Our Bodies are a Temple:

Lately, I have been struggling with feeling confident.  I keep seeing myself in the mirror, and I keep wondering if I have gained some weight.  A few years ago I lost some weight, and I sometimes get really concerned that I am going to gain it all back.  Because of this, there are definitely days when I am looking at myself and all the ways that I should improve.  I am looking at the areas where I want to be thinner and flatter.  

I am ashamed of these thoughts.  Mostly because I try really hard to remind the women in my life to look at exercise and health more than at the scale.  Before I started to lose weight, I had decided that I was going to set fitness goals.  I didn’t want to care about the weight I had lost or not lost, but more on what I could, through God, achieve.  I set mileage goals in running and lifting goals in exercises like squat and bench.  Then I actually lost some weight.  It feels like lately I have been starting to look at this in a backwards way.  I have been starting to focus more on weight loss and the weight on the scale as opposed to the fitness I am getting through exercise.    

Even though these feelings are not pleasant, I know that I am not alone when it comes to struggling with their bodies.  That is why there are disorders such as body dysmorphia which is the constant thinking of one’s flaws on a regular basis.  According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, there are about 1 in 50 people who struggle with body dysmorphia.  As a former educator, I am very aware that many young girls and boys struggle through other eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.  This is a problem.  Our bodies are the functions that get us to go from place to place and to be able to do the daily functions, yet we are constantly looking at them for their flaws.  

The world in general is also very focused on bodies.  Often magazines will highlight the best bodies, articles on how to get a better body or at least the body in trend at the time, and even filters on instagram where people are able to change their bodies to be more pleasurable (according to world standards).  These standards hurt many others’ perceptions of their bodies, especially if they were already struggling through the feeling of insecurity or lack of confidence in an area.  

I was reading a book by John Piper recently called “Future Grace,” and he was talking about how our bodies were made to glorify God.  One quote that I really enjoyed was,“Our bodies fit into that same category of physical things that God created for this reason. He is not going to back out on his plan to glorify himself through human beings and human bodies.”  This was accompanied with the verses of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 which says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.”   

There are many ways that we can glorify God with our bodies, but I certainly know that one of the first ways is to not complain about them.  We are not going to be glorifying God by telling him all the things that we don’t like about what he has given us.  I am not saying that we should be vain.  We shouldn’t try to find our glory in our achievements or what we look like.  However, we should be grateful for the body God has given us. 

We can always make goals to change for the better, as long as we are doing it with the mindset of God’s glory such as exercising and eating a balanced diet.  There are a few goals I would like to personally have in regard to physical improvement.  I personally love to exercise.  I love to run, bike, lift weights, and go to workout classes.  I am not, however, the best at listening to my body when it comes to taking a day off or taking time away from exercising for a time period.  My goal in this area is to thank God more for my ability to work out and achieve more fitness.  I also know that I need to take a day of rest from exercise at least once a week.  

Another item I personally struggle with is eating healthy.  I don’t try to overindulge in unhealthy eating, but I definitely eat more sometimes than I should.  I struggle with eating vegetables and more foods with colors.  I know there are a lot of good nutrients that can come from the foods that grow from this world.  A personal goal I want to follow in this next year is having a chart where I can make sure to mark healthy foods I am eating, as a way to hold myself accountable for eating certain vegetables and fruits.  I want to be able to enjoy the less healthy foods, but only after I have put in the work keeping myself healthy.  

The bodies that we have been given are a temple.  They are a gift from God, and they are to be used for Godly reasons.  It can be very easy to find our flaws.  One from society pressures, and another from the constant nagging of the evil one, but it is important that those flaws that we believe we see is how God has designed us and put us into being.  My challenge for you this week is to spend a little bit of time thanking God for your body and all that it does for you.  The bodies that we are given are the reason we are able to do the jobs that we do, even on the days that we don’t like everything about it.  I pray that if you have struggled with any confidence lately like me, that you would be encouraged by the reminder of God creating you completely unique and with care.