Food Network star Aarti Sequeira wants to rethink how she views her body.
“I heard this phrase about our bodies a few years ago, and it changed me forever, which is pretty significant because I’ve never not hated my body,” Sequeira wrote over an Instagram video.
The quote is from writer Alisa Keeton — “Your body is for ABILITY not VANITY.”
“Our bodies were designed to house the Holy Spirit and to be His hands and feet,” Sequeira wrote. “I can do that, no matter how my body looks to me. Thanks be to God!”
Related: How Chef Aarti Sequeira Spreads Joy Through Cooking and Faith
In her caption, she shared 1 Corinthians 6:19 — “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
The professional chef often speaks about her faith. While appearing on “The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast,” Sequeira explained that she was raised Catholic, but “it wasn’t alive for me. I didn’t really — I wouldn’t have said I followed Jesus with my whole heart.”
It wasn’t until she attended church with her now-husband Brendan that Sequeira encountered God.
“I closed my eyes and I just bowed my head, I remember,” she recalled. “And I felt a presence walk down the aisle, come to me and come and stand in front of me. And I saw a set of eyes and they were amber and fiery, but loving at the same time…He put His hands on my shoulders, one on each shoulder and looked me right in the eye. And He didn’t say anything, but it was just this sense of like, ‘I see you. I know you, I’m proud of you, I know everything. I know all the things, even the things you haven’t told Brendan. I know them all, and I love you anyway. And I’m proud of you anyway.’”
Sequeira has also spoken about how cooking brings people together, all around the world.
“I think because I grew up in a place where I had a friend from Madagascar, I had a friend from New Zealand, I had a friend from Slovenia, I think I realized that we are all so much more familiar, so much more similar than we are different,” she told Mashed in 2021. “That shows up in some of the things that we cook. Almost every culture has some version of a stuffed fried bread. Because there’s something about humanity that says, ‘yum, yum, let’s fry it.’”
Sequeira continued, “And so I’m always looking for those similarities because I think it helps us to recognize how connected we are and what one big family we are.”
Many people struggle with body positivity, but Sequeira’s words are a reminder that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
Read Next: How Food Network’s Aarti Sequeira Seeks God Through Cooking
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