What Have You Been Feeding Your Spirit?

I'm so excited, because I have lost a total of 21 pounds! Trying to eat healthier has gotten me into the mindset of making a conscious choice about everything I put into my body. In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to make the choice to eat healthier. Since my body is not really my own (it's God's temple), I need to take care of it to the best of my ability. I'm not talking about NEVER having a piece of chocolate or cake. That would be terrible! I'm talking about eating healthy on a regular basis with the occasional snack. As I'm typing this, my 2-year-old is eating the vegetables that I have on a plate sitting beside me! :) I've always tried to feed him healthy foods, even though I wasn't as careful when it came to myself. If he could exist on bread, he would. I always make sure I buy him 100% whole wheat bread, though. I know that I play a huge part in forming his eating habits, because I'm the one who makes the choices about what he eats every day. Even though I've fallen into some poor eating habits, I'm SO glad that I have fed him the right way from the beginning.

Since I have been thinking about all of the food that I put into my body, it got me thinking about everything else that I put into my body. Everyone probably knows the saying, "You are what you eat". As I was thinking about my body being the temple of God the other day, I started to think about other things that I "feed" my body. I'm talking about things like TV, movies, internet websites, conversations with people, music, etc. God reminded me that I am what I eat concerning those things, also. If I watch a movie that I probably shouldn't watch, I'm actually "eating" the content of that movie. If I have a conversation with someone that turns into a big gossip session, my soul is "eating" all of those words, and I'm grieving the Holy Spirit on top of that.

My husband and I try to be very careful of what movies we rent for this reason. We never rent anything much more than rated "PG" anymore. Sound too legalistic? The reason we have decided to do this, is because we have realized that everything we take in affects our spiritual lives. Sometimes activities may not be necessarily "bad", but it's still worth examining how God views the situation. For instance, when my son was born we switched to SkyAngel TV, which is a Christian television provider. All of the shows are pretty wholesome, and it is mostly appropriate for children. A few months after we got SkyAngel, I noticed that we were watching more and more TV. We hadn't noticed a problem at first, because, after all, it contained all Christian-based TV shows. God convicted my husband and I about watching so much TV. We had been trying to honor God by only watching Christian TV shows, but we hadn't taken into account the amount of TV we were watching! Just because something is a "good" activity, does not necessarily mean that it's something that honors God. Soon after that, we cancelled our cable all together. I'm not saying that this is something that everyone should do, but it was the right decision for us.

Now for the exciting part. We also "eat" God's Word. The more we eat, the more we become like Him. In this case, I'm happy to say, "I am what I eat"! It's true! The more you take in God's Word, the more He transforms you to become more like Him. I'm learning that instead of focusing all the time on what I shouldn't do, if I just focus on God and His Word, I automatically start becoming more like Him. I start making wiser decisions as a result of focusing on Him. That's a lot easier than trying to figure it all out by myself. I've learned that never seems to work! It's also a lot more difficult than the way God intended it to be! "Roll your works upon the Lord (commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and) so shall your plans be established and succeed" (Prov.16:3 Amp).

Remember, as you go about your day: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!