We are defined by our choices, and today I choose to be present with and for my husband and my children. I choose to believe the best of others. And today I choose to treat my body like the temple that it is.
God created us to yearn for him. Did you know that? God created you and me with something missing, so that we would seek to be filled, or completed, by Him: I've heard this referred to as a "God-shaped" hole. I'm sure you've felt it--that wistfulness, a yearning for something more, something we're not even sure exists. That something to soothe our souls, to bring us joy and peace. That something that is beautiful and elusive.
So we try to fill it, this void inside us. Some attempt to fill it with drugs, alcohol, or food. Others try to fill the emptiness with possessions, accomplishments, relationships, or constant activity. Some use the Internet, sex, or pornography to drown out the incessant echoing of the emptiness. You name it, someone has probably tried to use it as a God-substitute. But none of it works, nothing satisfies that hunger within us, because this is a void that only God can fill.
In Paul's first letter to the people of Corinth, he writes, "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body." (chapter 6, verse 19)
Two phrases really stand out for me: "your body is a temple," and "you are not your own."
I don't know about you, but I tend to treat things that don't belong to me better than those that do. Don't get me wrong: I do take care of my own things, but I'm extra careful to return things I've borrowed in the same condition in which they were lent to me. And yet, I haven't been caring for this body, this holy place, where God lives, which really doesn't belong to me, with that same care. So today, I choose to treat my body like the temple that it is.
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