Satan wanted to isolate me in this sin & self condemnation over it, to make matters worse. I felt so unrelatable, believing thoughts like “There is no way any other normal human being thinks so much about exercise, food, and their thighs.” What a lie, ha! 

I was friends with Coach Emily on Facebook and was regularly and divinely encouraged by her commitment to Jesus and worship through wellness. I desired this degree of freedom in my life-where not only could I share a struggle, but then allow God to make my ashes beautiful by truly worshiping through exercise, eating well and encouraging, empowering, championing others to do the same. I feared that others would perceive this as a different manifestation of my struggle and I’m still working through this; real talk. I had come to a place where I needed to be proactive in my healing process. Nothing just happens. Just like the paralyzed man at the pool called Bethesda in John 4, this is where I think Jesus would have asked me, “Do you want to get well?”  My reply? Desperately! to which Jesus would reply to me like He did to the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” vs 8. I picked up my mat and sent Emily a message exactly 1 year ago this month. She took the time to meet with me over coffee and for the first time, I felt absolute freedom to share my heart with a sister who could relate. The wisdom that she shared was manna from heaven. A few months later of trying to go it alone, I picked up my mat again and signed up for Momsanity.

The Lord has used this sisterhood in too many ways to name & more than even I realize. He has gifted me with 3 of His daughters as coaches to lead, encourage, challenge, spur, sharpen a community of beautiful, vulnerable, strong sisters that I never realized I had! He has refreshed my passion for exercise by freeing me from bondage to hours and hours per week of cardio. He has given me knowledge of how to truly care for my body through nutritional education from Coaches Emily, Debbie and Kate. I’m not a mom, yet, but God has inspired and encouraged me through you all. Here’s a biggie:I was never sure how I could healthily carry a baby when I was so obsessed with my image. Sisters, rejoice with me! Those chains are broken! Just like Coach Emily highlights in her most recent post, we are not meant to do this life alone. Allow others the gift of bearing your burdens; receive the gift of freedom and abundant life which Jesus died to give us; remember God’s faithfulness in times when you feel like you are totally losing, and do not believe the lies of the evil one. Greater is He who is in You than he who is in the world! 1 John 4:4. 

My healing journey is ongoing and i’m forever grateful to the Lord God for giving me this sisterhood to journey along with me. I’m hopeful-prayerfully expectant-for the greater things ahead for all of us! Jesus says, to our amazement, we will be shown even greater things than these! John 5:20. {BOOM!} Thank you, again, for reading and for allowing me to remember and share how our Healer is healing me. Remember, this is a step by step journey-one step, one decision at a time. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Gal 5: 24. I don’t know about you, but that makes me breath a deep sigh of relief. Together let’s pick up our mats & walk for the Highest Glory of our Maker-heart, soul and mind. 

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I will call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:19-24

In Him,

Leah