His Temple

Even though it would be hard to notice from looking at me, I’ve spent a lot of time working out and exercising during my few years on this Earth. My reason for working out has changed more times than I can count, from wanting to impress a girl to not wanting to be an American obesity statistic, from not wanting to be the little guy anymore to just loving the feeling of becoming stronger.

This past year I went off to college for the first time and was thrilled to find that the university had a gym that I could use whenever I wanted. My first action was to go to the gym and sign up for a personal training session. The session was fantastic and made me sore in places that I didn’t know existed. It got me started on a workout routine that would have me building muscle quickly and it worked. During that first semester I gained 15 pounds of muscle making a huge difference for a guy coming into college at 120 lbs. That was the Fall semester.

The Spring semester I came back after a month break from college and from working out and had lost 10 lbs. over the break, all muscle. That was a hard hit and apparently hard enough to knock me off going to the gym completely. During the spring, I quickly found myself buried in studying and laziness so I started gaining weight but it wasn’t muscle this time. As the weeks and months went by, I would occasionally look in the mirror and the body that looked back at me only made me increasingly angry and bummed out. All that work in the Fall gone down the drain and now I just didn’t see the point in working for it again. At least, that was until I found the defining reason of why I should keep a healthy body.

 This body is not my own. The God Almighty gave this body to me but it’s only a loaner. This body is only temporary because one day God will take this loaner back and grant me something much greater. With that said, that doesn’t mean I should defile this great gift that God’s given to me. The Holy Spirit is with us all in our hearts and that means our bodies are temples, His temples. I want to keep His temple as pristine as possible which means I’m going to workout, I’m going to exercise, and I’m going to try to eat healthier (that last one will be the hard one for me). I want to always look upon this beautiful treasure that God’s allowed me to borrow and love what he’s given me. Loving my self-image can only help to boost my confidence, bring me closer to God (made in his image), and help me to love those around me.

P.S. We are also God’s tools on Earth so it couldn’t hurt to make sure His tools are always ready to work in body, mind, and soul.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them.” Genesis 1: 27-28