Do you see your body as a Temple or a Garbage Can?

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within, whom you have from God? You are not your own, you were brought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

-1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

Did you ever realize that one of the seven deadly sins is gluttony. Gluttony is defined as the habitual greed of food expressed by an excess in eating. When we over eat we gain excess weight and there for it leads us into a trap of the enemy, the trap of obesity. 

Obesity-  a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body
(Merriam Webster Dictionary) Obesity paralyzes people from believing in their self worth and abilities. It prevents them from living out their lives as healthy as they were designed to. It causes clogged arteries, heart disease, heart attacks, ulcers, breathing problems, thyroid gland problems, digestive problems, reproduction problems and ultimately takes lives before their time. 

In this day in age it is no wonder our society is faced with epidemics such as obesity, hording, greed, selfishness etc...It is what is pumped into our brains every day. You always need to be better, be faster, know more, be stronger, have more money, get more stuff, go on bigger vacations, get a bigger house and another car...More...More...MORE! It is never enough so it seems. So we not only think this way and accumulate STUFF we think this way emotionally and use food to fill a void and accumulate fat, we store up emotions and energy. We focus on the negative and not the positive on the lack and not the increase.We focus on what we don't have, who we are not and where we haven't been. 

This need for more has turned into a nation wide obsession with collecting stuff. We collect stuff we don't even need, stuff we will never use, things we forget about the moment we walk away. So what ends up happening is we store a bunch of junk. A lot of what we carry around is usually referred to as "baggage". (which never sounds like a good thing, so why do we want to carry it around?) Because we become comfortable with our baggage. It hides our scars and wounds and eventually over time comes to identify you. 

The epidemic of obesity is just another outpouring of this twisted thinking. The idea that we are determined by what is on the outside instead of by what we are on the inside,.. by how much we have instead of who we are. So many use food to fill this void of it never being enough. So we turn around and literally abuse our bodies. Feeding it poison and un necessary sugar and caffeine in huge quantities. It breaks my heart. Especially because it is all preventable. 

And it makes me think of the  bible verse, Do you not know your body is a temple? 

Your body , yes you, your body is a temple of the holy spirit. Your body is precious and amazing and does amazing things for you. My prayer for society is to see a shift in how we think about our bodies To have respect and care for what we put in them and how we treat them. To be grateful for what our bodies do for us day in day out. 

When you stop to think about it it is pretty amazing. So much going on at one time, organs working, your heart beating,blood pumping, your lungs breathing, your eyes blinking, your brain taking in info from the receptors throughout your body! It is so cool and something to appreciate and take care of! 

I just want to encourage people to be honest with themselves. And if they find they have an issue with over eating then it is time to face that and dig deep and uncover why. If you are skinny fat, where you may not look obese but you eat more junk than you need to and "get away" it...you need to look in the mirror too. 

This is what I was skinny fat...I ate nothing but junk and had this layer of fat that I could never get rid of. I was just as un healthy, and I was miserable. 

It is miserable not taking care of yourself and eating junk and not exercising. The effects are bad health, clogged arteries, no energy, low self esteem, a lack of confidence. What comes with eating right and exercising is a sense of freedom knowing you did the best you could and knowing what you put in your body and what you did for it was good. There is freedom in having energy and not being out of breath. There is freedom in good health. The freedom to be who God has called you to be. And in order to do this we need to be strong and healthy. We need to take care of our bodies and bring Glory to God for such an amazing creation!

Remember our bodies are a temple. How would you treat a temple? Would you fill it with junk and let it get all dirty?Or would you take care of it and make sure it was kept clean? Think of your body in the same way. It is a temple and it can do amazing things for you. Imagine if you treated you that way? Imagine if you treated your body like the temple it was, instead of like the garbage can it is not?