Mama, Your Body Matters
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Babies. Time. Gravity. Busyness. Injuries. Disease. There are so many ways and events that can fester a special kind of dissatisfaction with our bodies. As mamas, we know the power and strength that is inside of us- that created, nourished, and cultivated life, then pushed it out into the world. We know the purpose behind these bodies, but more often than not, as the battle scars of life begin to tatter our flesh, we can question our very worth and purpose.
We battle our stretch marks. We battle the extra pounds. We battle the cellulite, the sagging jaw line, and the embedded lines that show we’ve expressed joy daily. The world tells us that these signs of life are undesirable and less than beautiful. The message to these generations is that as we grow in wisdom, virtue, experience, and strength, we are now less than we once were because we wear the battle scars of a life filled with living.
Despite what the magazines on the rack say, the Book I look to says differently. The Book I look to says that my body is sacred, chosen, strengthened, and redeemed. The only Word that matters says that I house the Spirit of the living God inside these dimpled thighs and amongst all those wayward hairs.
Or 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. (1 Cor 6:19-20)
Our body is the temple of the living God, and it’s said again and again and again:
1 Cor 3:16
2 Cor 6:19
Romans 12:1-2
1 Cor 10:31
1 Cor 15:44
1 Cor 12:27
We can get tricked into the idea that our bodies are temporary and therefore of no spiritual consequence, when that could not be further from the truth. Our bodies matter to God.
What God makes matters.
God knit your body together in the womb, and he knows the numbers of hairs on your head. Your body is a GIFT from Him: a gift that allows you to offer service to the world around you, be a living testimony of Christ, birth children, and be intimate with your husband. ALL of this is not just a good gift but is the PURPOSE of living a life inside of flesh.
Our flesh is the vehicle for our task of glorifying God and making him known.
Our bodies are SACRED- no matter their current condition. They are LOVED- no matter what abuse they've endured. They are HOLY- no matter how it may be betraying you right now.
And just as there were gatekeepers in the Old Testament around cities and around the the Temple of God, WE are the gatekeepers to our own bodies and minds.
Temple gatekeepers ensured order and REVERENCE for God's house.
As followers of Christ, we too are gatekeepers- both of our spiritual lives, but of our physical bodies as well- the physical body that HOUSES that Holy Spirit.
Our bodies can be so easily led astray by any one of the enemy’s traps- by what we eat, what we say, what we see, what we experience- by all of the lies that a loud and crazy, flesh-crazed world spins round and round this sun to tell us.
The world we live in has been designed by the god of it to render us ineffective by making us so sick, so tired, so frustrated, so overwhelmed and fatigued that rather than living our lives with VIBRANT Christian energy, we walk stumbling through it just seeking to get each day DONE.
As the BODY of Christ, there's little that will steal our joy more than having a broken, abused, burdened, worn-out body. Because each day is pregnant with new mercies, we have the opportunity to press RESET tomorrow.
Because this body matters, we have a calling and responsibility to tend it, rest it, love it, and enjoy it.
Get to bed on time, Mama.
Take that nap.
Read God’s word.
Eat your veggies.
Process that hurt.
Let that go.
Take the stairs.
Drink the water.
Does any of it matter? Yes. Because God made you, and everything that God makes matters. You matter. You don’t need more knowledge about how to take care of your body. You just need to know that it matters that you do.
