Glorify God In Your Body

You both are in the food industry. You have been educated on how to cook, what tastes good, what goes together, how to make it look amazing and, most importantly, what's healthy. And that is what we want to focus on today.

My mom is in the hospital with intestinal issues. She's had these issues for more than 20 years. Some is genetics and some is poor eating habits. Now you can't do much about genetics, but you can do something about eating right.

Aunt Jodi and I were talking yesterday about how schools do not make nutritional eating a part of education. Not just teaching about the food groups and the number of servings you should have, but what exactly is healthy and unhealthy. There are so few folks who read labels on food, not realizing they are putting chemicals, and in some cases poison, in their bodies to eat. Your Daddy and I did The Daniel Plan last year (we continue to implement its teachings) and learned what we need with regards to good metabolism, what carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables enhance health and what we should avoid. Now if a product has more than five ingredients in it, we put it back on the shelf. If sugar is one of the first three ingredients, we consider it a dessert.

And if we see any ingredients we cannot pronounce, we will not purchase it. Let me tell you that makes grocery shopping more of a scavenger hunt. To find even one jar of spaghetti sauce with around five ingredients is tricky. But it can be done. And it can be delicious. When we eat right, we sleep better, have more energy, look better and feel better. When Daddy first started The Daniel Plan, he cut his insulin intake in half, so that is saying something. But it takes constant, every day planning. We only have one day at a time, so that's how we tackle it. But it is so important if you want to not only live long, but live healthily. 

Genetics already give you a disadvantage in some aspects - in our case diabetes from your Dad, diverticulosis and high blood pressure in my family - so eating healthy should be a no brainer. We want you both, at this early stage of life, to take care of yourselves. To eat right, exercise and get enough sleep. If our job is to further the kingdom of God, and our bodies are a temple to the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), it is important to keep that temple in good working order to effectively do the first part. Scripture says in verse 20 after the above, "For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." That was a very high price Christ paid for us. Don't we owe it to him to take immaculate care of what He died for?

Doing it right at this stage of the game will help you immeasurably later. When I learned of my mother's diverticulosis, I made a decision that I would have 25 grams of fiber every single day. It means I eat Fiber One - a cereal not exactly known for its tastiness, but certainly for its fiber content - every day. Like Mr. Smooshy, my pillow, Fiber One goes with me on vacation. It's that important.

We are "fearfully and wonderfully made," Scripture says in Psalm 139:14. And in 1 Corinthians 10:31 "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Before anything gets to our mouths, we need to ask if it will aid us in glorifying God. (And before you ask, yes, chocolate indeed helps me glorify Him; I just can't eat a zillion pounds of it.)

Take care of you. Take care of each other. Don't bring home foods that you know your loved one has little self-control with in regards to eating and drinking. Be supportive. And be healthy. You know how to do it, so do it well.

Discussion: Are there foods that are difficult for you to eat proportionately? Is eating healthy difficult for you? What are things you can do together to take better care of your bodies?

Prayer: Lord you have created us in Your own image, and how we abuse this body we've been given. We pray for help from the Holy Spirit as we face each day from a health standpoint. Inspire us to eat healthy, exercise and get plenty of rest, so that we may glorify you fully. In Jesus, Amen.