"19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."
Have you ever heard that old joke about the guy in the flood who prayed for God to save him? Well the jest of the joke goes that God sent a boat, a helicopter and something else to save the man; but he drowned waiting on God to save him. I say that, because I don't want to be that guy, I don't want to keep praying that God heal my body but also, at the same time, continue to not take care of this body, this temple that God gave me.
That being said, late last year I joined a gym. I am one of those weird people who actually ENJOYS working out! I love the way I feel when I'm done and I love the way I look when I keep at it, so joining wasn't the hardship it is for some. I had fun intentions of using this gym on a very regular basis, but it turns out life had other plans. At first I was there only for Zumba twice a week, and starting to work my way up to more weights and cardio. Then on Super Bowl Sunday, I sprained my ankle pretty badly so I wasn't even in Zumba for three weeks let alone doing anything else. One month later, when I was JUST getting back into the swing of things, I caught strep throat. Not fun, and HIGHLY contagious for the first 24 hours; so again no gym for me.
All of that can really depress a person, and all this time I was PAYING for a membership I was hardly using. Finally about mid-way through the first week of March, I was able to get back into the gym. Now, I'm sure most of you know that ONLY working out won't help unless you are eating right too. About that same time, my best friend introduced me to My Fitness Pal where you can track your exercise and calories; which really helped me to jump start a healthy eating plan. So one month later, I'm rolling with my diet and exercise program!
I say all of that to note that tonight, while I was rocking out Arc Trainer, I started thinking about this verse and how God has proven, once again, just how right and smart He really is. You see, God knows what He's talking about, His "rules and regulations" aren't put into place to bring us down. No, they are there because if we follow them, we live a much healthier, happier and yes, more peaceful life!
Let me see if I can put it into "human" terms for us all. When I started my complete healthy eating and exercising lifestyle I was getting headaches every day, felt horrible most of the time and was, in general, run down. The biggest change has been my husband and I eating at home, as opposed to running out to eat every evening. Let me tell some of the benefits we've gained, not only have we lost weight (4 pounds this month for me and 9 for Michael), but my hair is as healthy, shiny and strong as it's ever been. My hair used to fall out all the time, I was as bad as our three cats! But it's nearly stopped falling out, it's grown so much and yet it's STILL just beautiful (for my hair at least). I have lessened my headaches, in fact they are nearly gone themselves. My skin has felt better then it has since I was a kid and in general I'm just happier then I was a month ago.
All of those benefits from simply honoring God with my body. I used to think it would be so hard, and that we'd get board so easily. Well, I was wrong! God's plan for our lives is so awesome, so perfect that it's just amazing that we would ever dream of living another way. I will also note that my new lifestyle is helping me to view patience in a new way, a Biblical way as well. Just how I learned that if I keep knocking, the door will be open to me earlier today, I've learned that if I keep at the lifestyle; my body and life in general gets that much better too. How is this teaching me patience? well, let me just say, my having lost four pounds in one month to Michael's 9 in two weeks is rough to take, but I can see where my body is reshaping it's self and I can tell that I'm much happier now then last month...but I had to look back over that month to see it. Slow and steady wins the race right? Well, I'm taking this slow and steady and I will win the race of Health and what I'll term "Temple living".
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