OUR BODIES

We get many messages about how our bodies should look and function. I suppose there may be some women out there who truly love everything about their bodies. However, most of us probably have issues with our physical appearance, our weight, our ability to do things, etc. Some of us probably literally hate our bodies for various reasons. For some of us it is because of our infirmities, our health problems, our bodies betraying us, our aging. For others it is about not looking like the models we see every day in advertising. Sometimes, it is because of messages that we heard from our own family or friends as we were growing up. Some of those messages were unspoken, in the form of abuse of some sort. Our body image is sometimes distorted, or even absent in some parts. We get a lot of mixed messages about our bodies.

But when God made us, he made us just the way he wanted us to be:

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 1 Corinthians 12: 18 NIV

And we know that what God creates, he makes it good. We are wonderful just as we are, because God made us:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14 NIV

So how do YOU feel about your body and all it's parts? If you close your eyes and start at the top of your head and think about what you feel there, and go on down your whole body, are there parts where you get stuck, or cannot go past, or skip over altogether? Do you have any idea why you might have problems there? Another way to see how you feel about your body is, can you look at yourself in a full length mirror? Front and back? Totally nude? Does that make you uncomfortable in any way? Are there areas of your body where you think "Ugh!"

This week, take some time to appreciate your body and all of it's parts. Start wherever you want to start, like your fingers or even fingernails, and think of all the things you like and appreciate about that body part, how it looks or feels, what it can do, etc. Then take time to thank God for that gift. See if you can get through your entire body with something to appreciate about each part. Then think about how all of them work in concert, together, to function, all the positives, no negatives. Then give all praise to God for the gift of your body by thinking of ways to use your life for Him!

written by Jan Andersen