Caring for our
Temples
This week the Holy Spirit placed on
my mind the verse “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1Cor.6:19, NIV) As I reflected on this verse I have to first
of all, determine what is a temple? In
my thinking, it is a holy place, a sacred place, a place of worship and
adoration.
Wow! That makes me stop and really think—a holy
place, a sacred place. How does one take
care of a holy place? Certainly with
reverence, maintaining it well.
I need, to
tenderly, lovingly care for my body, a holy place.
Then, I
realized I had to determine how to do that.
I think the answer is found in the mantra we’ve heard for years: rest (7 to 8 hours of sleep a night),
exercise (250 minutes a week), and eat a healthy diet is a partial answer to
the question
That last
one is where we Americans can so easily get tripped up. Watch TV for two hours in the evening and
record how many food ads you see about unhealthy foods (i.e., junk food). Open a Good
Housekeeping magazine or a Woman’s
Day magazine and count the food ads for unhealthy foods. We’re bombarded with “Buy this; no, buy
this.”
When we
enter the middle aisles of a supermarket, the potato chips, Oreos, chocolate
chip cookies or Twinkies almost jump off the shelves into our carts. We justify buying them with, “Well, Bill or
Bonnie (spouse) likes chips,” or “The kids love Oreos.”
The
question is this: Does Bill or Bonnie or
the kids need the junk food any more than we do? Of course not, for their bodies are “temples
of the Holy Spirit” also. Since we are
all members of the Body of Christ it’s up to all of us to care for and about
ourselves and each other. We need to
tenderly, lovingly care for our temple and help others care for theirs.
Sharon
Witty
August
16, 2018
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