Wednesday, February 17, 2010

the choices we make

I have a tendency to connect one action to another. I tend to see the big picture of how one action will affect another action. I tend to draw a relational diagram in my mind and connect actions to results, results to change, change to improvement, improvement to a better, overall way. Perhaps it's the line of work I'm in...perhaps it's intuition, not sure it matters. What this helps me see though are possibilities. Possibilities for growth, possiblities for something better, whatever the case may be.

I've never been content with status quo. While I have great contentment in life when it comes to materialism and worldly things as my quest for those things has waned as my walk with Christ grows, still I am not content or maybe the better word is complacent. I do not like the image of stagnating. I do not like the idea of not growing as a person. I have a personal, spiritual responsibility to grow to be more like Christ, less like myself. Not a process that happens overnight.

Perhaps that is why I am on this quest to provide healthier food alternatives for my family. I believe with all of my heart that God has provided everything we need for sustenance and good health in His garden. I feel a strong innate yearning to be pure. To live a life of purity before God, to be presented and blameless on that day. With all of the toxins around us, that is no easy task. And I understand that when God tells us to be "...holy as I am holy" does not mean that I can be physically pure. I understand the message here about being one with Christ - moving ever toward his likeness. However, I also believe that caring for my health and the health of my family is a responsibility all Christians have. We are the temple of God. We house the Holy Spirit in our earthly tents. As with all material, physical blessings, we are to take care of them, keep them in the best working condition that we can - that we might use them to glorify God and fulfill His puposes! God gave me a physical body to honor and worship Him first and foremost! I am blessed to have a husband and children and God expects me to care for them in His name. God prepared "good works in advance" for me to do. If this vessel is run down or broken due to lack of proper maintenance, then it is no one's fault but my own for not fulfilling my purposes in Christ.

I enjoy sweets, sodas and fried foods just as much as the next person. But the question that has been plaguing me for quite some time is this: How do these foods help me glorify God? Have you ever sat at a fast food restaurant with a high fat, high sugar meal and then said "Lord, bless this food to our bodies?" Kind of seems odd to me anymore. Is it right to make a choice to put food into my body that I know will slow it down or impair it's functioning, and then ask God to use bless my choice? Can he use bad choices for good? Of course, but Scripture also reveals that when people continue in their bad choices, ignoring the instructions of God, he "turns them over" to their own desires....he allows the negative results of our poor choices to take over.

God gives us everything we need in pure form. Is it going to take work in this day and age to find those, to adjust our existing habits to new ones? You bet! There are days when I say "I want to injest only God's foods, I want to be pure physically and spiritually inside and out!" and I mean it - and there are times when my schedule gets in the way and I want to cave and take the easy way out. Let's face it! It's easy and quick and usually cheaper to eat fast food, frozen food, or already prepared food. Is it really the best choice? It's not always the easy thing or the popular thing to choose healthy living. Organic foods and fresh foods are expensive. It takes time to find the right ingredients that aren't loaded with preservatives. Yet my choice, my family's choice is to take the time and seek the better way. It's a work in progress, but it's something I can truly ask God to bless! I know that in doing so, the growth and the purity that God wants for me will come.

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

Peace.

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