Respect your temple

“…God bought you with a high price.  So…honour God with your body” 1 Corinthians 6:20 NLT

One of the things the Bible tells you to do is honour God with your body.  But what does that mean?  And what the heck has it got to do with temples?  OK, time for a quick history lesson the temple was a place where people went to meet with, and worship God.  It was a place of respect, and pretty ornate too; which is a posh way of saying it was nice to look at!

God made you to be like that, He calls your body ‘a temple’; how awesome is that?!  God wants to live in you, and He wants you to live out Him, so that when people look at your life, they see Him.  It says in the Bible that you’re made in the image of God, so that basically means there’s a bit of God in you.  If you think about it, treating your body like a temple kind of makes sense.  It’s basically about not abusing your body, but instead, using it to glorify God.  So how should that affect the way you treat yourself?

Well, have a think about what you’d do if Jesus came to stay, and you were in charge of His well being.  I’m guessing you’d make sure He ate well, got sleep, exercised, and kept generally fit and healthy, wouldn’t you? So…if you’re made in the image of God, why should you treat yourself any differently?  So, we have three things to consider; exercise, eating and sleep.  Here we go:

Firstly: an hour on the Wii or PS3 doesn’t count as exercise!!  It’s easy to get some exercise - especially whilst you’re young.  Join a netball or football team, or if you are not really sporty, go for a walk with your mate at lunchtime instead of staying in the dinnerhall!

Secondly: you need to eat well.  Yeah, we all have days when all we want is chocolate and crisps, but honestly you’ve got to get a balanced diet.  That doesn’t mean you balance a mars bar with a bag of quavers, but means you need to eat fruit and veg as well as protein ( meat, cheese and nuts) and carbs (bread, pasta and rice etc).  If you struggle with this, why not try a smoothie; it’s a great way to get loads of goodness in you, and pretty yummy too?

Thirdly:  staying up late isn’t the be-all and end-all.  We need sleep.  If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t focus properly in school, college, work or uni, and you won’t achieve your best.  So try and get 8 hours most nights; it really is good for your health! Remember; you’re a temple!!

Be Encouraged.