Your body is a temple.
A well-known phrase that originates from scripture and sadly one that many of us don’t completely understand. I can say with more confidence than I would like that it’s a concept I am still trying to figure out to this day, but I’m getting there. You see, I neglected my body from an early age, overindulging in food, eating all the junk I could get my hands on, and avoiding any vegetable ever made. I was always the over-weight, plus size girly. If my twenty-eight-year-old self could tell that little girl to give that body of mine a tiny bit of grace, maybe I wouldn’t have disrespected myself or my body for as long as I did. Maybe then I would have made the efforts necessary to show myself the love and respect that Paul tells us about in 1 Corinthians. The exact love and respect that up until recent months, I would find myself begging men for. Only to realize that the love and respect starts with me loving myself for everything that God made me to be, bigger girl or not that does not define the amount of respect any of us should qualify for.
Am I still the bigger girl? Yes, and I have fought through YEARS of hating the way I looked to get where I am today. But… plot twist, no one prepares you for the harsh reality that the devil puts in overtime to find ways to even turn confidence into opportunities to disrespect your body differently. Life is full of slippery slopes, and unfortunately society impacts the world in all the worst ways. Next thing you realize, you’re in high school and if you were anything like me, you were willing to do anything to feel “wanted”. What was once my biggest weakness easily became my own personal superpower. Before I knew it, I found myself making choices involving my body that I had absolutely no business making but I never even thought twice about, and Satan makes the concept feel worth it for years until that confidence begins to eat at you in the form of shame and hatred for yourself. Believe me when I say, the reality won’t even hit you until you find yourself with a past of being known for all the wrong reasons and being in utter disbelief that it got to the point that good men would come into your life and show you more respect than you had ever gave yourself. THAT was the hardest pill I ever had to swallow.
Respecting your body starts with YOU not settling for less than you deserve. Respecting your body is nurturing it from the very beginning. God gave us these bodies to love and take care of. The devil on the other hand will actively look for ways to turn anything and everything into a path of destruction for years and years to come but it is up to us to remind ourselves of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and apply it to our life’s day in and day out.
Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So, glorify God with your body.
Jesus paid the ultimate price for us; we owe it to Him to respect the bodies He gave us. Have I been guilty of overindulging in food? Yes, God still loves me exactly as I am despite the terrible eating choices I can make. Have I always given my body the respect it deserved? Absolutely not, and you can bet that God has forgiven me for all of it. I may still be the plus size girl but the beautiful thing about that is I’m a child of God and I was created in His image.
This blog topic was an incredibly difficult one to unpack but I feel like God placed it on my heart because full transparency, I’m still learning every single day how to love my body the way that God would want me to. I hope that in sharing this with all of you, it will give someone else the words and grace needed to start showing themselves and their body the love that they deserve. Yes, this body is YOURS, but sometimes we could all use the reminder that God so graciously gave us these bodies to love and care for. We owe it to Him to respect them as much as we possibly can. Thanks for taking a moment out of your day to read my very FIRST blog post, I can’t wait for next time!
Love always, Val Pal
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