Dear Sisters of all ages:
Our bodies sure have been the topic of many headlines and hashtags lately.
I remember the first time I became hyper aware of my body.
I was in the 7th grade and at the mall with a friend slightly older than me, and much more worldly savvy. We were trying on prom gowns. Of course, neither one of us were going to prom, but you’d never know it coming from the squeals of our excitement. “Dressing up dolls used to be nice, but getting yourself dressed up is super fun,” I had thought. That is, until a couple of older boys roamed into the store. One boy snickered, pointing straight at me, “THAT dress would look better on her body!”, and turned to nod approvingly at my shapely friend. Every eye in the entire junior department was on me. I was mortified.
And that was the day I learned that, in the world’s economy, the shape of my body was very, very important. I would spend the next couple decades of my life way too consumed by it. Sometimes, I would proudly flaunt it, aware of the power it held, longing to be admired and affirmed. At other times, I would be the girl crying in the dressing room, because nothing fit. Hiding in oversized t-shirts and sweaters offered only temporary solace. One decade decreed my thighs and butt were too big, the next decade, too small. Desired body standards shifted, like fickle friends. So much of the world’s emphasis on the outside, only made me feel hollow and empty on the inside.
In 2020, not only are we still focused on our bodies, we are absorbed.
But you have a soul as well as a body. You are so much more than the external shell you live in.
You can have #bodygoals, but no matter the hours at the gym, the clean eating, the plastic surgery, your body will grow old and it will die. You can have #bodypositivity or #bodyneutrality, but at the end of the day, a hyperfocus reveals the power it still has over you.
And yet, your body is special. If you belong to Jesus, his Holy Spirit lives within you. Your body is a temple. Take care of it. Be grateful for it. But beware of worshipping it. It wasn’t meant to flaunt. It wasn’t meant to loathe. Your body wasn’t meant to be worshipped, but rather to be used for worshipping and glorifying God. Your body was built for a higher purpose than a bikini selfie.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20)
The human body is “fearfully and wonderfully made”. (Psalm 139: 14) Your body is created to create. Your artistry, athleticism, ability, all reflect the signature of His design.
Your body was designed for an important work. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) Your body is meant to make an imprint of His goodness in the path that He places you on.
Your body was fashioned to nurture, designed to be a vessel, pouring out the goodness and grace of God to a hungry and thirsty world around us. Teaching, leading, feeding, and just being withthe other bodies God places in your path. In doing so, Jesus tells us we’re caring for Him. “…Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Your body was wondrously engineered to hold the great weight of a human soul. Equipped with a sobering strength to deliver a tiny body out of your body. Equipped with the precise quantity and quality of all the nutrients the tiny, new body needs…straight from your body.
Your body is a special gift, meant to be given and unwrapped and treasured by just one other body: your husband’s. Your body was not meant to be consumed by the masses, celebrated with voyeuristic “views” and “likes”. Nakedness isn’t shameful, but it’s sacred. Meant for something, and someone special. Your body and his body become one body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
You have a soul as well as a body. In this age that hovers around both body worshipping and body shaming, we have to view our bodies through a different kind of lens:
“I appeal to you therefore (sisters!), by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12: 1-2)
